All in Told by Grampa Walt

S02E118 There Will Be Blood, Part 2, Back on the Ship

Guy Hasson
Age: 7, Told by Grampa Walt

“Hold on, Joy!” I run to the wheel. “I’m coming for you!”

She’d taught me to drive the damn thing, but I never had a lot of practice. My hands are shaking. My granddaughter can lose her life!

In spite of the trembling and the fear I feel inside, I am able to bring the warship right under Joy.

I go to her and reach out with my hands. “Here you go, here you go,” I grab her and lower her to the deck. “Oh my god!”

Her leg is full of blood. My hands are full of blood. How much has she lost?

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S02E117 There Will Be Blood, Part 1, Artemis’ Arrows

Guy Hasson
Age: 7, Told by Grampa Walt

I am watching the adventure from afar. Artemis, the Greek goddess and huntress, has rebelled against Olympus and taken Zeus’ lightning bolt. This takes place in what Justin calls a “neutral arena”, which means that he created a Planet Olympus, which is far in outer space and not anywhere near our home. Joy, however, halfway through the adventure, had made the place glow, and so the planet will remain forever in Justin’s dream.

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S02E116 Reaching Outside the Dream, Part 15, Charlie’s Story

Guy Hasson
Age: 7, Told by Grampa Walt

Charlie looks at us as he opens the door to Joy’s cabin.

“We’ll be with you,” Suzy says. “Come on.”

He goes in and Suzy and I follow. Master Mind remains on the deck.

Joy is asleep in her cot.

Charlie touches her shoulder, and she opens her eyes wide and the knife under her pillow is in her hands, aimed at Charlie.

Suzy gasps. “I forgot that was there,” she whispers.

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S02E115 Reaching Outside the Dream, Part 14, Charlie’s Return

Guy Hasson
Age: 7, Told by Grampa Walt

We wait for Charlie for a long time and he doesn’t come back.

Joy sulks more and more. Justin thinks there’s no more reason to stay on Toronto planet and flies us home. As we leave the planet, I notice that it stays behind. Joy can visit it anytime. Maybe we’ll take a trip with her.

Justin docks Bonny’s Revenge near our island, next to our home.

He suggests we go down, but Joy won’t move from the deck. Charlie could come at any time.

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S02E113 Reaching Outside the Dream, Part 12, Suzy and Walt

Guy Hasson
Age: 7, Told by Grampa Walt

Suzy and I head off the old-fashioned way through the streets of Toronto back to Justin’s apartment. It’s not far. We made it here on foot, we’ll make it back.

The sky hasn’t turned stormy in a few minutes, and I hope the issue with Charlie is resolved.

In the meantime, I’m enjoying a walk through the streets of my city with my wife.

“I’ve missed Toronto,” Suzy tells me as we walk.

“Yeah?”

“Just walking through the streets. I’ve been here and there, we’ve eaten here. So many memories. We’ve been in Justin’s dream for, what, a year and a half?”

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S02E112 Reaching Outside the Dream, Part 11, Grandma Suzy’s Adventure

Guy Hasson
Age: 7, Told by Grampa Walt

We look up. “Something’s happening,” Suzy says. “You should go. I’ll walk.”

“Nope. I’m with you. We’re together.”

Suddenly the sky is clear of clouds and the storm is gone. Something is definitely happening.

“Come on, Suzy, click it and try. This is an adventure!”

Her eyes don’t light up like mine or like Justin’s or like Joy’s at the sound of harmless ‘adventure’.

She touches the button reluctantly and jets into the sky at breakneck speed. “Aaaaaaah!”

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S02E110 Reaching Outside the Dream, Part 9, The Other Toronto

Guy Hasson
Age: 7, Told by Grampa Walt

Getting closer to the land mass in this ‘Toronto Planet’, we see that the mass only includes one city: Toronto. It looks now just as it looks in the waking world from the air.

“Wow, is that where you live?” Joy leans over the railing. “It’s like a city we have adventures in!”

“Is it?” Justin looks at it sideways.

“What’s that?” she points to the highest tower.

“That’s that CN Tower,” Justin answers. “It’s been there since forever.”

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S02E107 Reaching Outside the Dream, Part 6, Charlie’s Phone Call

Guy Hasson
Age: 7, Told by Grampa Walt

I go into Joy’s cabin right after Justin and Suzy.

Joy is asleep in her cot and Justin sits on the floor and softly wakes her up by caressing her cheek.

“Joy. Joy, sweetie, wake up.”

Joy opens her eyes, and immediately sits up straight. “Dad! Dad, what happened?”

“Shh, it’s okay. Come here,” he leans against the cot and invites her to sit on one of his legs.

Joy sits down. She no doubt senses that he’s somber and not excited.

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S02E106 Reaching Outside the Dream, Part 5, The Dream without Joy

Guy Hasson
Age: 7, Told by Grampa Walt

Suzy and I stare at the ocean for a while. We hold hands. Apparently I’m nervous. Apparently she’s nervous.

