We don’t wait more than a few seconds when suddenly something green begins to grow where the kids buried the Last Tooth Dust. 

Then the green turns to leaves, then the leaves grow on a stem that grows up and up, widening and turning into a tree trunk. The trunk grows high, and the higher it goes, the thicker it grows. Branches and leaves extend from it every which way, hiding the trunk from view. 

High above, the trunk appears to be almost a kilometer high, when the sky cracks open revealing another sky. It is as if a wormhole has appeared in the middle of the sky. 

Can Dreamers create wormholes? Can they play around with the laws of physics as long as they’re in their dreams? I’ve never thought about that. 

“Let’s go, slowpokes!” Justin jumps atop the tree. “No cheating! No technology! No dreaming! Just climbing! Let’s go!” 

Joy is just as quick to the tree. She jumps on a branch just as fast as Justin and begins to climb the branches relentlessly. 

Master Mind grabs a branch and begins to climb. “I have repeatedly stated that I am a fast poke. I am the fastest and pokiest creature in this dream!” 

Charlie follows them, but he’s much slower and awkward. 

“Oh, yeah,” Justin shouts, already a few meters high. “The tree has a special leaf for the grandparents! Climb aboard!” 

The tree extends a leaf the size of our living room. I look at Suzy and step on it. Suzy follows me hesitantly. We both walk to the middle, and the leaf begins to rise up the tree slowly. 

The entire Tooth Tree glows a soft light-blue and then the light vanishes. 

“Ha ha, Dad! I made the tree permanent! The Tooth Tree will be here forever!” 

“I saw that, slowpoke!” he yells down at her. He’s a meter above her, moving quickly. “That’s not how Tooth Fairy magic works!” 

“It’s how my magic works! And we’ll see who’s the slowpoke!” 

We move up the tree, far below them, and suddenly I notice Charlie just above us, sitting on a branch. 

“I’m going to come with you,” he says, and jumps aboard the leaf just as it passes under his feet. “I’m the slowpoke here.” 

I look up. “I think they forgot they’re not the only ones here.” 

Joy and Justin are heading up as fast as they can. Joy is now leading. And they keep calling each other slowpokes as they move up. Master Mind, now gaining on them, keeps calling himself a fast poke. 

I look at Suzy. “I’m guessing it’s worth it?” I say.

She nods, her mouth closed in a way I know means she doesn’t feel connected to the events around her. 

“Oh, it is,” Charlie says. “It is.” 

(To be continued…) 

—Told by Grampa Walt