Blog — The Lost In Dreams Universe

Age: 9, Told by The Red Dragon

Justin sighs. “Okay. Okay. Let’s all calm down, okay? This is a tough day. Amahle, you’ve yelled at Joy enough, we’re done with that. We’ll talk about it another day, when everyone’s not so excited.”

“You mean when I’m not so excited,” Amahle says.

“You have had a great tragedy. I don’t know what I would do if that ever…when that ever…” his eyes sneak a look at Suzy.

“I want to talk about it now!” Joy stomps her foot.

Justin stands between Joy and Amahle, his back to Amahle. “No! You can’t talk to her now.”

“Why not!” Joy demands.

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Feb 11
Feb 11 S02E204 The Zulu Heritage, Part 8, The Lion Claw Necklace

“Amahle, uh,” Joy finds it hard to speak. She holds the lion claw necklace in her hand. “When we were in your childhood home, uh…”

“She accidentally made a necklace real,” Justin says, clearly trying to help Joy find a way out.

“What?” Amahle is surprised.

“No, I didn’t!” Joy says aggressively. “It wasn’t an accident! I can control myself! I touched your grandfather’s necklace and made it real. I made it real and then I took it. I just wanted it so bad, and I thought, what’s the harm?”

Amahle’s face shows pain. “I thought you were my friend, Joy. I took you in. I showed you my past. I wake up in your world every day because we’re friends.”

“We are friends!” Joy looks down.

“Friends don’t steal!” Amahle explodes angrily.

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Feb 10
Feb 10 S02E203 The Zulu Heritage, Part 8, The Necklace

Even though this is Justin’s dream, Amahle is the only dreamer here, and she controls the dream.

The dream changes an hour later. The Zulu village of Amahle’s mother in the middle of the desert changes to a bustling city street. I have never been, but I assume it is Johannesburg, the city Amahle grew up in.

From being inside a hut, surrounded by darkness, Amahle and Joy are in a small apartment building, surrounded by the same cloud of darkness. Bonny’s Revenge, with Suzy and me in it, hovers a few meters above the street, with buildings to every side.

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Feb 10
Feb 10 S02E202 The Zulu Heritage, Part 7, The Music

It’s not a person’s wail, it’s music that imitates a wail. The wail turns into a scream of pain. And the air is then filled with almost unbearably sad music.

“Amahle?” Suzy asks me. She’s heard the music of Amahle’s dream before, but not like this.

I nod.

“It is a tragedy, Pirate Mother,” Master Mind answers softly, his voice only loud enough to get over the music and reach us, who are leaning on the railing a few meters above him, looking down at him. “The Sunless One’s mother had died.”

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Feb 9
Feb 9 S02E201 The Zulu Heritage, Part 6, Into the Darkness

Suzy and I look over the railing. I hear Amahle’s voice.

“Joy?” Amahle says from within the darkness. “Are you here? Come with me.”

Joy steps into the cloud of darkness that surrounds Amahle just as Master Mind lands next to her.

For the second time today, or ever, I hear Master Mind make a sound that I never expected to hear from a killer robot. He growls in frustration.

“Little Pirate,” he says in a low but forceful voice. “Come out!”

“Take my hand,” I hear Amahle say. “I want to show you something.”

If this darkness is the same as the one in Amahle’s dream, Master Mind cannot see inside the darkness, but Joy can.

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Feb 9
Feb 9 S02E200 The Zulu Heritage, Part 5, The Darkness Returns

Amahle is the first Dreamer to appear on Bonny’s Revenge’s deck. Since she is in South Africa, she always begins her dreams hours before Justin or Charlie. Madelyn, however, moves around in the world, and her dream time is often unpredictable.

Joy is still asleep in her cabin, and Master Mind, with his paper heart and his two halves sewn together, stands guard by her cabin door in case a dreamer appears on the deck and accidentally sends a danger Joy’s way.

Suzy and I are in our home, but we notice the sky darken and the clouds come. We look out the window.

I go out to the porch and see Amahle with her seeing eye dog, Elvis. But then the suns flicker off and on, off and on. Suzy grabs my hand in fear. They’ve never done that.

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Feb 6
Feb 6 S02E199 The Zulu Heritage, Part 4, Joy the Warrior

Amahle stands in the middle of our living room and manifests the assegai in her hands.

“Hold it very carefully, Joy. It can cause a lot of damage.”

Joy approaches the assegai very slowly. “Amahle, I’m about to touch it.”

Joy’s fingers touch it and the assegai doesn’t glow.

“Wow, Joy, that’s good control!” I say.

Amahle releases the assegai and Joy holds it.

“It’s taller than I am!” She looks at it in awe.

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Feb 6
Feb 6 S02E198 The Zulu Heritage, Part 3, The Weapons

“This is the assegai,” Amahle says. Standing in the middle of Suzy’s and mine living room, an assegai spear appears in her hands. It is tall. I have never seen one so close.

“Wowwwww!” Joy whispers in awe. “What a weapon!”

“Don’t touch, Joy!” Suzy says as Joy leans in.

“I’m just watching from close by! I’m not touching it!”

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Feb 3
Feb 3 S02E197 The Zulu Heritage, Part 2, Appropriation

Told by Grampa Walt, Age: 7

“I am not the White Man!” Joy protests.

“Yes, you are,” Amahle says calmly.

“I am not the White Man!”

“Well,” Amahle says in her smooth tone, “Let us agree that you are not Zulu, either.”

Joy folds her arms and makes an angry face. “For now,” she grumbles.

Amahle smiles. “For now.”

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Feb 3
Feb 3 S02E196 The Zulu Heritage, Part 1, Warrior Race

“Have you never heard of the Zulu, Joy?”

