The tunnel is spooky and green and moving slightly. I’m glad to be out of it.
And suddenly I’m standing in front of a vision I’d never imagined.
I’m standing on top of a small, slightly round surface looking out at millions of giant outside-down mushrooms. Their top part is round like a mushroom and the bottom is straight like the bottom of a mushroom. But the stem, the huge stem, is at the top, stretching upwards.
There are millions of those to all sides of me. The stems stretch into a sky that’s bright in every direction.
I can’t make out the top. I can’t see how far up the stems go.
“My god,” I mutter.
Justin looks at me. “Oh, it’s your first time out here. Right. Dad, each one of those is someone’s dream.”
That is unbelievable. I am watching an entire new world, which is… real! This. Is. Real.
I look around me, at all the dreams - some at my height, so many above me at all heights, so many below me. There are dreams stretching infinitely upwards and dreams stretching infinitely downwards, so much so that I can only see the stems and not the dreams.
I look at Joy.
Joy is the proof that this place is real. The Dream is real! Dreams happen in a real place! Because Joy lives here. Joy can make dreams like me real, she can make us stay. I have never thought, never believed, never supposed…
If there was a way to get this information to the outside world, to other scientists…!
“They’re called Shrooms,” Joy said. “I named them!”
“That’s my Shroom over there!” Charlie points down. “It was above us when I came here.”
Now it’s a couple of meters below us and to the side.
“Over there,” Justin points to the side. “That’s Amahle’s dream. It’s a dream you can’t ever go to, Joy. There’s no way back out.”
“No way out?” Joy asks.
“Trust me. You will never find your way out. You can’t ever go there!”
Joy looks at that dream. Justin says to Master Mind, “She can’t ever go there. Period. There’s no way out.”
“You don’t have to tell him, I won’t go there!”
“Good.”
“And over there,” Justin points out. “That’s Colin’s dream. You can’t go there, either. He has nightmares of monsters the size of a city. Not even you or Master Mind can survive, because he can always create another one. Got it, Joy?”
Joy nods. Her face is somber. It seems she understands her limitations.
Charlie points to the side. “That’s Sandra’s dream over there, right?”
Joy and Justin shake their heads simultaneously. “I’m not going there,” they both say.
“And three Shrooms that way,” Justin turns around to point behind his own stem. “That’s the angel’s dream.”
“Not going there!” Joy shouts simultaneously with Charlie shouting, “Never going back!”
“So where do we go, Dad?”
“Over there, that’s Madelyn’s dream. I, uh, I can’t be sure what all her dreams are like. I just saw one. I think she likes adventure. And I think her dreams are not too horrible. Shall we try?”
“Woo hoo!” Joy jumps in place. “Let’s go!”
“Oh, look at this,” Charlie is staring at a small glowing light flying right in front of his eyes. “It’s alive!”
(To be continued…)
—Told by Grampa Walt