S02E147: Anime Battle, Part 2: Taking a Shot

Guy Hasson
Age: 6, Told by Grampa Walt

“Dad, Dad, Dad! Pleeeeez!” Joy clings to Justin’s clothes as we stand in the tunnel, looking at a full blown space war and two mecha exoskeletons taken out of what Justin has identified as an Anime TV show battle each other. “Put me in! Let me help her!”

Charlie steps to the edge. “Maybe I should go in?”

Just as he does so a laser cannon from the big alien ship blows up a small fighter spaceship and it explodes.

“Nope, nope, nope,” Charlie takes a step back.

[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]

S02E146: Anime Battle, Part 1: The Mecha Suits

Guy Hasson
Age: 6, Told by Grampa Walt

A giant blue-green exoskeleton lands on top of the alien ship. Inside, I can see a woman with long black hair, but she’s too far away.

The giant alien ship, green, all full of bumps and large antennae, makes its way through an asteroid storm. From behind the asteroids, multiple alien ships appear. These are small, maneuver fast, and fire lasers at the big ship.

The giant exoskeleton makes its way, step by step, towards a pretty big bump: No doubt the way inside.

But then a huge doorway opens in that bump, and a mean-looking red exoskeleton appears.

“So coooool” Joy says.

[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]

S02E145 The New Dream Protocol, Part 2: The Class

Guy Hasson
Age: 6, Told by Grampa Walt

“I don’t know what this university is,” he says .”But look over here. There are palm trees. Over here there are fountains.”

I look around. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Maybe it’s not a university?”

Justin points to the young twenty-year-olds walking around with backpacks. ”It’s a university. Also, I heard them speak. I think that’s Arabic.”

Charlie points to their shadows. “They’re all dreams,” he says.

[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]

S02E144 The New Dream Protocol, Part 1

Guy Hasson
Age: 6, Told by Grampa Walt

Over the last two months Joy, Justin, Master Mind, Charlie and I have covered quite a few dreams in our immediate surroundings. They’re always different. Some are dangerous. Some are harmless. Many don’t speak English or French and we can’t find a way to communicate well.

Now we’re traveling a bit further away, going five Shrooms in one direction.

“All right,” Justin says, as he peeks into the tunnel. “Let’s go in. Me, Charlie, Joy, Master Mind, then Dad.”

It’s the same order as always. Two Dreamers first who can deal with anything and/or die without anything happening to them. Then Joy, because you can’t keep her further back than that. Then Master Mind to protect her. Then me, because I’m a grandpa and a dream and I can get hurt.

[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]

S02E143 The Power of the Dreamer, Part 5, Ow!

Guy Hasson
Age: 8.5, Told by Grampa Walt

The kids calm down a bit. Joy seems to have forgotten that we think she is not treated like a child. Charlie has stopped trying to change the way he looks. The adults, by which I mean the Dreamers, are not back yet from their various adventures. And the kids sit down where they started, legs hanging out of the railing, and looking at Joy’s scraped knee.

For some reason, Charlie accidentally touches her knee.

“Ow,” he says, as if it hurt him. “Sorry.”

[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]

S02E142 The Power of the Dreamer, Part 4, Old Charlie, Old Joy

Guy Hasson
Age: 8.5, Told by Grampa Walt

Joy makes an unhappy face. “I wish I could be a grownup. People would stop treating me like a kid!”

Charlie looks at her with shock. “Who treats you like a kid?”

“Everyone treats me like a kid! Everyone!”

Charlie shakes his head almost violently. “Joy. No one treats you like a kid. Your dad lets you go on adventures! He lets you drive Bonnie’s Revenge. You can go into strange places. You do super dangerous things and no one tells you anything. You don’t have to go to school. You don’t have to do homework. You don’t have to do almost anything that kids have to do. Everyone treats you like an adult!”

[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]

S02E141 The Power of the Dreamer, Part 3, Charlie’s Growth Spurt

Guy Hasson
Age: 8.5, Told by Grampa Walt

“Ooh, you know what!” Charlie, now bearded and moustached, tells Joy amidst the two of them laughing.

“What, what?”

“I think… I think…” he concentrates and his beard and moustache disappear. He finally looks like a kid again. That was too strange to look at.

“What if I can be a grownup?”

“A grownup?!”

“Old. Like your dad or something.”

“Ooh! Do it!”

[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]

S02E140 The Power of the Dreamer, Part 2, Charlie Goes Crazy

Guy Hasson
Age: 8.5, Told by Grampa Walt

“I-know-I-know-I-know!” Charlie tells Joy.

They’ve just finished inventing various scrapes and gashes that Charlie makes appear on his body. He makes them appear, they laugh, it doesn’t hurt, and he makes them go away.

“What-what-what!” Joy is speaking at twice her normal speed.

“I’ll make myself bald!”

Joy opens her mouth in shock. “Can you do that?”

“I don’t know. Let’s try!”

[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]

S02E139 The Power of the Dreamer, Part 1: Blood!

Guy Hasson
Age: 8.5, Told by Grampa Walt

Charlie and Joy are sitting on the deck of Bonny’s Revenge, legs hanging out.

All five dreamers have gone to do various things, leaving Joy and Charlie under Master Mind’s care.

We are flying among the clouds and the dream is serene for a change.

“Does it hurt?” Charlie points to a scrape that Joy has on her knee from yesterday’s adventure.

“Not too much,” she says.

[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]

S02E138 Talk of Dreams

Guy Hasson
Age: 7.5, 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?”

[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]

S02E137 The Flying Man

Guy Hasson
Age: 6, Told by Grampa Walt

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!”

[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]

S02E136 Special Delivery

Guy Hasson
Age: 6.5, Told by Grampa Walt

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.

[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]

S02E135: Dressing Up

Guy Hasson
Age: 7, Told by Grampa Walt

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.

[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]

S02E134 The Return of Madelyn’s Legs, Part 8, Deja Vu

Guy Hasson
Age: 7, Told by Grampa Walt

“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.”

[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]

S02E133 The Return of Madelyn’s Legs, Part 7, Violence

Guy Hasson
Age: 7, Told by Grampa Walt

“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.

[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]

S02E132 The Return of Madelyn’s Legs, Part 6, Madelyn’s Plan

Guy Hasson
Age: 7, Told by Grampa Walt

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.”

[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]

S02E131 The Return of Madelyn’s Legs, Part 5, Permission

Guy Hasson
Age: 7, Told by Grampa Walt

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?”

[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]

S02E129 The Return of Madelyn’s Legs, Part 3, The Permanent Legs

Guy Hasson
Age: 7, Told by Grampa Walt

“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!”

[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]

S02E128 The Return of Madelyn’s Legs, Part 2, Joy the Helper

Guy Hasson
Age: 7, Told by Grampa Walt

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.

[Click on the title to read the entire diary entry!]

Load More