We can only watch from afar as Justin descends into a version of London that comes from horror stories. Joy and Charlie are seated on the edge of the tunnel that leads into this dream, the edge of one of the suns that shine into this world. Their legs are well within the dream, taking no risk. I lean on the round wall behind them, peering in. Master Mind stands next to me, watching Justin as well as Joy. He will stop her if she tries to get into Colin’s dream. 

Justin lands next to Colin. A laser cannon appears on his arm, and he fires it at the tentacle that is chasing Colin. 

Up here we don’t even hear the cannon fire. 

Colin stops and sees Justin. 

Colin screams and runs away. 

This is expected. The last time Justin killed Colin in order to get him to wake up. He did it quite violently to shake Colin out of his nightmare.

Justin is shouting after him, but I can’t hear what he says. Colin runs and the tentacle appears in front of him. Colin freezes in place, and the tentacle grabs him. 

Justin flies above them with a jetpack and begins to fire on the tentacle. 

Another tentacle appears out of nowhere and slams Justin against a wall. 

“Ooooh!” Joy says, wincing. 

“Ouch!” Charlie shakes his head. 

While that would have killed Justin in the waking world, no one is worried that he would come to any harm. 

The tentacle holding Colin shakes him around back and forth and throws him aside and high into the air. 

Colin lands in the Thames.

“Ooph!” Joy says. 

Justin rises into the air, but a tentacle quickly seizes him. It slams him against the road, raises him into the air, and slams him again as if he’s a cartoon.

“Ow, ow, ow!” Joy puts her fingers in front of her eyes.

“Jeez,” Charlie says. “That guy doesn’t mess around.” 

I look away. I know it’s just a dream, but I can’t watch this being done to my boy. 

“I do not understand why the Pirate is allowing himself to be treated like a rag doll,” Master Mind says. He touches the sewn part of him. Suzy and Joy put him back together just a few months ago, sewing his top half and his bottom half back together. 

“He wants to win,” I tell him. “In an adventure he didn’t create.” 

Joy shakes her head. “Dad doesn’t care about winning, Grampa. He wants a friend.” 

I look down, as Colin resurfaces on the Thames and Justin is still being slammed into the street. 

Hmmm. Strange way to make a friend.

(To be continued…)