Madelyn and Amahle appear on the deck of Bonny’s Revenge within minutes of each other. Amahle is in Johannesburg, as usual. Madelyn is back home in France. She keeps telling me which city she’s in, but I can’t remember. I used to remember everything, but now…There are facts that escape me.

In any case, their time zones are one hour apart, and apparently they’ve fallen asleep around the same time. 

I look through the window in our living room and see Madelyn and Amahle talking to each other. Madelyn is with her regular wheelchair, not her flying one. 

Joy comes out of the cabin and they talk to her. 

Master Mind stands motionless near the ship’s wheel, hearing everything, ready for any dream that may prove too dangerous for Joy.

Joy enters her cabin, and re-emerges with her toothbrush in hand. She walks slowly down the ramp and walks up to our porch. She’s slow and clearly hasn’t really recovered from sleep yet. 

Suzy, who has been sitting on the porch all this time, asks as Joy passes her, “What’s the matter, Joy?” 

“I got a headache,” she says. “And Amahle and Madelyn want to go somewhere and Dad isn’t here, so I can’t brush my teeth on the plank. I have to brush them in the sink. Blech!” 

She says all this as she walks in, without stopping. She goes into the bathroom and shuts the door. 

“Suzanne!” Amahle yells from the deck. “Suzanne!” 

“What’s going on?” Suzy yells back. 

“Come on! Come here!” 

Madelyn rolls down the ramp and Amahle walks behind her carefully, Elvis, her seeing eye-dog, by her side and a cane in the other hand. 

A city appears right next to our island. Amahle has summoned it enough times for me to recognize it immediately. It’s Johannesburg. 

I walk out when Madelyn, now on the walkway leading to our home, says, “Sorry, Walter. No men allowed.”

“No men allowed? To do what?” I don’t follow.

“Suzanne,” Amahle says as Suzy touches her arm. “I’m taking you all on a girls’ night out in the city.” 

“A girls’ night?!” Suzy smiles. “Ooh, that sounds fun!” 

“No men allowed, Walter,” Amahle says. “Not you, not Justin or Charlie or Colin.” 

“What?” I feel left out.

“Just us girls,” Amahle says with a smile.

“Blech,” Joy chimes in from behind me. “Why separate boys from girls? What’s the point?” 

I look at her and realize she had never heard of or seen boys and girls separate themselves because she doesn’t go to school and she doesn’t know any children except Charlie. She had never experienced that.

“Our chariot awaits,” Amahle points aside. A limousine appears on the road just beyond the island. 

(To be continued…)

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