All in Told by Grampa Walt

S02E74 The Tennis Match, Part 2: Justin Vs. Madelyn

Guy Hasson
Age: 6, Told by Grampa Walt

“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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S02E73 The Tennis Match, Part 1

Guy Hasson
Age: 6.5, Told by Grampa Walt

And here we are again, entering Madelyn’s dream.

As the glass elevator descends, we see that we are above a tennis court.

“What’s tennis?” Joy asks.

I look at Justin, almost horrified. “Justin, have you never shown Joy what tennis is?” Justin looks away from me and shakes his head. “But it’s such a big part of your life! Even now!”

He shakes his head again.

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S02E72 The Dream with No Exit, Part 12: Amahle’s Death

Guy Hasson
Age: 6, Told by Grampa Walt

“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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S02E71 The Dream with No Exit, Part 11: Meet Amahle

Guy Hasson
Age: 6, Told by Grampa Walt

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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S02E70 The Dream with No Exit, Part 10: Justin the General

Guy Hasson
Age: 6, Told by Grampa Walt

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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S02E69 The Dream with No Exit, Part 9: Light Vs. Dark

Guy Hasson
Age: 6, Told by Grampa Walt

“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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S02E68 The Dream with No Exit, Part 8: Being There

Guy Hasson
Age: 6, Told by Grampa Walt

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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S02E67 The Dream with No Exit, Part 7: Charlie’s Report

Guy Hasson
Age: 6, Told by Grampa Walt

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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S02E66 Joy’s Big Questions

Guy Hasson
Age: 6, Told by Grampa Walt

“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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S02E65 Home Alone, Part 2: Privacy

Guy Hasson
Age: 6, Told by Grampa Walt

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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S02E64 Home Alone

Guy Hasson
Age: 6, Told by Grampa Walt

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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S02E63 The Dream with No Exit, Part 6: A Voice of Reason

Guy Hasson
Age: 6, Told by Grampa Walt

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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S02E62 The Dream with No Exit, Part 5: Justin’s Warnings

Guy Hasson
Age: 6, Told by Grampa Walt

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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S02E60 The Dream with No Exit, Part 3: Hold My Hand

Guy Hasson
Age: 6, Told by Grampa Walt

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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S02E59 The Dream with No Exit, Part 2: Night Planet

Guy Hasson
Age: 6, Told by Grampa Walt

“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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S02E58 The Zombie Horde, Part 6: The Obsession

Guy Hasson
Age: 7, Told by Grampa Walt

Joy is exhausted. Charlie vanished, waking up, only after a few minutes. If he’d returned to sleep, he hadn’t returned to Justin’s dream.

“Take a break, everyone!” Justin says, and we all find a spot to sit and rest.

“Darling,” Suzie sits near Justin. “What happened in your life that got you to dream such an awful dream?”

Hmm. I hadn’t thought of that.

Justin gives it some thought. He hadn’t thought of it, either. “I don’t want to talk about it, Mom.”

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S02E57 The Zombie Horde, Part 5: The Aftermath

Guy Hasson
Age: 7, Told by Grampa Walt

“I could see the zombies were about to get Grandma’s and Grandpa’s island!”

We’re heading down to the island which is the place of Suzy’s and my home in Justin’s dream. Joy is describing to Charlie how she survived.

“I went into the house. I knew that zombies weren’t that smart. I knew my weapons wouldn’t be enough. And I knew that ovens keep their smell inside.”

“So what’d you do?” he asks her wide-eyed.

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S02E56 The Zombie Horde, Part 4: Did I Miss Anything?

Guy Hasson
Age: 7, Told by Grampa Walt

The four of us - Suzy, Master Mind, Joy, and I - all sit and stand in the tunnel for hours as Justin fights zombies below.

Master Mind and Joy are on the edge, looking down at the battle.

Justin keeps being overrun by more and more zombies, then kills them, then new zombies come, and so on endlessly.

Suddenly, hours in, the fighting stops and Justin looks around.

Joy sits up, more alert.

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S02E55 The Zombie Horde, Part 3: Saving Joy

Guy Hasson
Age: 7, Told by Grampa Walt

I look down with bated breath. The little island is being overrun by zombies while Master Mind is speeding towards it with his jetpack. Joy, who was right there, can’t be seen anywhere. Justin, still obsessed, is fighting the zombies on Bonnie’s Revenge, which is now approaching the grey castle. He doesn’t know Joy is in trouble, and in his present state, he doesn’t seem to care.

The zombies below break into our home through the door and the windows. If Joy is there, I don’t see how she can survive. All she has are the laser pistol and the sword which she wears on her belt.

Master Mind lands in our garden and sprays dozens of zombies with bullets, all aimed at their heads.

Zombies fall, but I can’t see Joy’s small, blonde head from above.

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S02E54 The Zombie Horde, Part 2: The Choice

Guy Hasson
Age: 7, Told by Grampa Walt

Some of the zombies throw their fellow zombies upwards to grab at the hull of Bonny’s Revenge, which is flying just meters above them. Justin is screaming something at them, but I can’t hear what. He is obsessed by his dream, just like Joy said.

Even as the zombies crawl up the hull, Master Mind leaps off the deck and jumps hundreds of meters back to our island. I can’t believe he can do that.

Master Mind lands accurately next to me.

“There was only one jetpack, Little Pirate,” he hands it to her. “Save yourself.”

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