Master Mind reaches the top first. Then Joy, then Justin. 

They reach the top and disappear from view into the wormhole-like tear in the sky. 

The big leaf holding Suzy, Charlie and I accelerates as we approach the top, and we are right behind them. 

“Joy the Pirate!” I hear a female voice boom as everything changes around me and I find myself in a hall with a checkered floor, one that looks like it had been taken out of a chess board. “I have missed you!” 

Now I see who’s talking. She’s a short, stocky figure with wings, dressed in a pink-white tutu with images of fairies on it and in tights with images of… swashbackling! 

I stare at the tights, even as she waves her hand at Charlie. “And there he is! The child warrior! The boy who will become a man!”

“I’m not a warrior,” Charley says sheepishly. 

“PISH POSH!” she booms at him. “What do you know about yourself? Nothing! I am the Tooth Fairy! I know what you don’t know and you know it!” 

Charlie laughs. And I think, my my, she is loud! 

“Pirate Justin! I see you have brought your parents! Parents of Justin, I bid you hello!” 

“Hello,” Suzy says, laughing at the Tooth Fairy’s loud tones. 

“Hi,” I nod at her. 

She flies over and looks us in the eyes. “Oh, yes, I remember you. I have met the two of you before! Suzy, when you were seven you lost your last tooth. When our adventure ended, you lost memory of our time together!” 

“What? I, uh–” Suzy is flustered. The Tooth Fairy is talking as if she’s real and exists outside Justin’s dream. 

“And you, Walter. Yes, I remember you Walter. When we were together, I made you small enough to ride a grasshopper. And then you explored the life of the grasshopper, hiding on its back.” 

“That didn’t happen,” I say. But why do I seem to remember it? 

The Tooth Fairy waves her wand and fairy dust comes out of it. “If I could, I would wave my wand and return your memories to you. But that is not how the magic of dreams works!” 

I find myself breathing heavily. I do have a faint recollection of riding on a grasshopper! Was it in a dream? How would a dream created by Justin know that? 

“Miss Fairy,” Joy comes up to her. The Tooth Fairy descends to the ground and looks at her. “Can I touch you and make you permanent?” 

“Make me permanent?” The Tooth Fairy laughs. “That is not how Tooth Fairy Magic works! Look at the Tooth Tree that brought you!” 

We look at it. It is crumbling into nothingness and becoming dust as we watch. 

“I’m sorry, Joy the Pirate! This will be our last time together. If you touch me or if you don’t touch me, I will disappear from your life when today’s game is over.”

Joy looks down, her face red, fighting tears. 

(To be continued…) 

—Told by Grampa Walt