Elvis — Blog — The Lost In Dreams Universe

‘The Squashbuckler Diaries’ are the daily tales of Joy Shelley’s Life in the Dream. The ‘Lost in Dreams’ books will tell the story of what happens to her at ages 6, 9, 12, 15, and so on. The diaries tell us what happens before, after, and between the books.

All tagged Elvis

Jan 19
Jan 19 S02E315 The Mummy, Part 2, The Mummy

Age: 9, Told by Grampa Walt

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!”

[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]

Jan 19
Jan 19 S02E314 The Mummy, Part 1, First Thing’s First

Age: 9, Told by Grampa Walt

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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Jan 9
Jan 9 S03E300 The Beach, Part 3, Swimming Costume

Age: 9, Told by Grampa Walt

Can you create Glen Beach?” Madelyn asks Amahle.

Amahle exhales, and suddenly beyond Suzy’s and mine small island, Justin’s ocean is covered with a beach bustling with people. Suzy gasps. The sand is a different color, the beach umbrellas are colorful, too, and there are so many people here, families, friends, people who came on their own.

How could Amahle create such detail and such colors when she’s been blind from birth?!

“It is… magnifique,” Madelyn says. “I adore this place! And there is no need for suntan lotion!”

Amahle laughs. In a second, her clothes are replaced by a one-piece bathing suit with a kind of - I don’t know the name for it - the kind that has a kind of a skirt around it at the bottom.

“What is this?” Madelyn asks.

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Dec 11
Dec 11 S02E299 The Beach, Part 2, Amahle’s First Swim

Age: 9, Told by Grampa Walt

“Stop,” Madelyn tells Amahle. “Stop with the music! Stop with the panic! Stop!”

Amahle looks desperate and the distant drumming doesn’t stop. “It is how I feel. I can’t help it.”

“I do not care how you feel,” Madelyn tells her. “I only care about you.”

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Dec 11
Dec 11 S02E298 The Beach, Part 1, So Close

Age: 9, Told by Grampa Walt

As usual, Amahle and Elvis appear on the deck of Bonny’s Revenge while Joy is still asleep.

“Amahle,” I call her from the porch, where Suzy and I are sitting. “Let me help you down.”

“I am perfectly fine, Walter.” She uses Elvis and her blind stick to lead her down the ramp which she already knows so well.

As she’s halfway through, Madelyn appears behind her on her wheelchair.

Amahle stops and listens. After a second, she says, “Hello, Madelyn. Comment ça va?”

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Apr 23
Apr 23 S02E232 Colors, Part 1, Blue

Amahle and Joy stand at the edge of our small island and look out into the infinite ocean.

Justin and Charlie haven’t arrived yet on the deck of Bonny’s Revenge.

Suzy and I watch silently from the porch while Master Mind is standing guard on the docked ship. I, for one, am very interested to see what will happen. It is not like Joy can make Amahle gain her sight for the first time in her life. That’s impossible.

And yet…

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Apr 19
Apr 19 S02E230 Suns of the Eternoon, Part 6, Being Different

Age: 7, Told by Grampa Walt

Amahle sits down on the deck and Joy sits cross-legged beside her. Amahle practices ‘looking’ at the orange sun, with Joy holding her hand.

When it becomes clear that this is going to be Amahle’s and Joy’s day, and that Justin is going to remain with Joy, Colin and Yumio each go to their own dreams. Madelyn goes elsewhere in Justin’s dream to dream about whatever she wants to.

Suzy, Master Mind and I remain on the deck.

Justin joins us in looking at them from the opposite railing, as we watch the two try out different things.

The setting sun Amahle has summoned moves right and left. Amahle shakes her head.

“She didn’t see movement,” I tell Justin and Suzy.

“Nope,” Justin says.

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Apr 19
Apr 19

Age: 7, Told by Grampa Walt

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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Apr 17
Apr 17 S02E227 Suns of the Eternoon, Part 3, Amahle’s Sunset

Age: 7, Told by Grampa Walt

Amahle puts her right hand to her temple. “I will try.”

