Joy gives Justin a look like she’s going to kill him. 

“I’m not saying a dress,” Justin says. “I would never say a dress.” 

“Good.” 

“But look at these clothes,” he touches the formal clothes Hugh had given him. “Don’t I look good? Wouldn’t it be nice to try something else?” 

“I’m a pirate,” she shrugs. “I like these clothes.” 

“Yes, but…Colin, apparently, is inviting us for something formal. He comes from a different place with a different culture, and it would be nice of us to do it his way. Plus, it’s an adventure in dressing up. It’s like a game.” 

Joy crosses her arms. 

“Oooh,” Justin smiles at that. Apparently, it’s a much better reaction than what he expected. He looks at Colin and motions for him to continue. 

“How about you?” Colin looks at me. 

“I don’t know how comfortable I would be in…” 

“Dad!” Justin reminds me with his eyes that I have to set an example for Joy. 

“Sure,” I say. “Let’s try it.” 

Suddenly, I’m choked by formal clothes that feel too tight.

“Oh, my,” Colin says. “Sorry about that. Your clothes didn’t disappear when I put you in new clothes.” 

“Yeah. His clothes are permanent because Joy, you know,” Justin gets lost in his own sentence. “Anyway, you can’t make them go away.” 

“Don’t even look at me,” Suzy warns Colin who is looking at her. “That is invasive. You will not dress me up with anything.” 

Colin looks dismayed. 

“Him, too,” Suzy points at Charlie. “You can’t just dress him up. He’s too young to know better.” 

“What about me?” Master Mind asks in his robotic voice. “What is the appropriate formal wear in your culture for killer robots capable of destroying entire worlds?” 

Colin looks at Master Mind, as if Master Mind was offering him garbage for dinner. He recovers after a couple of seconds, but not well, “Oh, you’re coming?” 

“Of course he’s coming,” Joy says. “We’re family.” 

“But I don’t know how well Hugh would, I mean, we would, that is…” 

“Colin,” Justin says with a calm voice. “Why don’t you just dress him up?” 

Colin shakes his head. “He would never, I would never, how would he be?” Colin looks panicked, as if we are one of the huge monsters of his dream. 

He’s afraid, which makes me afraid. Is he going to start dreaming of a monster now? If so, we could all be dead in seconds.

(To be continued…) 

—Told by Grampa Walt