All in Age: 7
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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“This is the assegai,” Amahle says. Standing in the middle of Suzy’s and mine living room, an assegai spear appears in her hands. It is tall. I have never seen one so close.
“Wowwwww!” Joy whispers in awe. “What a weapon!”
“Don’t touch, Joy!” Suzy says as Joy leans in.
“I’m just watching from close by! I’m not touching it!”
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“I am not the White Man!” Joy protests.
“Yes, you are,” Amahle says calmly.
“I am not the White Man!”
“Well,” Amahle says in her smooth tone, “Let us agree that you are not Zulu, either.”
Joy folds her arms and makes an angry face. “For now,” she grumbles.
Amahle smiles. “For now.”
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“I’ve calmed down a bit,” he tells her.
She sits there, arms crossed, not looking at him. “Great,” she says. “Me, too.”
“I hope you understand why you got the punishment you got.”
She shrugs. “I don’t care.”
“I understand that you’re angry with me.”
“I’m not angry.”
“Joy, your shadow is throwing things at me!”
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“Now, take in all that you’ve learned, and forget about it. This is a way that people behave. It’s a way to express yourself. It’s not for kids yet. But I think you needed to know about this, Joy. Okay?”
“Those were stupid curses anyway,” Joy says. “What’s the point?”
“I’m not going to do anything that man told me,” Charlie says as we leave the house and walk towards Charlie’s elevator.
“Why not?”
“He said he’s teaching us words because we must not listen to The Man. But my Kwa’a says the White Man always used nice words to tell us how he’s with us, and the White Man always backstabs.”
Justin looks at him. “That’s a good point. That’s very true.”
Charlie shrugs. “I’m not sure. My mom hates everything he says about the White man. But I don’t like Sam anyway. He’s a liar.”
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“Say after me. Say it with anger,” Sam says. “Shit!”
Charlie giggles. Joy says, “Why would I say shit?”
“Because you feel a need to curse. When people don’t like something, they use words that The Man calls dirty and bad. But they’re not dirty, they’re just words.”
“But when I shit, it is dirty. I wouldn’t touch it.”
“Yes, yes, of course,” Sam says. I don’t think he’s ever met a child this direct. “But we use it as a curse word. Just to show anger. Say it with me: Shit!”
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We walk into a room where a young man sits cross-legged on the carpet in the living room. He is about Justin’s age. His skin is white, his hair is ginger, and for some reason it is in an afro. He is wearing a colorful green and blue shirt with images of flowers on it, the front unbuttoned down to his bellybutton, revealing that he is in quite good shape. He wears light blue jeans and sits down on the carpet in what is apparently his own home.
Some parents are in the other room with their children, which range about eight to fifteen, I believe. They’re eating right now.
“Where are we?” I whisper to Justin.
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“Welcome back, Pirate Extraordinaire!” Justin calls to Joy as she emerges from her cabin, looking groggy, having just woken up.
She looks around, seeing Justin, Charlie, Master Mind, Suzy, and me.
“What’s going on?” she says.
“Well, my little pirate,” Justin puts his arm on her shoulders and smiles. “I’ve got a special dream for you today.”
Charlie giggles.
Joy is immediately alert, the sleep gone. “What’s happening?”
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Charlie comes over from his dream, using one of his permanent jetpacks, and lands on the deck of Bonny’s Revenge. He’s early. Joy isn’t up yet and Justin hasn’t appeared, either.
Suzy and I are sitting in lawn chairs in our garden, looking out. Master Mind is near the wheel.
I look at Suzy lazily. I gesture at the ship with my head, saying, ‘should we join them?’
Suzy shrugs. Neither of us is in a mood to move and there’s no good reason to.
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“My evil side plots your death at my hands,” he tells her. “But only 1.5% more than usual.”
“Master Mind,” Joy says from the hammock. “Why are your hands there?”
He takes his hands out of his chest cavity. “I have protected your paper heart from getting wet. I was afraid the water would damage my only prized possession.”
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“Lie down,” Master Mind tells Madelyn as he holds the axe in his hand.
