S02E47 The Demise of the Martian Space Pirates, Part 2: The First Prisoner

Guy Hasson
Age: 6, Told by Grampa Walt

“Watch, Charlie, Grandma, Grampa,” Joy holds the shackles of one of the six Martian Space Pirates, who are just standing there on the deck of Bonny’s Revenge, and points in the direction of the doorway next to her cabin. “All you have to do is point and they go.”

“That’s right,” Justin says. “At this point the villains never resist. And Joy just leads them.”

Joy leads the prisoners. Charlie walks next to her, his eyes sparkling with excitement. Justin, Suzy and I walk behind them. Master Mind stays on the deck.

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S02E46 The Demise of the Martian Space Pirates, Part 1: Grampa’s Alzheimer’s

Guy Hasson
Age: 6, Told by Grampa Walt

“Grampa, Grandma! Want to help me put the Martian Space Pirates in prison?”

Suzy and I are sitting on the porch of our apartment on a small island in Justin’s dream, when Bonnie’s Revenge returns from adventure. Joy leans over the railing and shouts at us.

Joy, Charlie, Justin, and Master Mind had gone off on an adventure to find and imprison the Martian Space Pirates. Apparently, they’d been successful.

Suzy looks at me, then up at Joy. “Why, of course, we’d love to!”

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S02E45 The Dream with No Exit, Part 1

Guy Hasson
Age: 6, Told by Grampa Walt

“Dad! What did you mean there’s a dream where you can’t get back out?”

Justin’s mind seems clearer now. He bends down and looks Joy in the eyes. With his scariest voice says, “It means there’s no exit, Joy. There’s no way to leave it! You can never ever ever go there because you can never ever ever get out!”

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S02E44 The Falling Shrooms, Part 4: A Shroom Falls

Guy Hasson
Age: 6.5, Told by Grampa Walt

Joy hugs the stem of the Shroom for an hour before something happens. The stem leads to the Shroom, which holds the tunnels, which lead somehow, impossibly, into Justin’s dream which seems to be infinite in size and in which anything can happen. And yet the stem has only enough room for ten people at most, and that is if they stand uncomfortably close.

After about an hour, Charlie’s Shroom falls.

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S02E43 The Falling Shrooms, Part 3: Charlie’s Life

Guy Hasson
Age: 6.5, Told by Grampa Walt

We wait for hours, but the Shrooms don’t fall. Joy and Charlie insist on not letting go of the Shrooms’ stems in all that time. Joy is holding on to the stem of Justin’s dream, and Charlie holds on to the stem of his dream.

At some point I decide to sit down on the small surface of the Shroom. I still hold Master Mind’s hand. I am still afraid I might fall when the Shroom collapses.

They spend the time talking to each other by yelling from Shroom to Shroom.

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S02E42 The Falling Shrooms, Part 2: Riding the Shrooms

Guy Hasson
Age: 6.5, Told by Grampa Walt

I ask Master Mind to hold my hand. I am really afraid. I’m the only one who is.

Joy, Master Mind and I, are standing on top of Justin’s Shroom. The tunnels that lead back inside are on two sides of the stem and Joy is hugging the stem between the tunnels.

Joy has to be sitting down while hugging the Shroom since the Fairy Flies have taken Justin’s stem to be their home. Over the last few months they have gathered and come to rest on the stem at the height of Joy’s head. Possibly this is their nest, but who knows. They don’t talk.

Two meters below us and ahead is Charlie, standing on his own Shroom, hugging his own Shroom’s stem.

“Ready, Joy?”

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S02E41 The Falling Shrooms, Part 1: Accident

Guy Hasson
Age: 6.5, Told by Grampa Walt

When the door opens, we are only a few centimeters from the tunnel. In the middle of the sun, it’s not that bright, as the edge of the tunnel shines outwardly, filling Charlie’s dream with light.

“We’re going to your dad’s dream, right?” I ask.

Joy nods. She’s the boss. I’ve learned that we can’t make her do anything.

The tunnel, slimy, with strange pock marks, always makes me feel woozy. The fact that it seems to be shrinking slightly and expanding slightly doesn’t help. The fact that I have to lower my head to walk in it also doesn’t help. I really hate these tunnels.

We come out to stand on Charlie’s Shroom. I look around, feeling disoriented. The Shrooms are not in the same position as they were when we came in.

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S02E40 Madelyn’s Dream, Part 9: The Vanishing Pool

Guy Hasson
Age: 6, Told by Grampa Walt

I go to sit next to Charlie, who for the last ten minutes has been watching from one of the pool chairs.

“Charlie, this must be boring for you. I would think you just want to play with Joy.”

“Are you kidding?” he looks at me all excited and I see his eyes are dancing. He is happy. “Joy lives in a dream! Anything can happen! And she’s awesome! Look how strong she is! She’s Superman!”

“Hmm. Yeah, well,” I mutter. “She’s hardly Superman.”

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S02E38 Madelyn’s Dream, Part 7: Being a Winner

Guy Hasson
Age: 6, Told by Grampa Walt

“Do you speak French, Joy?” she pronounces the name ‘Zhoy’.

“I don’t know,” Joy answers happily. “What’s French?”

Charlie peeks from behind Joy. “She doesn’t speak French, miss,” he says.

Madelyn takes a deep breath. “Then it is harder.”

Both Joy and Charlie are looking down at her. Even though Madelyn is clearly a tall woman, standing without legs she is shorter than them.

“Zhoy,” Madelyn speaks slowly, choosing her words. She knows English, but it is hard for her. “Do you know what it is like to… to win?”

