“Ha ha!” Joy yells out. “Adventure with my grandparents! Let’s go!” 

My granddaughter, the one I just found out about yesterday, is taking us out in Bonny’s Revenge, hers and Justin’s flying pirate warship. She is showing us Justin’s world, Justin’s dream, the world she lives in, the dangerous, crazy, adventure-filled place she lives in. But a few seconds ago she pointed to Mars and spotted the Martian Space Pirates (I guess that’s what they’re called) heading towards us.

Oh, boy. I’ve been with Justin in other people’s dreams. I was with him fighting the most frightening dark monster in the streets of London. I was with him stuck in a dream where he couldn’t find the way out. I knew by this time their life was not easy. 

“Let’s get them!” Joy runs to the wheel. “You’ll watch me in action!” 

Suzy looks at me. I look at her. Justin isn’t here. In the dream, he can do almost anything. But he isn’t here. 

Joy puts her hands on the wheel. 

“Let’s…” and she stops. She looks at us, then at the approaching pirates. “Okay. We should run away.” 

“Hmmmm?” Suzy says.

Joy turns the wheel and the ship - I should get used to calling it Bonny’s Revenge - it turns.  

She pulls the ship back and sideways. “Let’s go!” 

Bonny’s Revenge speeds ahead in space. 

“Look look look!” Suzy points back. The Martian Space Pirates are much closer now and clearly chasing us. 

“Ah, don’t worry, Bonny’s Revenge is a million times faster!” 

And the ship accelerates even more. 

Joy is right. In a few minutes, we don’t only speed past so fast that we can’t see their ship anymore, but Joy weaves in and out of the asteroid belt and between planets that there’s no chance they could follow us.

Joy finally brings Bonny’s Revenge to a stop behind a planet she calls Witch Planet. 

Suzy caresses her hair. “Joy, is that what you usually do when you see, uh, pirates, or someone bad… when your father isn’t here?” 

“Nuh-uh,” Joy says immediately. “I never run.” 

Huh. “So why did you run?” I ask. 

“Because,” she looks me in the eyes. “I love you two. So if you die, you die forever. That’s what Red told me. So I ran away.” 

There was so much in what she said, so many questions I want to ask, so much she takes for granted about how this world works. But the only thing I react to is that she loves me - us - and that it was so easy for her to say. 

I take her hand. 

And then there’s a small ‘pop’ noise. 

Justin is standing in the middle of the deck. 

“Dad!” Joy yells and runs to him. 

(To be continued…) 

—Told by Grampa Walt