“Joy, what’s going on?” Justin takes a few steps towards her with arms open after she asks everyone to get off her ship.
Joy shrugs and looks away.
“Joy, did I offend you?” Amahle says. Elvis, her seeing eye dog, appears at her side, and she begins to walk in Joy’s direction.
“GET OFF MY SHIP!” Joy yells at us, her face red. “Now! Everyone!”
I have not moved. Master Mind has not moved. Charlie, beside her, seems insulted, “Me, too?”
“Joy,” Justin goes down on his knees in front of her to look her in the eyes. “Is it what she said about ‘the real world’, because–”
Joy’s lips begin to tremble and she is fighting tears.
Justin looks down at her feet. I follow his gaze. Her shadow is stomping on the ground and yelling. Justin moves back. “What’s the matter?”
“Get off my ship!” she whispers in a voice that’s clearly on the verge of crying.
“Have I offended you? I just meant to thank you–” Amahle says, now close to Joy.
“Aaaaah!” Joy screams. Justin motions ‘stop’ to Amahle, but she, of course, can’t see it. “Why am I just a dream?”
“Wha–?” Justin says, conveying everyone’s surprise.
“I’m just a dream!” she begins to cry. “Just a dream! Why can’t I be in the real world? I’m just a dream!”
“Oh, Joy, Joy, Joy!” Justin hugs her. “You’re not just a dream! You’re real!”
“Why does she only remember the colors and not me? Why is there no one like me?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know. But you’re not ‘just’ anything. You’re amazing!”
“Why was I born like this?” she continues to cry as he hugs her. “Why am I just a dream?”
Justin sighs as he hugs her. “It’s all right,” he says. “It’s all right.”
“I’m just a dream! Just a dream! Just a dream!”
She cries for a few minutes. Justin doesn’t say anything except “It’s all right.”
Once her crying subsides, Amahle whispers. “You are a miracle of life, Joy.”
Joy doesn’t respond. She continues to hug Justin for a long while.
—Told by Grampa Walt