All in Age: 6
When Justin arrives at the dream, he comes down to Suzy’s and mine apartment and ‘crashes’ Joy’s school
“Today there’s no school,” he says to Suzy, who was teaching her how to put letters into words. “Today we go on adventure!”
“Yai!” Joy raises her hands and dances a happy dance.
“And Mom,” Justin looks at her. “You’re joining us on this adventure.”
“Oh, no, no,” Suzy waves him off. “I’m a social worker. I don’t do adventures.”
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Master Mind is a killer. He’s far faster and far stronger than any human. He is able to reach any ball in time and to send balls faster than Madelyn could hope to answer.
He serves again. She misses again.
She looks at Justin. Then rolls to position. “Please wait a minute,” she calls to Master Mind.
“I can destroy you now or I can destroy you later,” he says. “It is the same to me.”
She sinks into deep thought. Then, suddenly, small jets appear on all sides of the wheelchair.
Justin laughs. Joy nods. I smile with expectation. There’s going to be a fair fight!
The wheelchair rises into the air.
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“Can’t beat Master Mind,” Justin agrees. “I wonder why he wanted to play.”
“Are you ready to play, Madelyn?” As I hear him say her name, I am sure I hear him separating the first syllable of her name. As if he called her Mad Delyn. Does he think her first name is ‘Mad’?
“I am ready, robot,” she answers with confidence in her French accent.
“I will annihilate you. I will destroy the ground you roll on. I will make you wish you were never born,” Master Mind says.
Justin buries his face in his palm. “Oh, no,” he whispers.
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“Dad’s going to win,” Joy says with the confidence of a girl who believes her father is all-powerful. In this case, I agree with her.
Madelyn rolls to position. “I am ready. Let’s begin.” She takes her racket.
“I’ll take it easy on you,” he says.
Madelyn laughs. “As you wish.”
Justin serves. Madelyn hits the ball back with such force that it hits the ground and moves past Justin faster than he reacts.
“Love fifteen,” she says. “You play your best game with me or you don’t play.”
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“Right now, I am lying at home, in my bed,” Amahle says. “My mother is there. And my friend, Sandile. They don’t let me do much because I was just released from the hospital. They’re very worried.”
“Tell them you don’t need them,” Joy says.
“What happened?” Charlie asks. “Why were you in the hospital?”
“Well, I, uh, died.”
“You died?!” This is Charlie’s voice.
“For a couple of minutes, yes.”
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We go into the elevator and into complete darkness. There is no sliver of light anywhere, not a faint light, not a star in the sky, not a single photon from the sun we are coming from.
“This is creepy,” I hear Charlie say.
“My logical response to this place is 82% stark fear,” I hear Master Mind’s response.
“Hold my hand if it helps,” I hear Justin say.
“My emotional health is not that fragile,” Master Mind says.
“I meant Charlie!”
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Something changes in Justin as soon as he is able to absorb that Joy can see into the dark dream while no one else can.
His back straightens. His voice becomes like that of a military commander, when he says, “Joy. Tell me what you see.”
She nods. “We’re at a beach. The woman is over there sitting on a beach chair.” Joy changes, as well. She isn’t the child asking her father for something she cadn’t have for the thousandth time. She is the adventurer I’d heard about. She’s giving a report of the hostile environment. “She has a beautiful dog sitting next to her. There are a few other people who came for the beach. And, I think, oh!”
“What?”
“A couple of penguins just came out of the water.”
“Monster penguins?”
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“Joy, stop kidding around!” Justin tells her.
“You stop kidding around,” she shoots back. “Tell me what’s dark here!” We’re standing at the edge of a dream so dark that there isn’t an iota of light anywhere. It is the dream of a woman called Amahle, who has been blind from birth and so her dream has learned to never show light. And yet, Joy insists there is no darkness.
“Those three buildings over there, they’re not dark! That woman over there with the dog, she’s not dark.”
Justin’s face goes white. “Amahle does have a seeing eye dog. I never told you that!”
“The clouds are not dark,” Joy points forward. “Those birds on the trees!”
Charlie steps to the edge and squints. “Joy, are you really seeing those things? I can’t see anything.”
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We prepare to go to Amahle’s dream: Justin, Joy, Charlie, Master Mind, and me. Suzy refuses to make the jumps from dream to dream. I am still getting used to Master Mind carrying me during those jumps, but I wouldn’t miss it.
Everyone including me gets jetpacks that Joy has touched and made permanent.
Justin creates a long, strong rope that Joy touches to make permanent even if Justin wakes up. That rope is tied to her abdomen and to Master Mind’s abdomen even before we leave.
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It has been a couple of weeks since our journey to the Night Planet. Joy hasn’t mentioned wanting to go to the dream with no exit since then, but Justin, Suzy, and I all know that it’s a matter of time.
For the last few days I’ve been keeping a closer watch on Joy, half expecting her to go off by herself when no one is looking.
But the trouble this time does not come from Joy.
