“She left the baby!” Joy is jumping in place hysterically. “She left the baby!”
Justin puts his hands on her shoulder. “It’s just a dream, Joy, it’s not real.”
Madelyn turns her super wheelchair to face Joy. “There is a lot of sadness in the world. There are mothers that can’t take care of their babies--“
“No, there aren’t!”
“Sometimes their families will not…” Madelyn stops, looking for words. Her English is choppy.
I try to help, “Sometimes families don’t accept it. Sometimes they’re not capable, Joy. Sometimes--”
“You don’t just leave your baby!” Joy screams. She lunges forward and Justin grabs her with both arms.
“No no no no no!” he says. “You can’t save that baby!”
“I have to save the baby!” Charlie is watching wordlessly.
Master Mind, in his robotic way, also watches wordlessly.
“Joy, if you touch the baby it will become permanent and then you’ll just have to raise it. That’s too much effort for something that isn’t real!”
“That’s what you did with me!” her voice is the loudest I’ve ever heard it. And it’s broken.
Justin is physically staggered by that, taking a few steps back, then, because of the tubular shape of the tunnel, he falls back against the wall. Doing that, he lets Joy go.
“Joy,” he tries to talk, but his voice shakes. “It’s not the same thing.”
“Why would a mother leave her baby?!” Joy is crying.
“I don’t know,” Justin says.
“Why did my mother leave me?!”
Justin shakes his head. “I don’t know.”
“You can’t leave a baby!” Joy punches the walls of the tunnel. “You can’t!” Then she whirls around and faces Justin accusingly, “Who’s my mother?!”
He shakes his head. “I don’t know. I don’t think I ever met her. I think I just saw you. But I don’t remember.”
Justin gets to his feet, and then down to his knees in front of Joy and opens his arms. “Come here, Joy.”
She hesitates.
“Come here.”
She falls into his arms and he hugs her.
“I’m sorry we don’t know who your mother is. I’m sorry you were left. But I’m not sorry I found you. You are the greatest girl in the whole world.”
Joy cries and he hugs her. And she cries and she cries. “You are the greatest girl in the whole world. The greatest girl in the whole world,” Justin keeps saying.
After a couple of minutes she disconnects and wipes her tears. She takes a deep breath and looks at him. “I know,” she says.
He gives a quick laugh. Then she says, “Now let’s go save the baby.”
(To be continued…)
—Told by Grampa Walt