“Wow,” Suzy says, hearing the news.
We are all back in Suzy’s and my apartment on the small island in Justin’s dream. Suzy is the only one of us who does not regularly go on adventures and Justin wanted to do this with her, and rightly so.
We sit in the living room, Suzy, Joy, Justin, and Charlie on the sofas or the chairs. I sit on my Archie Bunker chair. Master Mind stands to the side and does not sit.
“Yeah,” agrees Justin.
“It’s so strange!” Joy says excitedly. “That someone remembers me! It’s soooo strange!”
“Oh, dear,” Suzy frowns. Then, seeing a chance to empower Joy, takes her hand. “It’s so great that someone remembers you, yeah?”
“Yuh-huh!” Joy smiles.
“So I was thinking, I was thinking,” Justin is also excited. “We have to find a way to find more information about Joy. Like where does she come from? Was she ever on Earth? Does someone miss her?”
“But how would you suggest we do that?” I say.
Suzy shakes her head. “Even if she is missing as a child, there are so many missing children. You’ve had her since she was a baby, so it’s not like Charlie can look at pictures and recognize her.”
“Plus, what’s her name?” I say. Joy throws an angry look at me. “I mean that Justin called you Joy. And ‘Shelley’ is Justin’s last name. If you were born on Earth, someone gave you another name. If we don’t know that name, we can’t search for you.”
Joy frowns.
“People, people, ideas!” Justin tries to rally us. “We have a chance to reach out back to our real--I mean, our waking world! What can we do?”
There is a long silence. No one comes up with an idea.
“Master Mind,” Justin says in desperation. “You’re a brilliant robot! Any ideas?”
“I do not know how the waking world works, Pirate. I have no ideas on this subject. But if you want me to teach the Little Dreamer to kill, I can do that.”
There is, always, an awkward silence when Master Mind finishes a thought. “No, thanks, Master Mind,” Charlie says finally.
“Dad,” Justin looks at me. “Come on! Be brilliant at chess or something!”
I shake my head. “I can’t think of a single thing that a seven year old can help with. Now, if you were the one who remembered…”
“Wait! Yes!” Justin snaps his fingers and gets to his feet in excitement. “That’s it!”
“What?” says Joy.
“Charlie,” Justin drops to his knees next to the boy, to look into his eyes. “I need you to call me. I’ll give you my phone number. Can you remember a phone number?”
“I think so.”
“And your job will be to get me to remember! So tell me I have a daughter called Joy in the dream. Tell me about Master Mind and Joy and try to get me to remember, okay?”
Charlie moves uncomfortably. “No one ever believes me. You’ll be angry that I called you.”
“No, Charlie, I won’t. I promise. I’ll try very hard not to be angry. Okay?”
Charlie purses his lips and looks down.
“Charlie, for me? I need Dad to remember!”
Charlie, still looking down, nods. “Okay,” he says weakly.
“Yes!” Justin says.
(To be continued…)
—Told by Grampa Walt