We wait for Charlie for a long time and he doesn’t come back.
Joy sulks more and more. Justin thinks there’s no more reason to stay on Toronto planet and flies us home. As we leave the planet, I notice that it stays behind. Joy can visit it anytime. Maybe we’ll take a trip with her.
Justin docks Bonny’s Revenge near our island, next to our home.
He suggests we go down, but Joy won’t move from the deck. Charlie could come at any time.
Master Mind insists on remaining near Joy in case whatever is happening to Charlie endangers Joy.
What feels like hours pass and then Justin disappears. Charlie has not reappeared.
Joy walks from one side of the deck to the other. She’s very worried. She goes up to the crow’s nest. She comes back. She climbs to the roof of her cabin. She comes back. She peeks into the infinite corridor with its Infinite Prison. She comes back.
“Do you want to go back home?” I ask Suzy.
“Nope,” she answers quickly. “Do you?”
I shake my head. “I got the feeling you know what’s--”
She raises her hand to stop me. “They just have to go through it,” she says. And I know not to ask more. She doesn’t want to talk about it in a place where Joy can hear.
After a few more hours, Joy falls asleep on the deck. I ask Master Mind to lift her and put her in her bed.
He does. She doesn’t even stir. She is exhausted.
Charlie has not appeared. He has apparently not slept all night. I would be worried that something happened to him, except that Suzy isn’t worried.
“Can you tell me now?” I ask Suzy. We, as dreams, apparently don’t sleep. We have time.
Suzy shakes her head and gestures at Master Mind exiting Joy’s cabin.
“All right,” I lean on the deck.
A few more hours pass. It must be the middle of the day for Justin. Joy is still asleep. And suddenly Charlie appears on the deck.
Suzy smiles at him. “Charlie. You are welcome here. Please don’t go.”
He looks around, frightened.
“Where are you now?” she asks. “Are you in school? Did you fall asleep?”
There is still fear in his eyes. “Yuh huh,” he says. “I think.”
“Okay,” Suzy says. “Charlie, you are welcome here. You are always welcome here.”
He looks at her warily.
“I think you should talk to her.”
He shrugs.
“Okay,” Suzy shrugs, too. “Want to stay with us? Play chess with Walt?”
“I’ll talk to her,” he says.
Suzy smiles. “Good!”
(To be continued…)
—Told by Grampa Walt