“Not on the porch!” Suzy suddenly says.
We’ve both been very quiet. These last few minutes have been beyond our experience. Suzy shrugs when I look at her. I know her. She feels stupid that this was the only thing she had to say, and yet it had to be said.
Madelyn goes down the stairs and lies down on the soil of our garden. She makes sure her legs are straight and easy for Master Mind to cut.
Master Mind walks down the stairs with the axe.
“I can’t watch,” Joy says and hides her head inside the hammock.
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Madelyn nods. “I will wake up soon. I have tried to burn my legs. To shoot my legs. To cut them with a knife. But I cannot. I cannot harm myself. You must do it for me.”
“What? What?” Justin stammers.
“Please. It is not my real legs. You will not really hurt me. This is just a dream. Take this axe,” she hands him an axe. “And cut them.”
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Justin’s mouth falls open in shock as Master Mind tells him what happened when Joy tried to ride the magic carpet to the roof while wounded.
“Okay. Okay. Okay. You,” he points at Joy. “Never do that! Listen to adults for a change! When we tell you it’s dangerous, it’s dangerous! Grandma and Grampa know more about that because they’ve lived longer! You should listen to them! Got it!”
Joy looks down, but doesn’t answer. Justin doesn’t wait for a response. “Master Mind, good job not listening to her once she fell off the roof. I don’t trust her to listen to me so you have complete authority from me to never let her do something that can open this wound or any other wound! Got it?”
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After Madelyn flies off god-knows-where, Joy wants to go after her, but Master Mind refuses to let her out of the hammock. Her protests do not help, since he no longer accepts her orders after what happened with the magic carpet.
Joy stops her protests as her own leg hurts more and more.
She lies back and moans in pain.
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“Cope with?!” Madelyn whirls around and shouts at Joy. “Do you know how many nights and days in the beginning I spent in pain and wishing I could get my legs back?! Do you know how hard it was to learn that this is my body now,” she points at the wheelchair. “No legs! Just this! Do you know how much pain and physio...physio…”
“Physiotherapy,” I jump in.
“Physiotherapy that is so painful I had to go through! Do you know how long it took to hurt even less?! And do you know how the only way to live is to know that this,” she points at the chair again, “is my body. This! This! No legs! I made so much progress! I accepted so much! I am so much stronger! I am a better person now! I do not want my legs!”
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Madelyn is looking down at her legs and is clearly at a loss.
“Well, uh, this is your dream,” Suzy tries to help. “Maybe in your dream you want legs this time?”
Madelyn shakes her head, horrified.
Three people appear behind her on the porch, a man and two women. Master Mind turns his full attention to them. Joy, in the hammock, puts her hand on the laser pistol in her belt.
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The first Dreamer to appear is Madelyn. She appears on the deck. She runs down the ramp and onto the porch.
It is impossible to not notice that this woman who had no legs for all the time I knew her is now running with shorts on two completely new legs. It is very strange. And when she passes me I notice how tall she is now.
“How is Zhoy?”
“She is sleeping, she is fine,” Suzy says softly. “I think she’ll be all right.”
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Suzy and I - and even Master Mind - we can’t stop Joy from sitting on the magic carpet. The wound in her leg could open with any movement, she could still die if she bleeds like she did before, but she doesn’t listen to us and she can order Master Mind around.
Without Justin we’re helpless against her.
For a split second I consider using force on her. I’m not that kind of father or grandfather, but to save her life?
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“Joy, please sit back down!” I get to her but keep my distance.
Master Mind reaches down to her to lift her up.
“Do not touch me!” she orders him.
He freezes and moves back, forced to obey.
“I can do it,” she rests her wounded leg softly on the ground. “I’m fine.” Where the hell is Justin when you need him?
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Joy falls asleep in the hammock on our porch soon after Justin disappears. She’s lost so much blood, she’s no doubt exhausted.
Suzy and I sit next to her. We don’t need to sleep, after all, and we’re worried about her.
Master Mind stands guard, but of course there are no dangers in the dream anymore as far as we know when the Dreamers are awake.
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