I was frantic with worry. Justin had just fallen into the depths of the abyss of the Dream. He had fallen so much in-between millions of Shrooms, that I couldn’t see him anymore.
“Justin! Justin!” I shout after him.
“Grampa! Grampa!” I feel Joy’s hand take mine.
I look at her. “Joy, he could be dead or--”
“Grampa, Grampa, he’s fine. He’s fine.”
My entire world has gone dark, but I force myself to calm down and look at her and listen to her voice.
Charlie and her are standing beside me. They must have used the jetpacks on their backs.
“What do you mean he’s fine?” I force myself to speak calmly.
“He can’t die, Grampa. The same thing happened to Charlie. Dreamers can’t die. Only we can.”
I look down, then at her, then down, then at her. I exhale slowly. “Explain it to me.”
But she doesn’t have to. Justin steps out of the tunnel next to us.
“Joy!” he begins sternly, but Joy runs to him and hugs him.
“Dad!”
He hugs her back.
My hand is shaking. I touch his shoulder. It’s really him.
“What happened?”
“You get so scared that you’re going to die,” Charlie says, speaking quickly. “So you wake up! Then you go back to sleep and you come back.”
Justin nods and holds my hand. “I’m okay, Dad. I’m okay.”
“Dad!” Joy is suddenly excited. “We should make you jump!”
“I’m sorry?” he says.
“You got scared because you fell. But you know nothing can kill you. So if you just jump, you could fall for hours and hours, right?”
“Uh huhhhhhhh…” he says, clearly thinking it’s a bad idea.
“Then you could tell us what the bottom’s like!”
“Before I crash into it?”
“Yes!”
“That’s an interesting idea!” Charlie’s excited for a second. Then he looks worried. “But I would never do it.”
“Neither would I,” says Justin. “That’s a crazy idea.”
“Why?”
“I’m not going to do it, period. Now let’s get back to the ship and talk about how you left the dream without Master Mind.”
“Oh, shoot, I forgot about that,” Charlie looks down.
Justin steps back, signaling for everyone to go back into the tunnel before him.
We go in. Charlie looks dejected. Joy grabs my arm and whispers to me. “He’ll do it. You’ll see.”
“I! Will! Not!” Justin’s voice reverberates through the tunnel.
—Told b Grampa Walt