The Justin in front of my eyes disappears, and Sandra runs to Justin and hugs him. 

“Hey, honey, welcome back!” 

She stands on her tiptoes and kisses him on the lips and he kisses her back. 

Oh, my! I see Suzy look at the kiss with eyes wide open. 

“Yuck!” Luis and Joy say together.

Justin straightens and looks around. “Joy, come here!” 

Joy runs to him and leaps on him. He lifts her up and hugs her. She hugs him like she hasn’t seen him in years. 

“Oh, my god,” Justin says. “You survived! Thank god! It must have been so awful for you! All alone!” 

“Yuh huh,” Joy says, her head buried in his chest. 

“Oh. Let it out. Let it out, Joy. Just let it out.” 

Joy cries into his chest, and my heart goes out to her. She has been through so much. I can’t even imagine what she must have done to survive the last twelve hours!

“Hey, sweetie, sweetie,” Sandra caresses Joy’s back. “What’s the matter?” 

Joy moves away from Sandra’s touch violently. “Don’t touch me!” 

“I remember you now! Justin was looking for you, a long time ago! You came in with a big bird person and…” she looks at Master Mind, as if really seeing him for the first time, “the giant robot.” 

Justin lets Joy drop to the ground. “We’ll talk about what happened to you later, okay?” Joy nods and Justin looks at me. “Dad! What happened to you? Are you all right?” 

“Walt was shot,” Sandra says. “In the shoulder. The doctor took the bullet out. He’s very lucky. It missed the subclavian artery, the brachial artery, the brachial plexus, and even the nerve bundle here that controls the arm.” 

“Holy cow,” Suzy says. “I thought getting shot in the shoulder was safe.” 

“Not at all, Suzy. I tell you this every time we watch a movie together. The movies have it wrong.” 

“Yeah…” Suzy says, clearly thinking she’s never met Sandra before.

Justin looks around. “Anyone else hurt?” 

He looks at us one by one. “All right. Good. Master Mind, I’m sure you saved her life. Great job!” 

“You missed a lot, Pirate,” he says. 

“I’m sure. Thanks for leaving me the note on Bonny’s Revenge, Mom.” Suzy nods. “Sandra, we have to go.”

“What? Already? Listen, I just finished my shift. Are you going to your parents’ place? I’ll go with you!” 

Justin’s cheeks burn red.

(To be continued…)

—Told by Grampa Walt