The last sunset disappears and all around us, on top of the permanent ocean, the streets of Johannesburg appear.

“Can you see it, Joy?”

We all look around. “We see Johannesburg, Amahle,” Madelyn says. “But there is no sun.”

Joy reaches out to hold Amahle’s left hand, but Amahle raises it to her temple as well. “Sun,” she says. “Sun.”

And a sun appears right above the horizon. An orange sun about to set. Unlike all other sunrises, this time the sun’s light does not influence the sky. The blue sky doesn’t change color. Just there, at the bottom, there is powerful, setting orange sun.

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Apr 14
Apr 14 S02E226 Suns of the Eternoon, Part 2

Told by Grampa Walt, Age: 7

“Joy, do you want to see a sunset from Japan?” Yumio says.

“Yuh-huh.”

Everything around us changes. In front of us is a river. Far ahead is a mountain, and the sun is setting behind it, its orange colors spreading across not only the sky but the mountain and the river.

Joy stares at it with eyes agape. Suzy gasps. Madelyn takes in a deep breath.

“Fantastic!” Colin said. “Where are we?”

[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]

Apr 14
Apr 14 S02E225 Suns of the Eternoon, Part 1

Age: 7, Told by Grampa Walt

“Why are we here, Madelyn?” Justin says.

She had asked to take us to the middle of the ocean.

“I think it is time to show little Zhoy the things she cannot see in this world.”

“Like what?” Joy says.

“Zhoy, in this world you can see anything. But one thing you have never seen, I believe, is a sunset.”

“What’s a sunset?”

“In the…uhm…waking world,” Madelyn says. “The sun rises on one side, goes up, and goes down on the other side.”

[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]

Apr 13
Apr 13 S02E224 Girls’ Night Out, Part 5, Sleeping Suzy

Age: 8.5, Told by Grampa Walt

After all the congratulations and the happiness at Amahle’s news, Madelyn wakes up and disappears. Immediately afterwards, Amahle disappears.

Justin puts his hand around Joy’s shoulders, “How was the Girls’ Night, Joy?” he asks with a smile.

“It was fun! Amahle let me taste a little bit of something called ‘Liquer’.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Just a little bit!”

“How was it?”

“I spit it out!”

Justin laughs.

[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]

Apr 13
Apr 13 02E223 Girls’ Night Out, Part 4, Amahle’s News

Age: 8.5, Told by Grampa Walt

The music that fills the dream feels drunker and drunker as the hours pass. I didn’t know if people can get drunk in the dream, but from the music that comes from Amahle’s head, it certainly sounds like it.

Eventually, the limo returns to park right next to our island.

The limo driver takes Madelyn out and places her on the wheelchair that appears on our island next to him. Amahle steps out with Elvis. Suzy is after her.

But Joy doesn’t come out.

[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]

Mar 30
Mar 30 02E221 Girls’ Night Out, Part 2, As Strong as a Girl

Age: 8.5, Told by Grampa Walt

Amahle feels around with her hand once Joy comes back from her cabin, having put her toothbrush and toothpaste in place. “Joy,” Amahle touches her cheek, then her shoulder. “I want to do something nice. I want us to have fun! Can you get excited for that?”

“I want to go,” Joy says. “It sounds like a thing you do in the waking world.”

“It is,” Madelyn says.

“On special occasions,” Amahle adds. “This is a special occasion.”

“But why only girls? What kind of adventure is it? Why can’t Charlie come? I mean, he’s a dreamer. So it doesn’t matter that he’s not as strong as a girl.”

[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]

Mar 29
Mar 29 02E220 Girls’ Night Out, Part 1, Blech

Age: 8.5, Told by Grampa Walt

Madelyn and Amahle appear on the deck of Bonny’s Revenge within minutes of each other. Amahle is in Johannesburg, as usual. Madelyn is back home in France. She keeps telling me which city she’s in, but I can’t remember. I used to remember everything, but now…There are facts that escape me.

