All tagged Colin
Master Mind takes two steps forward, grabs Joy around the torso, and steps back.
“Hey!” Joy says.
Amahle’s spooky music rises.
“Guys, guys, there’s no need for panic,” Justin raises his hands. “This mummy is not going to move!”
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Colin, Madelyn, and Yumio enter our living room first. Then Justin does. Then Charlie and Joy, holding hands. Joy and Justin are the only ones who don’t seem afraid. Justin, perhaps, because it is his mummy. And I’m not sure why Joy isn’t more cautious. But at least she’s protected by five Dreamers who will leap to her aid if one Dreamer goes crazy.
Master Mind follows next. Suzy peeks through.
“Oh, my,” Suzy says. “There is a mummy in our living room!”
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It’s a busy morning on the deck of Bonny’s Revenge. We have all our dreamers here at once when Justin arrives: Amahle, Madelyn, Yumio, Charlie, Colin, and now Justin has joined.
Joy, Charlie, Madelyn and Yumio have been playing Catch in the Clouds, all wearing Yumio’s mechas. Colin has been drinking tea with Suzy and me on the deck while waiting for Justin.
When Justin appears, everyone gathers and tells him the plan.
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I think the birthday party is starting to get a bit old. The kids are now separated into small groups, small groups of boys and small groups of girls.
I see Charlie and Joy talk to another boy near the table. Trying to look like I’m not listening to them, I get closer to supposedly get a bit more juice.
“Yeah, but this is a costume,” the kid is saying. “That’s what you wear every day!”
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“Charlie! Charlie!” Justin calls out.
“Just a second, Joy’s Dad!”
Joy and Charlie pull the flying elephants’ ears softly, then pull the left one only. The elephants slow in mid-air, then make a U-turn to the left. Justin, helming Bonny’s Revenge, stops the warship in mid-air.
“Dad, we’re busy!” Joy says.
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“But what did he say to you?”
It’s been a day since we last saw Colin and Hugh, and Justin is trying to ask Charlie what made him run away yesterday.
Charlie keeps ignoring Justin’s questions as Joy and Charlie play with toys on the deck of Bonny’s Revenge.
“Charlie,” Justin pleads for the seventh time. “What happened? What did he say?”
Charlie looks up finally. “He said ‘poop’.”
“Huh? He said ‘poop’?”
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“Hugh. Nice to meet you,” Justin offers his hand. “I’m Justin.”
“Pleasure,” Hugh shakes his hand.
“This is my father, Walter. My mother, Susanne. And you just met my daughter, Joy. Her friend was Charlie. The big robot, that, uh, chased her in the flying ship,” he sneaks a look at Colin to see if it’s okay to mention a robot and a flying ship, “that’s Master Mind.”
“Pleasure,” Hugh shakes my hand. “Enchanted,” he kisses Suzy’s hand.
“Oh, laying it on a bit too thick, aren’t you?” Colin tells him.
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Colin stands there in the street as Hugh talks to Joy and Charlie about the documentary he’s shooting right now.
Justin stands very close to Colin. “Whatever happens, there’s no need for monsters,” he tells him. “No monsters. No monsters.”
“No monsters,” Colin whispers.
“Everything’s okay,” Justin says. “You can see that, right?”
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“This was all a terrible idea! A terrible idea!” Colin begins to scream as if he is facing one of his monsters.
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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.”
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We stand in the middle of the street, Colin, Justin, Joy, Charlie, Master Mind, Suzy, and I.
We look around. This is exactly the way London used to look in movies I grew up on, with adjustments for the decades that have passed.
“Wow,” Justin says.
“Look at the graffiti over there,” Charlie points to a large wall with graffiti of a man’s face with his tongue sticking out.
Bonny’s Revenge hangs in the air just above the rooftops. Justin insisted that Colin host us in Justin’s dream, not in Colin’s. Just in case a nightmare breaks out and we need Bonny’s Revenge.
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“Nightmare Man is in one of the tunnels,” Master Mind says suddenly, standing on the deck of Bonny’s Revenge.
Suzy and I are on the porch. Joy is asleep. Justin and Charlie should fall asleep and appear in the Dream still a few hours from now. Colin lives in London but falls asleep around 1 or 2 AM his time. Madelyn, Amahle, and Yumio often appear in the Dream before him, living in South Africa, France, and Japan.
“I will ask him what he wants.”
I get up. “I’ll join you.” I’m always glad to join whatever’s going on. This dream world is the New World for me. I can’t get enough of it. “Suzy?”
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Justin and Colin are on top of Big Ben, right underneath the tunnel, so Suzy and I can hear everything: The explosions, the destruction caused by the tentacle monster, and Joy calling out for her father.
“Joy! Look out!” Charlie shouts as a 3-meter tentacle heads their way.
Justin follows Charlie’s voice and looks down from Master Mind to the streets, and he sees Joy and Charlie just as Charlie clings to her like a human shield, and a rock appears all around them. Hopefully there is air to breathe within that rock.
“Joy! Oh, my god!” Justin yells “Colin! Colin! Stop!” he grabs Colin. “You’re having a nightmare! None of this is real!”
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Master Mind grabs Suzy and me and activates his permanent jetpack. He flies us to Colin’s Shroom, next-door to Justin’s Shroom. Joy had already landed and gone into the tunnel, and Charlie, flying on his own, is right behind her.
We follow her in, Master Mind rushing forward.
“Dad!” I hear her yell. “Dad!”
As I go around the tunne’s bend, I see her standing on the edge of the tunnel. “He can’t hear me!” she tells Charlie. “Dad! Dad!”
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When Charlie tries to explain what he means, Joy is so upset that I stop that discussion immediately. “We need your Dad,” I say.
But that doesn’t help. Justin can’t hear us and none of us dares even lean into Colin’s dream.
“I know who can explain this,” I tell Joy. “We’re going to Grandma Suzy.”
We leave Justin to play in Colin’s dream and go back to his dream.
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It’s been an hour now of the tentacle monster throwing Justin and Colin all around the city.
Colin is busy running, and Justin is busy… not using weapons he can create to stop himself from being beaten.
We watch from the tunnel, Joy, Charlie, Master Mind and I. Joy is growing impatient. “He’s not using any powers!”
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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.
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Colin’s nightmares are dark and terrible, ones that Joy could never survive.
Joy wishes to come along, and Justin relents only as much as allowing her and Charlie to sit in one of the tunnels and look down into the dream.
“You may not ever, ever, ever set foot inside Colin’s dream! It will kill you!” he says.
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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.”
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There is a deep sense of strangeness when Amahle disappears. Johannesburg disappears. The sunset disappears. And the full light of the two suns return. The half-darkness, was caused by Amahle. Now that I think about it, its creation was also aided by Joy holding Amahle’s hand.
And then there’s silence. Strange, awkward silence.
“What the hell happened?” Colin asks.
Joy is looking at her own hands.
“Joy,” Justin moves closer to her. “Do you know what happened? Do you know what she was talking about?”
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