All in Told by Grampa Walt
“Joy,” Charlie says. “Are you sure you don’t dream?”
She shakes her head. “I go to sleep. I wake up. I don’t go anywhere like you do.”
“Must be strange not to dream.”
“I think it’s strange to dream,” Joy says. “You’re in two places at once. What’s that like?”
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We all stand at the edge of the tunnel which leads into this new and unknown dream. There is a city below.
“I don’t recognize the city,” Justin says.
“I’ve seen this. I’ve seen this,” I say, but can’t remember where it was. “It’s really familiar.”
“Pirates,” Master Mind points to the center of the city. “Observe a flying man!”
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With Justin and Charlie both awake and gone from the dream, it’s time for Master Mind and Joy to do their special delivery to Charlie’s dream. As always, I join them. Just in case something happens. Just in case something should be reported back to Justin.
Joy has gathered on the deck of Bonny’s Revenge ten permanent jetpacks that Charlie has left in Justin’s dream, having used them to come over. Once he’s here, he wakes up from here and the jetpack gets left behind.
So, once a week, Joy and Master Mind bring them back.
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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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“Little Pirate,” he says. “I apologize from the depths of my paper heart.”
“Master Mind,” Joy reaches out to touch his hand. “What happened? I was so worried!”
Justin comes out of the house to stand near Joy. He wants to know what happened, too. It’s Joys safety, after all.
“Logic dictates that you should not be concerned for me, rather that you should be furious. I am furious and I do not know what to do.”
“Master Mind, what happened to you?” Joy squeezes his metal hand. “You’ve seen blood before. You killed many people without a problem.”
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“Three weeks with no adventures! Just kill me now!” she exclaims. Madelyn and Charlie are shocked and they both gasp.
Justin is the only one who isn’t fazed by the things she says. “Two weeks,” he says.
“Two days,” she says. “I’ll be walking and jumping in two days!”
“Don’t you dare try to do that! The wound will open up and it’s not even closed yet!”
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“And she almost died!”
“Yuppers,” I say.
He finally looks at me. “Yuppers?”
“Yuppers.”
“That’s not a word.”
“It’s a word if I say it’s a word. Now it’s a word.”
He looks forward, now slightly calmer. “I’m going to start thinking you have a sense of humor, Dad.”
“Perish the thought!”
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Charlie lands on the deck of Bonny’s Revenge, dropping Master Mind behind him, and runs to Joy. The rope that ties him to the big robot stops him in the middle. Without thinking, he whirls around, cuts it with a knife that just appears in his hand, and keeps running. The knife disappears.
“Joy! Joy! Are you alive?”
“Charlie, I’m okay. I’m okay.” But her face is paler than usual and sweaty.
“When I saw you get shot…” he looks her over and starts to cry.
She grabs his hand. “Charlie. Charlie. I’m okay.” Her voice is weak and she’s in pain, yet she’s trying to make him feel better. What is this girl made of?
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I am here with my granddaughter. I’ve stopped the bleeding. Artemis’ arrow is in her leg.
I’ve created a tourniquet but she’s lost so much blood! She needs help and I’m the only one here!
I hear a familiar sound above me.
Madelyn’s super wheelchair comes flying from the tunnel, and she heads right towards us.
“Mon dieu, Zhoy!” she leaps off the wheelchair and lands next to her. And suddenly she has legs! “Mon dieu, mon dieu, mon dieu,” she can’t stop saying it. “This is all my fault! How are you feeling, Zhoy?”
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