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“What’s consoles?”
“It’s, uh…” How would you explain computers and complex electronics to a child who lives on a pirate ship and has had only swashbuckling adventures all of her life? “It’s just games on a screen.”
“Do all the kids have consoles?” I see now that tears are forming in her eyes.
“Not, uh, everybody. But a lot of kids in Canada, and in the United States, where Charlie is from, and, uh, in other countries, too. What’s that matter, Joy?”
She looks down. “I don’t have a console. I don’t live in the real world. I don’t have a real shadow like Dad. I don’t know real games. I don’t have a real life. I just have this life. Everyone else has this life and the real life! Why do I only have this?”
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Suzy and I finally convince Master Mind that privacy for humans is important.
He gets on the ship as we look from the window.
He is searching for something. And, finally, when he finds it, he straightens and turns to look at us. He is now waving a flare gun.
I smile at him through the window and wave. “Okay,” I say softly. “Then pilot the ship, and when you can’t hear us, give us a flare.”
Master Mind nods his huge, robotic head. Apparently, he can indeed hear us from the ship through our home’s walls closed door.
Suzy looks at me and shakes her head.
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Justin has vanished. He has woken up. He won’t be coming back for fourteen or sixteen hours.
Charlie has vanished. He has also woken up. He also won’t be coming back for a long time.
Joy is in bed, fast asleep. We had put her to sleep in Justin’s old room, but she’d woken up in the middle of the night and moved back to her room on the ship.
She is fast asleep.
It’s been a long, long first day. Suzy and I are in our son’s dream, apparently, and this is our new home. We are grandparents to a daughter who only lives in the Dream. We’ve had a funeral. We’ve had to absorb changes.
Everything is different.
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As soon as Joy falls in the dark and says “Ow” Suzy’s hand, which I’m still holding, tightens.
Another bump is heard and Charlie calls out in pain and that’s it for Suzy.
She lets go of my hand and I hear her walk forward with determination even though none of us can see anything. “Justin! Stop that right now!”
“Mom! I’m teaching her a lesson!”
“Justin! You’re a father! You may never ever hurt your child! Never!”
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We all go down the ramp to the peer on the Night Planet.
I must admit, even to myself it is unsettling standing, walking, handling myself in a completely new place where I can’t see anything, not even a sliver of light.
Suzy holds my hand. “I don’t like this place,” she tells me.
“Me neither.”
I hear everyone getting further down the dock. We stay standing.
“Do you want to leave?” I ask her.
“Do you?”
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Justin guides Bonny’s Revenge into complete darkness.
One huge planet hides the suns and in its shadow, somewhere, is the Night Planet, a planet of perpetual night.
Joy holds Charlie’s hand.
Suzy stands next to me. But when darkness comes, I can’t see her or anything else.
There is silence, now. Not a yelp. Not a scream. Not a whisper.
“Joy?” Justin says after a few seconds. “Are you all right?”
“Mmmm-hmmmm,” she says. But her tone is forced. She is not all right.
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By this time, Charlie has arrived and landed on the deck of Bonny’s Revenge with his jetpack. He has been filled in.
“All right,” Justin takes a big breath. He’s taken us into outer space, and Bonny’s Revenge rests in front of a big patch of empty space. “Ready for the Night Planet, Joy?”
She braces herself and nods.
“Mom?” Justin asks.
Suzy looks at me. This is her first official time going on an adventure. This is not her life. It is not what our lives have been up to this point.
Master Mind has rejoined us on the deck while the two have been arguing. He is ready. He does not need to be asked.
“All right,” Justin says. “Just let’s be clear on the rules, okay? I’m going to bring back the Night Planet. There are not going to be villains on it. The whole point is to get Joy used to darkness and maybe get over the fear. That’s it. Whenever you want, Joy, Charlie and I can create light. Okay?”
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“Joy, I don’t want to hear it!”
Joy is pestering Justin again about why there’s a dream he says she can’t go to, a dream with no way out.
“Dad! There’s no such thing as a dream you can’t leave!”
“I was there. I saw it!” He’s short with her. He knows she’ll never give up, and he knows she can’t ever go there or we’ll lose her forever.
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“I want my dad!” Charlie cries and begins to breathe hysterically.
I put both hands on Charlie’s shoulders as he cries. “Charlie. Charlie. Listen to me.”
From the corner of my eye, I see Joy is standing there, full of shame, her shoulders and arms raised, as if she’s trying to be inside a turtle’s shell. She’s ashamed. She’s taking personally the fact that Charlie apparently can’t ever dream of his father again, as if it was her fault.
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Charlie had just tried to summon his father, and even with Joy’s help - I don’t know if that actually helps or not - but in any case, he failed. And then Joy said it was her fault.
“When I met Eddie,” Joy begins to explain, clearly feeling horrible, “we played, and I… I touched him. I wanted to play with him so much! So he became real! And then he died…”
Charlie shakes his head. He doesn’t understand.
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