All tagged Justin
Suzy sighs. “A friend sacrificed his life for hers when she was six,” she says as she looks at me meaningfully.
“That is incorrect, Pirate Mother,” Master Mind says. “Two friends sacrificed themselves for her when she was six.”
Suzy looks at him, and her gaze lingers around the thread that she and Joy had sewn Master Mind’s two halves back together.
[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]
Suzy and I wait for Justin on the deck of Bonny’s Revenge. Joy has banished us from our own home because we asked too many questions. Charlie has not been banished, but he stands there on the deck and looks at Joy from afar and does not move to join her.
Justin finally appears on the deck, always in the same place, always at the same angle.
He sees Suzy’s and my worried looks and immediately says, “What happened? Is she okay?”
[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]
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!”
[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]
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!]
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.
[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]
“So why would she take so much trouble to break our mirror in secret and then hide part of it?’
Justin smiles at me. “What?! I know something you don’t know?”
“All right,” I tell him.
“I figured something out that you didn’t figure out, Dad?”
[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]
“Yumio, you want to take Joy and Charlie to Mecha Planet? I’ll drop off my parents and join you.”
Charlie and Joy smile at each other in approval.
“Sure thing,” Yumio says. She jumps off the railing and into the air.
One of these big robots I’ve learned to call mechas - one of those mechas takes form around Yumio, and with it she is as tall as the mast.
[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]
We wait for the Dreamers.
Madelyn appears first on Bonny Revenge’s deck. She says she heard nothing and knows nothing about the broken mirror.
Yumio comes next, flying in from her dream inside the body of one of her flying mecha robots that Joy had made permanent for her.
Yumio says she knows nothing.
[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]
“Madelyn, please get rid of the babies,” Justin implores her. I’ve counted fifteen babies on the limo seats and floor. Suzy is holding two of them, Madelyn another one, I took another one, but it’s not helping. And the babies are beginning to cry.
“Get rid of the traffic jam, Justin,” she tells him. “We have to get to Bordeaux, not Paris!”
“The babies, Madelyn!”
[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]
As Madelyn descends with her super wheelchair towards the convertible limo, Justin suddenly returns to normal size.
He cups his face in his hands. “This is so embarrassing,” he says.
“Dad, why’d you turn into a baby?”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” he says quickly.
[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]
“Grampa, what’s the matter with Dad!” Joy is frightened. “Grandma, why are you laughing?”
“I’m going to die,” he looks at his wrinkled hands. “It’s the end.”
Suzy can’t stop laughing.
“It’s going to be all right, Joy,” I tell her. “It’s going to be all right. It’s just his–”
[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]
“Three!” Master Mind ends his count.
Justin’s face is all clenched in anger at the traffic jam in front of him, the one he had created.
It doesn’t seem that Master Mind is having any influence on him.
Master Mind lowers the rope ladder. “Grab the rope, Little Pirate,” Master Mind says loudly enough for us to hear. “I will take you to safety before this gets out of hand.”
Joy looks at the rope hanging just to the side. She takes Justin’s hand in both of hers. “Calm down, Dad. Calm down. Let’s have a birthday party.”
[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]
There is that silence again.
Is there a way that any of this, Joy’s life, can be explained? Is there a way that Suzy’s and my existence here for the last two years, more or less, can be explained?
It’s obviously possible, but how is it possible? How is it that a human girl lives in the Dream? How is it that she has abilities here that she wouldn’t in the waking world? How is it that I, a scientist, have never given it too much thought?
[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]
We are stumped.
I guess I’m speaking first, then.
“Needless to say,” I begin, “there is no evidence that I am aware of back in the waking world that this can happen. Sleep, as far as we know, is simply neurons firing.”
[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]
Suzy and I are sitting on rocking chairs on the porch of our house on the small island I’ve come to consider my home, when Justin appears on the deck of Bonny’s Revenge.
I get up as I see him disappear into Joy’s cabin.
He comes out almost immediately, and motions for me to go back to my chair.
He says something to Master Mind, and the two walk quickly down the ramp.
[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]
“Dad! Dad!” Joy looks at Justin with desperation in her eyes. “What’s the matter with Charlie?”
Charlie’s hands are shaking.
Justin looks at him, and seems to freeze.
“Don’t wake up feeling bad!” Joy grabs Charlie. “Don’t wake up feeling bad! Stay with me and I’ll make you feel better!”
[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]
Catori, Charlie’s mother, comes to hug him, her face so full of sadness for her crying child.
Joy is right next to her, “Charlie,” she says warmly. “That’s not true. You’re a great friend!”
“Go away!” he stands up suddenly. “Go away!”
[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]
I reach out for Joy’s shoulder as she cries, while at the same time looking around for Justin to come and help.
“Joy…” I begin, but a girl from class interrupts me.
“Oh, look, someone made the pirate girl cry!” she says in a derogatory tone.
“Hey!” Charlie steps in front of Joy. “Everybody cries!”
[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]
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!”
[Click on the title to read he entire diary entry!]
While the kids play, Joy hangs to the side. She stands next to Master Mind, half leaning on him, as she eats a slice of pizza. Suzy and I stand next to Master Mind, drinking grape juice out of paper cups.
Justin is in the kitchen, trying to help Catori.
A young girl, also eating a slice of pizza, comes up to Joy.
“Breonna,” she tells Joy.
“Joy.”
“I like what you did with the boys. That was funny.”
[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]