Joy and Charlie lead the way out of the tunnel. Amahle holds Joy’s shoulders and moves forward. She doesn’t have her cane or Elvis, her seeing eye-dog. They disappeared when she left her dream. 

I’m behind Amahle. And Master Mind walks silently behind me.

Justin is ahead of all of us. He waits outside, silent, afraid to make a noise. 

“Careful, now, careful,” Joy says as Amahle takes the first step into her Shroom. “You are now on a Shroom. Stop here.” 

“A Shroom?” 

“I named them!” Joy says with pride. “But they’re not big, and they bend down. So be careful not to fall.” 

“Okay. What can you see here?” 

“This is a Shroom,” Charlie explains. “Because it looks like a huge mushroom. But the stem is at the top and it goes all the way up to the sky.” 

“A big Shroom?” 

“That’s your dream,” Joy jumps up and down. “Under our feet. Inside the Shroom. That’s where you can dream almost anything.” 

“I am still dreaming, surely.” Amahle says. “You are all part of my dream.” 

“You’re dreaming, yes,” I begin. “But–”

“I am not a dream!” Joy raises her voice. “I’m not! I’m real! I’m not a dream!” 

“It’s something that’s very hard to accept,” I tell Amahle, “But we have learned that Joy is absolutely real. The Dream world is real. You’re standing on a Shroom amidst billions of other Shrooms that stretch as far as the eye–” 

“But it is a dream, Walter,” she tells me. “It is a dream.” 

“I! Am not! A dream!” Joy shouts and then crosses her arms. 

Amahle shrugs. “I do not know why I dream of you. But every time I do, I also dream I hear the breathing of the man who tried to kill me,” she points at Justin. Justin’s eyes pop open in shock. 

“Let’s go, everyone!” Joy says angrily. “We’re done!” She turns on her jetpack and flies up, back to Justin’s Shroom. 

We are left on the Shroom with Amahle who does not believe we exist. I don’t know what to do next.

(To be continued…)

—Told by Grampa Walt