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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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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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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“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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Joy helms Bonny’s Revenge.
We sail past the moon, which Joy and Charlie visited only a couple of months ago. We sail past Mars, zoom past the asteroid belt and the solar system.
Joy doesn’t even look aside, checking for a facility that can hold a dragon.
“Joy, you just skipped over a lot of planets,” Suzy tells her.
“She’s not there,” Joy says confidently without looking at Suzy.
Bonny’s Revenge flies faster, until we reach a planet made of metal.
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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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“Dad, what time is it in the waking world?”
“I don’t know. It’s been a while since we came here, but… I don’t know.”
Joy collapses on the sofa, as if bereft of all strength.
“When is everybody going to wake up?!” she’s exasperated.
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“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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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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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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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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Today Joy decides to play in Charlie’s dream. Justin is off to his secret dream that we’re not supposed to visit but that everyone has figured out he has his dream girlfriend in.
So he left Joy in Master Mind’s care. Master Mind is always ready to leap into action and save Joy from the unexpected dangers of a dream. I join because I want to see as much as possible of my granddaughter for the two of me.
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Today is quite a busy dream.
Colin flies into the dream early, since he’s in the earliest time zone. Suzy and I keep him busy in the living room while he waits for Justin. Master Mind follows him in, watching the Dreamer carefully in case he becomes obsessed.
Charlie appears first on the deck of Bonny’s Revenge, next to Joys cabin. He wakes Joy up, and joins her as she has her morning routine of breakfast, washing up, and all that down in our apartment.
Justin appears soon afterwards on the deck of Bonny’s Revenge, near the mast. Once he sees Joy isn’t there, he joins us.
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We are off again!
Over the last two weeks, we’ve had adventure after adventure with Madelyn. Madelyn has been in South America, getting ready for one of her races, so her dream time is the same as Justin’s and Charlie’s.
So day after day (I mean our days, not their days), when Justin appears, we get ready and head off to meet Madelyn on top of her Shroom. Then we decide where we should have our adventure: in Justin’s dream or in Madelyn’s.
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Justin stands up and bends his head, since he is taller than the tunnel. “Joy, let’s just get out of here.”
“We have to save the baby. Right, Charlie?” she looks for help from her friend.
Charlie hesitates, though.
Justin reaches out with his hand. “Joy, it’s just a dream. The baby will disappear in a few minutes. I don’t want to let you touch it or suddenly we’ll have a real baby that we can’t get rid of.”
Joy looks like she’s going to cry again. “And what’s the matter with that?”
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“She left the baby!” Joy is jumping in place hysterically. “She left the baby!”
Justin puts his hands on her shoulder. “It’s just a dream, Joy, it’s not real.”
Madelyn turns her super wheelchair to face Joy. “There is a lot of sadness in the world. There are mothers that can’t take care of their babies--“
“No, there aren’t!”
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The six of us crowd together at the edge of the tunnel as we look in on this new dream. Madelyn sits in her super wheelchair in the middle, and we all try to squeeze in around her. All except Master Mind, who takes one peek then moves back.
“Our first rule, Madelyn, is safety.” Justin tells her. “We’re Dreamers. We can wake up if something happens to us. Joy can really get hurt. We have to protect her at any cost. Do you understand?
She nods, her face serious. “Protect Joy. Of course.”
“My dad, Grampa Walt, can also get hurt. But protect him second. First Joy.”
I notice he didn’t explain I was a dream made permanent. That’s wise for now.
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Things have become very strange.
“This is a tunnel, just like in your Shroom,” Justin explains to Madelyn. “But it leads to someone else’s dream.”
She nods.
“Me first,” she says.
She does not wait for a response and her wheelchair rolls into the tunnel first.
Joy comes in right after her. “I’m first! I’m first! You’re last, slowpokes!” Charlie runs after them both and Master Mind is quick to follow as well.
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As we walk through the tunnel back towards Justin and Master Mind who are waiting on the surface of Madelyn’s Shroom, Charlie can’t stop looking at Madelyn’s super-wheelchair and laughing.
“What’s so funny?” Joy asks.
Charlie shakes his head and laughs.
Madelyn looks at him, and continues.
“Charlie, what’s so funny?” Joy insists.
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“I can lift you and walk you back through the tunnel, invalid,” Master Mind volunteers.
“Master Mind!” Justin and I both shout at him.
Madelyn raises her hand at Master Mind. “I can walk by myself, robot. Zhoy, you are coming with me?”
“Me, too!” Charlie says.
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