“You know we’ve never actually crossed a road? Like a road-road?” Justin stands with Joy in front of the Royal Ontario Museum on Toronto Planet. All we have to do now is cross the road.
When Justin arrived, he woke Joy up, and was on board for the idea of going to see a museum.
“Look left, right, left, right,” Justin explains to her. Suzy and I stand behind them patiently. Master Mind stands to the side.
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We are back in Toronto. Not the Toronto in the waking world, of course, but the Toronto Justin dreamed up and that Joy had made permanent. It’s an exact replica, except that it is in Justin's dream, and, yes, it is located, oddly enough, on a planet called Planet Toronto.
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“Young lady, you are not getting on this ship!”
Justin appeared on Bonny’s Revenge a few moments ago. For some reason, he had fallen asleep in the middle of his night. Charlie and Joy had time to have their own adventure, with Master Mind and me chaperoning and no adult Dreamers around.
Charlie created marsh country, a land of swamps interrupted by a lot of trees and shrubbery. The two played catch and hide and seek for hours while Master Mind and I watched from the deck.
Justin appeared a few minutes ago and looked at them play and laugh.
Finally, tired, they began climbing the ramp. That is where Justin blocked them by firmly standing in their way.
“It’s my ship!” Joy says.
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It’s been a week since Master Mind had told Joy that he wants to leave Justin’s dream and explore the world outside on his own. Joy had not been herself since.
It’s the end of the day for Joy. Madelyn is in France these days so she woke up first. Then Amahle, living in South Africa. Then Justin, waking up for work, and Charlie, waking up for school. Yumio and Colin did not come today.
Bonny’s Revenge is docked by our island, the island that houses Suzy’s and my small suburban Toronto home. I refuse to call it the name Joy had given it, so I just call it ‘the island’.
Suzy and I are seated on the porch. Joy is seating at the edge of the garden, her bare feet in the ocean water.
Master Mind walks over to her slowly, and sits by her side.
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“Joy, what’s going on?” Justin takes a few steps towards her with arms open after she asks everyone to get off her ship.
Joy shrugs and looks away.
“Joy, did I offend you?” Amahle says. Elvis, her seeing eye dog, appears at her side, and she begins to walk in Joy’s direction.
“GET OFF MY SHIP!” Joy yells at us, her face red. “Now! Everyone!”
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He docked the ship right outside one of the suns, and Master Mind went to check, quickly returning with Amahle.
“But even though I forgot my dream, my heart was pumping! I felt I had a great inspiration! There was music inside me. And I was certain I could feel what the color blue was, even though I knew I’d never seen it.”
“What?” Justin says. “Really?”
“You could see blue in the waking world?” Charlie asks, just as surprised.
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I dock Bonny’s Revenge right next to one of the suns, with the plank as close as I could get it. I’m not doing this as good as Justin or Joy or Master Mind. But it’s close enough. Suzy and I both put on one of the jetpacks that Joy had made permanent. Just in case one of us falls here or outside the Shroom.
Suzy’s first on the plank, and the plank begins to wobble as soon as she’s on it.
“Oh, no, no, no!” she says and comes back. “I’m not doing this!”
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But in the meantime, it’s just like back home, with Suzy talking to one of her friends.
“Suzanne, I do think I see colors.”
“Mmm-hmmm,” Suzy says empathetically.
“At least I feel colors.”
“Mmm-hmmm.”
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It’s been a month since we’ve seen Amahle. Master Mind had been checking every day to see if she was waiting for us on top of her Shroom. But since she hadn’t been there for a long time, we’ve gotten out of the habit of looking every day.
It has been a month since we’ve gone into her dream and learned she was experimenting with colors and finding music that fits those colors.
We’re headed out today to Madelyn’s dream: Joy, Charlie, Justin, Master Mind, and I - when Joy spots Amahle standing atop of her Shroom.
“Amahle!” Joy yells.
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It’s been a week since we’ve seen Amahle. She usually waits for Master Mind at the edge of her Shroom before any other Dreamer arrives. But she hadn’t come recently.
When Charlie arrives, he and Joy decide to go visit her dream, and I remind them to never leave the Dream, certainly not to Amahle’s dark dream, without Justin.
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When Justin arrives, she convinces him to go, and we all go: Joy, Charlie, Justin, Master Mind as security, and me in the role of the-guy-who-just-wants-to-see.
We stand at the edge of the tunnel and look into the complete darkness that is Amahle’s dream. Even after spending a year with us, even after being able to somehow summon up and feel colors, Amahle’s dream is all darkness.
I know Charlie’s elevator is right there in front of us, taking us to the ground in her dream. But it’s drowned in the darkness of her dream.
“Let’s go,” Suzy tells me as soon as Justin takes our little granddaughter to her cabin to tell her a good night story.
For a change, Joy’s been up for quite a few hours before Justin arrived, which means she’s just tired enough for her father to put her to bed.
“Where are we going?”
“To talk to Justin,” she says.
We walk slowly up the ramp to the deck of Bonny’s Revenge. Master Mind is standing guard silently near the wheel. Justin is still in Joy’s cabin.
