Master Mind has brought Amahle from her dream back to Justin’s dream, where we’re all waiting for her. 

Back on the deck of Bonny’s Revenge, Elvis, her seeing eye dog reappears. Along with the cane in her right hand, which she moves to her left. 

We wait for her to explain what the danger was that she sensed around us before she disappeared and woke up. 

“I do not know what it was,” Amahle says. “I have never felt anything like it. It felt like someone was hitting me in the head.” 

“What?” Joy is concerned. After all, nothing had been close to any of our heads. 

“It was a pounding,” Amahle continues. “From inside my head. Like something was pushing me to the ground.” 

She stops and no one speaks. Soft music from Amahle’s imagination plays all around us. She is so musical that often the music in her head appears in the Dream. The music moves between fear and the beauty and quiet of a sunset. 

“But it also felt,” Amahle says, “good. Like, real good. Like, beautiful in a way that only music can be beautiful. It was a joy! And it hurt.” 

“I’ve never heard of anything like that,” Justin says. “Madelyn?” She shakes her head. “Dad? Mom?” We both shake our heads. “Colin? Yumio?”

“Never,” Colin says. 

“No,” Yumio says. “And not in any books I’ve read.” 

“Charlie?” 

“No. Not in Native stories, either,” he says.

“I want to try it again,” Amahle extends her hand. 

Joy hesitates. Justin nods. 

“Okay, Joy?” 

“I don’t want to hurt you.” 

“You won’t. I promise. Let’s try. I’m going to think of the sunset in my neighborhood.” All around us, atop the ocean, the streets of Johannesburg reappear. An orange sun appears in the horizon, and the light from our two suns darkens. “I still don’t feel it. Joy?” 

Joy moves her hand slowly and touches Amahle’s. “I was thinking about helping you show the sun,” she says, and concentrates as she grabs Amahle’s hand.  

As soon as she touches her, Amahle gasps. “Oh, my god,” she says. “Oh, my god! What is it? What is it?” 

Joy tries to remove her hand, but Amahle holds on to it. “No. Don’t go. It is like my mind is… It is like my mind is being struck with a hammer. But at the same time it is beautiful. It is so beautiful!” 

The music around us surges and explodes multiple times in a way that feels like fireworks. 

“The pounding,” Amahle describes what she feels. “The pounding is less pronounced. I do not know what it is. I do not hear it. I do not feel it. I do not smell it. I do not taste it. It is not music. But… it feels so beautiful. Its beauty is the thing that hurts now. Oh! It’s an emotion! An emotion!” 

The music soars all around us. Suzy wipes a tear from her cheek. “It’s so beautiful,” she tells me. 

“Joy, what color is the sunset?”

“Orange,” Charlie says. 

“Its beauty hurts so much!” Amahle says. “But I think this is what it is. I think… I’m sensing orange. I can’t see, but I think I’m seeing orange!” 

“Bollocks,” Colin says. 

“Mon dieu,” Madelyn says automatically. 

“Holy shit,” Yumio says. “I’m calling bullshit on that.” 

(To be continued…)

—Told by Grampa Walt