In any case, their time zones are one hour apart, and apparently they’ve fallen asleep around the same time.

I look through the window in our living room and see Madelyn and Amahle talking to each other. Madelyn is with her regular wheelchair, not her flying one.

Joy comes out of the cabin and they talk to her.

[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]

Feb 20
Feb 20 S02E208 Interlude, Part 2, Dreaming Outside the Dream

Age: 6, Told by Grampa Walt

Joy and Charlie lead the way out of the tunnel. Amahle holds Joy’s shoulders and moves forward. She doesn’t have her cane or Elvis, her seeing eye-dog. They disappeared when she left her dream.

I’m behind Amahle. And Master Mind walks silently behind me.

Justin is ahead of all of us. He waits outside, silent, afraid to make a noise.

“Careful, now, careful,” Joy says as Amahle takes the first step into her Shroom. “You are now on a Shroom. Stop here.”

[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]

Feb 14
Feb 14 S02E207 Interlude: Amahle Leaves Her Dream

Age: 6, Told by Grampa Walt

It is our fifth time in Amahle’s dream.

Joy and Justin have had arguments that had gone back and forth many times in Justin’s dream about re-introducing Justin to Amahle. Back when Joy had run away from home on her sixth birthday, Justin, on my advice, tried to convince Amahle in her dream that he was killing her. He had hoped that when she woke up, the darkness of her dream would disappear and he would find the way out to save Joy.

But weeks later we had discovered, upon returning to Amahle’s dream, that she had died in real life and was brought back. What Justin had done had almost killed Amahle. Justin did not want to face Amahle. Joy wanted to become Amahle’s friend and wanted them to talk and meet again BS fUB.

Joy had won the argument partially - Justin agreed that they could show Amahle the way out of her dream and into The Dream with a capital ‘D’.

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Feb 9
Feb 9 S02E201 The Zulu Heritage, Part 6, Into the Darkness

Age: 9, Told by Grampa Walt

Suzy and I look over the railing. I hear Amahle’s voice.

“Joy?” Amahle says from within the darkness. “Are you here? Come with me.”

Joy steps into the cloud of darkness that surrounds Amahle just as Master Mind lands next to her.

For the second time today, or ever, I hear Master Mind make a sound that I never expected to hear from a killer robot. He growls in frustration.

“Little Pirate,” he says in a low but forceful voice. “Come out!”

“Take my hand,” I hear Amahle say. “I want to show you something.”

If this darkness is the same as the one in Amahle’s dream, Master Mind cannot see inside the darkness, but Joy can.

[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]

Feb 9
Feb 9 S02E200 The Zulu Heritage, Part 5, The Darkness Returns

Age: 9, Told by Grampa Walt

Amahle is the first Dreamer to appear on Bonny’s Revenge’s deck. Since she is in South Africa, she always begins her dreams hours before Justin or Charlie. Madelyn, however, moves around in the world, and her dream time is often unpredictable.

Joy is still asleep in her cabin, and Master Mind, with his paper heart and his two halves sewn together, stands guard by her cabin door in case a dreamer appears on the deck and accidentally sends a danger Joy’s way.

Suzy and I are in our home, but we notice the sky darken and the clouds come. We look out the window.

I go out to the porch and see Amahle with her seeing eye dog, Elvis. But then the suns flicker off and on, off and on. Suzy grabs my hand in fear. They’ve never done that.

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Feb 6
Feb 6 S02E199 The Zulu Heritage, Part 4, Joy the Warrior

Age: 7, Told by Grampa Walt

Amahle stands in the middle of our living room and manifests the assegai in her hands.

“Hold it very carefully, Joy. It can cause a lot of damage.”

Joy approaches the assegai very slowly. “Amahle, I’m about to touch it.”

Joy’s fingers touch it and the assegai doesn’t glow.

“Wow, Joy, that’s good control!” I say.

Amahle releases the assegai and Joy holds it.

“It’s taller than I am!” She looks at it in awe.

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