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S02E37 Madelyn’s Dream, Part 6: Meet Madelyn

Guy Hasson
Age: 6, Told by Grampa Walt

There are only a handful of people walking or sitting in the pool in Madelyn’s dream. They all have regular shadows, which means they’re all dreams.

I look around and there are no people with movies in their shadows, like the shadows of Justin and Charlie.

“There!” Justin points out. “Swimming in the pool! The tall woman!”

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S02E36 Madelyn’s Dream, Part 5: We’re Not in North America Anymore

Guy Hasson
Age: 6, Told by Grampa Walt

I stand at the edge of the tunnel, which is one of the suns in a completely new dream, and I look down.

“I don’t know what that building is,” Justin confers with Master Mind and Joy, with Charlie watching. “But I don’t see any monsters or dangers.”

Justin has to make sure this dream is safe for Joy to go into. After all, any dream can kill her or harm her. But in this case, I think he doesn’t have to.

I laugh. “Justin, I can’t believe how little French you know.” Seriously, I’ve told him this all his life. We live in Canada!

He looks at me, eyes crinkled. “Just say what you know, Dad.”

“It says ‘Piscine du Grand Parc’ right there on the sign. It’s a pool, Justin.” I smile at them, “I’m afraid we’re not in North America anymore.”

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S02E35 Madelyn’s Dream, Part 4: The Fairy Flies

Guy Hasson
Age: 6, Told by Grampa Walt

“What is it?” Justin says.

“It’s like a tiny fairy with really big teeth,” Charlie says. “Is it going to eat me?”

“It’s just a fly,” Joy waves at it dismissively. “General Hawk and I saw a cloud of them. They don’t do anything.”

Justin reaches out with an open palm, inviting the creature to land on his hand. But the creature flies up, circles around Charlie’s head, then flies towards the stem behind us. The Shroom’s stem is thick, thrice as thick as Justin’s body. And I can see a handful of these glowing creatures are already resting on the stem.

“They’re are quite cute,” Master Mind says with his robotic voice. “Petting them would bring me pleasure. As would crushing them between my fingers.”

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S02E34 Madelyn’s Dream, Part 3: Outside Justin’s Dream

Guy Hasson
Age: 6, Told by Grampa Walt

Joy is the proof that this place is real. The Dream is real! Dreams happen in a real place! Because Joy lives here. Joy can make dreams like me real, she can make us stay. I have never thought, never believed, never supposed…

If there was a way to get this information to the outside world, to other scientists…!

“They’re called Shrooms,” Joy said. “I named them!”

“That’s my Shroom over there!” Charlie points down. “It was above us when I came here.”

Now it’s a couple of meters below us and to the side.

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S02E33 Madelyn’s Dream, Part 2: Walt’s Fear

Guy Hasson
Age: 6, Told by Grampa Walt

Justin goes first. Joy follows him, holding Charlie’s hand. I try to cross, but as soon as the plank wobbles, my legs shake and I almost lose my balance. Master Mind grabs me, then just jumps into the tunnel.

As the group continues to Joy’s first authorized ‘outing’ into other people’s dreams, I look back through the tunnel at Suzy, standing on Bonnie’s Revenge’s deck.

She waves at me.

I know that face. She’s afraid for us, she’s afraid one of us isn’t going to make it, and she’s trying to hide it.

I want to tell her we’ll be fine. But right now my heart’s beating fast, and I’m not as brave as I thought I would be.

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S02E32 Madelyn’s Dream, Part 1: Going on Adventure

Guy Hasson
Age: 6, Told by Grampa Walt

“Dad! I’ve been on adventure a million times!”

We are all standing on the deck of Bonny’s Revenge and everyone’s excited.

“Last time you went to other dreams, I almost lost you forever,” Justin tells Joy. “And the dreams I went to, some of them you would never have survived. So: Let’s go through our checklist. Does everyone have jetpacks?”

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S02E31 The Runaway Girl, Part 3: Joy’s Crazy Idea

Guy Hasson
Age: 7, Told by Grampa Walt

I was frantic with worry. Justin had just fallen into the depths of the abyss of the Dream. He had fallen so much in-between millions of Shrooms, that I couldn’t see him anymore.

“Justin! Justin!” I shout after him.

“Grampa! Grampa!” I feel Joy’s hand take mine.

I look at her. “Joy, he could be dead or--”

“Grampa, Grampa, he’s fine. He’s fine.”

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S02E30 The Runaway Girl, Part 2: The Day Justin Failed

Guy Hasson
Age: 7, Told by Grampa Walt

“Justin!” I shout the second Justin appears on the deck of Bonny’s Revenge.

It’s only been a few minutes since I’d given up trying to cross the plank from the edge of the sun to Bonny’s Revenge.

He looks up immediately.

“The kids have gone off to another dream!” I shout. “They left Master Mind on the island.”

“Jesus Christ,” he says. A jetpack appears on his back.

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S02E28 Justin’s Secret

Guy Hasson
Age: 6, Told by Grampa Walt

“You going somewhere, son?” I ask.

“Yeah, I just, I just have someplace to go.” Joy looks at him over her shoulder again. “Joy, you’re okay with Master Mind and your grampa, right? You don’t need me to protect you, right?”

Joy, pleased, looks ahead. “I’m fine. I don’t need them, either!”

“Dad, Master Mind, Charlie, take care of her. Joy, go see a movie, don’t follow me.”

“Yeah, yeah,” she waves him off.

He rises into the air.

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