“Amahle, I don’t know almost anything,” Joy’s voice sounds like she’s so sad and helpless.

Amahle takes a big breath. “That is not all right. You should speak to your father.”

“I will. Definitely,” she raises her voice, knowing her father is right there.

“Charlie, have you heard of the Zulu?”

“Not much. They’re an African tribe, right? They’re Native Africans.”

Amahle laughs. “That’s an interesting name to call them. They’re Africans. The Zulu are the fiercest and mightiest warrior race that ever was.”

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Feb 1
Feb 1 S02E195: The Music of Amahle’s Dream

I hear Amahle ask, “You can hear the music?”

“It’s all around me, like it’s moving,” I hear Charlie say.

“I can hear it. What is it?” I hear Joy ask. “It makes my heart pound, but I don’t know why.”

“Walter,” Amahle calls out to me. As far as she’s concerned, it’s just me here with the kids. Master Mind and Justin are keeping silent and therefore invisible. “Do you hear the music?”

“I can hear it, Amahle. It’s very beautiful. Is that music from South Africa? Who wrote it?”

“Nobody wrote it, Walter. I hear music in my head. All the time. It’s how I feel… How can you hear my music?”

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Feb 1
Feb 1 S02E194: Music in the Park

“You know, my mother used to sit me with here right on this bench when I was a child,” Amahle says.

“Yeah?”

“We sat right here, and she would describe everything to me. See how everything is green, Joy and Charlie?”

“Very green.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Charlie mumbles.

“It’s beautiful,” Amahle says. “She’d describe everything to me. Right behind me is a tree that comes out of its roots in three trunks.”

“That’s right!”

“How the path continues to the right, over there, and to the left. She talked to me about how the leaves of the trees cover everything above us and how the sun’s light comes in just so beautifully between the leaves.”

“Yeah,” Joy says.

“And I would have that picture in my head. Of the entire park. And my head would translate it to music.”

Music begins to play all around us, soft and beautiful.

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Jan 31
Jan 31 S02E193 Joy’s Shadow, Age: 9, The Ice Mountains of Mars

Joy is tired, but she refuses to go to sleep. Suzy and I join her and Master Mind as she takes the ship to the ice mountains of Mars and climbs them, then skids down on the ice, then does it all again and again and again.

She does this for hours. Even when she clearly can’t really walk anymore, she climbs up very very slowly and does it again.

“What is she doing?” Suzy whispers to me as we watch her put one foot in front of the other.

I shake my head. I have no idea.

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Jan 31
Jan 31 S02E192 Joy’s Shadow, Age: 8, Exactly, Not Precisely

Age: 8.5, Told by Grampa Walt

Suzy shakes her head. “She’s so cute. She’s so beautiful. But look at her, she only grows wilder with every year.”

I nod. “She can’t be tamed.”

Suzy throws me a look. “I don’t like that word. That's not a word you use on people.” Then she nods, “You’re right, though. She can’t.”

“I don’t think she should, Suzy,” I tell her. “She would never survive the Dream outside if she was tame.”

Suzy sighs.

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Jan 30
Jan 30 S02E191 Joy’s Shadow, Age: 7

“I’ve calmed down a bit,” he tells her.

She sits there, arms crossed, not looking at him. “Great,” she says. “Me, too.”

“I hope you understand why you got the punishment you got.”

She shrugs. “I don’t care.”

“I understand that you’re angry with me.”

“I’m not angry.”

“Joy, your shadow is throwing things at me!”

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Jan 30
Jan 30 S02E190 Joy’s Shadow, Age: 6

Charlie is still sick and we decided it’s best not to go into his dream while he is. Justin woke up an hour ago or so. And Joy, still wide awake, is spending time in our home.

Suzy and I are sitting on the porch, while Joy is standing on the stairs, trying to talk to her shadow.

“Jump!” she tells her shadow.

The shadow does not jump.

It is a strange shadow. I’ve never seen anything like it in the waking world. It seems to have a life of its own, and yet we’re not sure if it is just a shadow or something with a mind of its own.

The shadow doesn’t move. It stands there, like Joy.

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Jan 27
Jan 27 S02E189 Curses Ahoy, Part 4, White Man’s Words

“Now, take in all that you’ve learned, and forget about it. This is a way that people behave. It’s a way to express yourself. It’s not for kids yet. But I think you needed to know about this, Joy. Okay?”

“Those were stupid curses anyway,” Joy says. “What’s the point?”

“I’m not going to do anything that man told me,” Charlie says as we leave the house and walk towards Charlie’s elevator.

“Why not?”

“He said he’s teaching us words because we must not listen to The Man. But my Kwa’a says the White Man always used nice words to tell us how he’s with us, and the White Man always backstabs.”

Justin looks at him. “That’s a good point. That’s very true.”

Charlie shrugs. “I’m not sure. My mom hates everything he says about the White man. But I don’t like Sam anyway. He’s a liar.”

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Jan 27
Jan 27 S02E188 Curses Ahoy, Part 3, Curses

“Say after me. Say it with anger,” Sam says. “Shit!”

Charlie giggles. Joy says, “Why would I say shit?”

“Because you feel a need to curse. When people don’t like something, they use words that The Man calls dirty and bad. But they’re not dirty, they’re just words.”

“But when I shit, it is dirty. I wouldn’t touch it.”

“Yes, yes, of course,” Sam says. I don’t think he’s ever met a child this direct. “But we use it as a curse word. Just to show anger. Say it with me: Shit!”

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Jan 26
Jan 26 S02E187 Curses Ahoy, Part 2, The Man