As usual, Amahle and Elvis appear on the deck of Bonny’s Revenge while Joy is still asleep.
“Amahle,” I call her from the porch, where Suzy and I are sitting. “Let me help you down.”
“I am perfectly fine, Walter.” She uses Elvis and her blind stick to lead her down the ramp which she already knows so well.
As she’s halfway through, Madelyn appears behind her on her wheelchair.
Amahle stops and listens. After a second, she says, “Hello, Madelyn. Comment ça va?”
“Oh, Amahle!” Madelyn hits her forehead. “I cannot believe I don’t remember my dreams!”
“What’s the matter?” Amahle asks.
Madelyn joins her, wheeling herself down the ramp. “I’m in Cape Town today!”
“No! You are in Cape Town? Are you heading to Johannesburg?”
“Oh, I wish we could meet! I would love to meet you in what Justin calls, uh, the waking world!”
Amahle grabs Madelyn’s hand. “I wish that! But I do not remember you outside the Dream!”
“I wish I could remember you,” Madelyn says as the two walk down together. “I’m not headed for Johannesburg. I’m here to meet a colleague and talk about the next race.”
“So close!”
The two, each clearly disappointed, continue down the ramp and onto our small island.
“Tomorrow I’m meeting my colleague in the morning, then we will go with Etienne to a beach.”
“Which beach, do you know?”
“Glen Beach.”
The two are almost at the porch near Suzy and me. “A fantastic choice,” Amahle says. “You can watch the surfing, you can swim, and I hear it is beautiful to look at.”
Madelyn looks at her. “Go with me now.”
“What?”
“Let us go to the beach like we’re meeting in the, uh, waking world. Let us do it now!”
Amahle looks shaken and I hear drums in the background. “No, no,” she takes a step back, but Madelyn is holding her hand.
“Come. We can talk. We can swim together–”
“I do not swim!” Amahle shakes her head. “And I would never swim in the sea!”
“But here it is harmless. Let us swim together, where nothing bad can happen to you!”
The beating of the drums intensifies. Amahle’s afraid.
“No!” she says, her voice drowned by the drums. “No no no!”
(To be continued…)
—Told by Grampa Walt