Joy has had a full day of adventure with Yumio, who has been teaching Joy to fly the exoskeletons she creates. Once Yumio wakes up and no Dreamers are left in Justin’s dream, Joy is so excited, she refuses to go to sleep. She stays on the deck with Suzy and Master Mind and I, until suddenly we look at her, and she’s asleep. 

Suzy shakes her head. “She’s so cute. She’s so beautiful. But look at her, she only grows wilder with every year.” 

I nod. “She can’t be tamed.”

Suzy throws me a look. “I don’t like that word. That's not a word you use on people.” Then she nods, “You’re right, though. She can’t.” 

“I don’t think she should, Suzy,” I tell her. “She would never survive the Dream outside if she was tame.”

Suzy sighs. 

“Oh, my. That’s strange,” Suzy looks at Joy, then underneath herself. 

“What?” 

“Look at her. Her shadow’s gone.” 

Sleeping there, on the deck, it’s true that I can’t see her shadow. I walk around to see if it’s on her other side - even though I should have seen some of it from where I was standing.

“She has no shadow!” I am shocked at this revelation. It is physically impossible to not have a shadow. 

I lean down and raise a part of her arm just a few millimeters above the ground. There is no shadow underneath at all. 

“How can there be no shadow under her! She’s blocking the light!” I say. 

Decades of studying physics and chemistry let me know this is impossible. And yet…

“Maybe her shadow goes somewhere when she’s asleep. She has a mind of her own, you know,” Suzy thinks out loud. 

“Her shadow does not have a mind of her own. She is Joy exactly,” I say. “Exactly, just not… precisely.” 

My mind is battling what I’m seeing. “Is she see-through? Is she not there? How can the sunlight shine on what’s underneath her?” 

“Pirate Father, Pirate Mother,” Master Mind chimes in. “Why are you wondering how it is possible to not have a shadow? Every time we are outside, in the Dream, on the Shrooms, none of us have shadows even though there is light. Only the Little Pirate has a shadow outside.” 

I look at Master Mind, talking to us with his back turned, as he is looking forward at the horizon.

Huh. That is a good point. 

I look up from Joy to the two suns above us. “Huh,” I say. 

“What?” Suzy leans closer. 

“I keep forgetting that these are not real suns. If our shadows are not actually shadows, then perhaps the light is not actually light.” 

—Told by Grampa Walt