“Joy, I don’t want to hear it!” 

Joy is pestering Justin again about why there’s a dream he says she can’t go to, a dream with no way out.

“Dad! There’s no such thing as a dream you can’t leave!” 

“I was there. I saw it!” He’s short with her. He knows she’ll never give up, and he knows she can’t ever go there or we’ll lose her forever. 

“Dad! There can’t be! There are always suns!” 

He looks away. We’re on the deck of Bonnie’s Revenge. Charlie hasn’t arrived yet. Master Mind has gone into the Infinite Prison. Suzy is with us for a change. She decided she wants to go on an adventure, too, today. After all, it will be a controlled adventure. She and I are standing aside, giving them room to argue without us.

“Joy, if you keep bugging me about it, I’m not going on adventure with you all week!”

“Then I’ll bug you about it all week! What you say can’t be true! It can’t! There are always suns!” 

Justin whirls around and explodes in a low and threatening tone, “Do you remember the Night Planet, Joy? Do you remember how afraid you were? That dream is exactly like the Night Planet. It’s all dark! It’s absolutely dark! I couldn’t create light and I’m a dreamer! The suns are dark! You can’t see anything in it! Anything! The suns are there but you’ll never find them! The only reason I got out of there was because I woke up! There’s no way out for you!” 

Joy is taken aback. So am I. I’ve never seen him be so forceful and so frightening. Joy is still six. She’s still his daughter and trusts him to protect her, not to frighten her.

She looks down. “Why is it dark? Why can’t we see the suns?” 

He turns around, lips pursed. “Why does it matter? You can’t go there so it doesn’t matter. There’s a reason and it can’t change and that one dream is none of your business anymore!”

She nods. “Okay. I don’t want to go there.” 

Justin appears as surprised as he can be. “You don’t?” 

“Nuh-uh.”

“Really?”

“Yuh-huh.” These words, I’ve learned, are Charlie’s influences.

“Okay,” he nods and straightens, calming down. 

“Are we going on adventure or what?” she says. 

“Shall we wait for Charlie?” he asks. 

“Yuh-huh. And when he gets here, we’ll go on adventure! To the Night Planet!” 

Justin whirls around and stares at her. She stares back, defiant.

(To be continued…)

—Told by Grampa Walt