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I am surrounded by darkness. I’ve been here before, in Amahle’s dream, a dozen times at least. But it doesn’t get easier. And it doesn’t get less spooky that there isn’t even a little bit of light, so your eyes never get adjusted. We are right next to the sun in her dream, and yet there isn’t a photon to be found.
But then, that’s not the only change. As soon as I walk into Charlie’s elevator in Amahle’s dream, there is music. I don’t recognize many of the instruments. But I do recognize the voice. There usually isn’t a voice when Amahle’s music is played outside her head in the Dream. But now… She’s singing. Without any words, just singing…
“The music is making the hair on my hand stand,” Charlie says.
“It’s beautiful,” Justin says.
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We are on an island Justin created for this purpose, in the middle of the ocean in his dream. Bonny’s Revenge is docked to the side. Master Mind remains on the deck. He is always ready to leap into action, but with two dreamers protecting Joy, there’s probably not going to be a need. Quite possibly, it’s more likely he’ll protect Suzy and me. We stand right next to him, just in case.
“Ready,” Amahle says.
“Ready,” Justin says, fists tightening.
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I hardly have enough time to register that Amahle had accidentally dragged Joy underwater. Joy! I think, as Suzy gasps, and Master Mind from the deck of Bonny’s Revenge exclaims “By my evil maker!”
My mind registers too slowly that Amahle does not need to breathe in the Dream, while Joy does. Master Mind leaps off the deck, but even while he’s in the air, something even crazier happens.
The top of Joy’s sword appears above the water. As it moves up, it brings with it Amahle’s back. The sword is coming out of Amahle’s back.
Another split-second and Joy’s head emerges. Both her hands are on the sword, which she had put right through Amahle’s stomach to come out of the back.
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Amahle and Joy stand at the edge of our small island and look out into the infinite ocean.
Justin and Charlie haven’t arrived yet on the deck of Bonny’s Revenge.
Suzy and I watch silently from the porch while Master Mind is standing guard on the docked ship. I, for one, am very interested to see what will happen. It is not like Joy can make Amahle gain her sight for the first time in her life. That’s impossible.
And yet…
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Even though we see Justin and Joy every day, we have begun this practice of the two of them coming to our house for a Saturday dinner. Just as if we were living next to each other in Toronto.
Justin and I play chess in the living room. Joy plays with some of Justin’s old toys, plays with Justin, and with Suzy.
Right now I’m sitting in my Archie Bunker chair while Justin sits on the sofa. Joy leaps at him, and he grabs her tightly.
“I gotcha!” he exclaims and she shrieks in happiness. “I gotcha and I’m never letting you go!”
Joy struggles in his arms. “I’m never ever ever letting you go!” he says as she struggles. He releases his hold just enough to allow her to escape.
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Amahle sits down on the deck and Joy sits cross-legged beside her. Amahle practices ‘looking’ at the orange sun, with Joy holding her hand.
When it becomes clear that this is going to be Amahle’s and Joy’s day, and that Justin is going to remain with Joy, Colin and Yumio each go to their own dreams. Madelyn goes elsewhere in Justin’s dream to dream about whatever she wants to.
Suzy, Master Mind and I remain on the deck.
Justin joins us in looking at them from the opposite railing, as we watch the two try out different things.
The setting sun Amahle has summoned moves right and left. Amahle shakes her head.
“She didn’t see movement,” I tell Justin and Suzy.
“Nope,” Justin says.
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Master Mind has brought Amahle from her dream back to Justin’s dream, where we’re all waiting for her.
Back on the deck of Bonny’s Revenge, Elvis, her seeing eye dog reappears. Along with the cane in her right hand, which she moves to her left.
We wait for her to explain what the danger was that she sensed around us before she disappeared and woke up.
“I do not know what it was,” Amahle says. “I have never felt anything like it. It felt like someone was hitting me in the head.”
“What?” Joy is concerned. After all, nothing had been close to any of our heads.
“It was a pounding,” Amahle continues. “From inside my head. Like something was pushing me to the ground.”
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There is a deep sense of strangeness when Amahle disappears. Johannesburg disappears. The sunset disappears. And the full light of the two suns return. The half-darkness, was caused by Amahle. Now that I think about it, its creation was also aided by Joy holding Amahle’s hand.
And then there’s silence. Strange, awkward silence.
“What the hell happened?” Colin asks.
Joy is looking at her own hands.
“Joy,” Justin moves closer to her. “Do you know what happened? Do you know what she was talking about?”
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Amahle puts her right hand to her temple. “I will try.”
The last sunset disappears and all around us, on top of the permanent ocean, the streets of Johannesburg appear.
“Can you see it, Joy?”
We all look around. “We see Johannesburg, Amahle,” Madelyn says. “But there is no sun.”
Joy reaches out to hold Amahle’s left hand, but Amahle raises it to her temple as well. “Sun,” she says. “Sun.”
And a sun appears right above the horizon. An orange sun about to set. Unlike all other sunrises, this time the sun’s light does not influence the sky. The blue sky doesn’t change color. Just there, at the bottom, there is powerful, setting orange sun.
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