“Have you considered,” Master Mind breaks the silence. “The possibilities of what may occur?”

I lean sideways, looking at him, glad for the distraction. “What do you mean, Master Mind?”

“You two and the Pirate seem to believe the Little Pirate comes from the waking world, from your ‘Earth’.”

Suzy nods. “Where else would she come from? She’s human.”

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S02E105 The Missing Red Dragon, Part 3: The Edge of the World

Guy Hasson
Age: 7, Told by Grampa Walt

Joy leads us from planet to planet, from a fairy world to the dragon world, from a robot world to abandoned mine worlds. And they are all empty of dragons and empty of the dust that would mean that the Red Dragon is dead.

Joy doesn’t stop.

“She’s not just obsessed with finding the Red Dragon,” Suzy whispers in my ear. “She has to keep herself busy from thinking about what happens when Justin and Charlie return.”

As soon as she says it, it becomes obvious to me. Joy’s entire future hangs in the balance as Charlie will try to call Justin in the waking world, the ‘real’ world, and get him to remember the daughter he has in the dream.

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S02E104 The Missing Red Dragon, Part 2: Hope

Guy Hasson
Age: 7, Told by Grampa Walt

“Oh, my my my,” Suzy rocks Joy as Joy cries into her grandmother’s hug. “Joy, how long have you thought the Red Dragon is dead?”

Joy cries. “On my birthday,” she says.

Ah, when we couldn’t summon the Red Dragon, and when she talked about how ‘Red’ was one of the things that made her sixth birthday fun.

“She has to be dead!”

“Well, you know,” Suzy says. “She could be dead, that’s true. But can I tell you something?”

Joy nods, her head buried in Suzy’s chest.

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S02E102 Reaching Outside the Dream, Part 4: A Dream without Dreamers

Guy Hasson
Age: 7, Told by Grampa Walt

Justin disappears first.

Joy looks at Suzy, then at Charlie.

“I guess it’s morning,” Charlie says calmly, sitting on the sofa. “I’ll wake up early, Joy. I’ll ask my Mom to use the phone when I come back from school. I’ll call him, I promise.”

Joy nods. I have never seen her as speechless as this. She is overwhelmed by whatever may happen once Charlie reaches her father in the waking world and reminds him that he is raising a girl in his dreams.

“See you tomorrow, Joy,” Charlie says.

He looks down, and suddenly he’s gone.

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S02E100 Reaching Outside the Dream, Part 2: Reaching Out

Guy Hasson
Age: 7, Told by Grampa Walt

“Wow,” Suzy says, hearing the news.

We are all back in Suzy’s and my apartment on the small island in Justin’s dream. Suzy is the only one of us who does not regularly go on adventures and Justin wanted to do this with her, and rightly so.

We sit in the living room, Suzy, Joy, Justin, and Charlie on the sofas or the chairs. I sit on my Archie Bunker chair. Master Mind stands to the side and does not sit.

“Yeah,” agrees Justin.

“It’s so strange!” Joy says excitedly. “That someone remembers me! It’s soooo strange!”

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S02E99 Reaching Outside the Dream, Part 1: Sandra’s Dream

Guy Hasson
Age: 7, Told by Grampa Walt

Joy doesn’t wait for us.

She didn’t want to hear Charlie tell me who Luis is. She didn’t want to experience again, I assume, the feeling of seeing Justin have another child but her. Not that it was an actual child. As Charlie explained to me, Sandra dreamed that she and Justin were married and that they had a child called Luis. He wasn’t a real child, but a child in the dream. And yet, Joy is a child in the Dream, and whether she came from a dream or not, she is real and human and Luis is not.

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S02E98 Beach Time, Part 3, The False Child

Guy Hasson
Age: 7, Told by Grampa Walt

Joy separates from Charlie and turns to me. “We have to tell Dad!” she says.

I run scenarios in my head. She’s right. We should tell Justin that Charlie can remember her outside the dream. But he’s on his private and secret romantic time with some dreamer. Do we wait? Do we tell him now? What should we do? No. She’s right. We shouldn’t wait with this news. “Let’s go now. Kids, get into your regular clothes.”

Charlie looks down at himself and he’s back to wearing jeans and his favorite T-shirt with the condor on it.

“No fair!” Joy says.

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S02E97: Beach Time, Part 2, Beyond the Dream

Guy Hasson
Age: 7, Told by Grampa Walt

Joy and Charlie keep playing in the beach sand with their toys for another minute, when Charlie says, “You know, it’s hard to convince people with words, Joy.”

He had just been talking about how, when he grows up, he wants to use words to explain to people how bad the Hopi have been treated.

“Yeah?” She’s immersed in the game, holding a rake in her right hand, and paving a way towards their sand castle.

“Yeah. I keep telling people you’re real and no one believes me.”

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