Joy gives Justin a look like she’s going to kill him.
“I’m not saying a dress,” Justin says. “I would never say a dress.”
“Good.”
“But look at these clothes,” he touches the formal clothes Hugh had given him. “Don’t I look good? Wouldn’t it be nice to try something else?”
“I’m a pirate,” she shrugs. “I like these clothes.”
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We stand in the middle of the street, Colin, Justin, Joy, Charlie, Master Mind, Suzy, and I.
We look around. This is exactly the way London used to look in movies I grew up on, with adjustments for the decades that have passed.
“Wow,” Justin says.
“Look at the graffiti over there,” Charlie points to a large wall with graffiti of a man’s face with his tongue sticking out.
Bonny’s Revenge hangs in the air just above the rooftops. Justin insisted that Colin host us in Justin’s dream, not in Colin’s. Just in case a nightmare breaks out and we need Bonny’s Revenge.
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“Nightmare Man is in one of the tunnels,” Master Mind says suddenly, standing on the deck of Bonny’s Revenge.
Suzy and I are on the porch. Joy is asleep. Justin and Charlie should fall asleep and appear in the Dream still a few hours from now. Colin lives in London but falls asleep around 1 or 2 AM his time. Madelyn, Amahle, and Yumio often appear in the Dream before him, living in South Africa, France, and Japan.
“I will ask him what he wants.”
I get up. “I’ll join you.” I’m always glad to join whatever’s going on. This dream world is the New World for me. I can’t get enough of it. “Suzy?”
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“Of course you’re free,” Justin tells Joy. “You’re more free here than any kid I know in the waking world. Isn’t she, Charlie?”
Joy looks at Charlie expectantly.
“Uhhh…” Charlie is taking this question too seriously. “Sure, she’s free. But I got TV in the waking world. I can see cartoons and–”
“Yeah, yeah,” Justin interrupts him. “But you don’t have adventures in the waking world like we do here, right?”
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We are back on top of Justin’s Shroom when Joy suddenly starts talking about everything that’s happened, what Charlie said and what Suzy explained to her.
As she explains, Justin leads Joy back into the tunnel, past the plank, and onto the deck of Bonny’s Revenge.
“Oh my goodness,” he tells her. “That is awful. I never thought about it.”
“Is she right, Dad? Am I that different? Can I never have kids?”
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Justin and Colin are on top of Big Ben, right underneath the tunnel, so Suzy and I can hear everything: The explosions, the destruction caused by the tentacle monster, and Joy calling out for her father.
“Joy! Look out!” Charlie shouts as a 3-meter tentacle heads their way.
Justin follows Charlie’s voice and looks down from Master Mind to the streets, and he sees Joy and Charlie just as Charlie clings to her like a human shield, and a rock appears all around them. Hopefully there is air to breathe within that rock.
“Joy! Oh, my god!” Justin yells “Colin! Colin! Stop!” he grabs Colin. “You’re having a nightmare! None of this is real!”
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Master Mind grabs Suzy and me and activates his permanent jetpack. He flies us to Colin’s Shroom, next-door to Justin’s Shroom. Joy had already landed and gone into the tunnel, and Charlie, flying on his own, is right behind her.
We follow her in, Master Mind rushing forward.
“Dad!” I hear her yell. “Dad!”
As I go around the tunne’s bend, I see her standing on the edge of the tunnel. “He can’t hear me!” she tells Charlie. “Dad! Dad!”
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Joy is devastated. It is heart-wrenching to see her feel so bad.
She pushes Suzy away when Suzy reaches to hug her.
Charlie stands there, not knowing what to do. He’s not saying anything, he’s not moving, he’s just looking at her.
Joy sobs uncontrollably.
I don’t know what to do.
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When Charlie tries to explain what he means, Joy is so upset that I stop that discussion immediately. “We need your Dad,” I say.
But that doesn’t help. Justin can’t hear us and none of us dares even lean into Colin’s dream.
“I know who can explain this,” I tell Joy. “We’re going to Grandma Suzy.”
We leave Justin to play in Colin’s dream and go back to his dream.
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It’s been an hour now of the tentacle monster throwing Justin and Colin all around the city.
Colin is busy running, and Justin is busy… not using weapons he can create to stop himself from being beaten.
We watch from the tunnel, Joy, Charlie, Master Mind and I. Joy is growing impatient. “He’s not using any powers!”
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We can only watch from afar as Justin descends into a version of London that comes from horror stories. Joy and Charlie are seated on the edge of the tunnel that leads into this dream, the edge of one of the suns that shine into this world. Their legs are well within the dream, taking no risk. I lean on the round wall behind them, peering in. Master Mind stands next to me, watching Justin as well as Joy. He will stop her if she tries to get into Colin’s dream.
Justin lands next to Colin. A laser cannon appears on his arm, and he fires it at the tentacle that is chasing Colin.
Up here we don’t even hear the cannon fire.
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Colin’s nightmares are dark and terrible, ones that Joy could never survive.
Joy wishes to come along, and Justin relents only as much as allowing her and Charlie to sit in one of the tunnels and look down into the dream.
“You may not ever, ever, ever set foot inside Colin’s dream! It will kill you!” he says.
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At my helpless shouts for help, Justin comes running out of the house.
“Oh my god!” he stops in the pathway leading up to Bonny’s Revenge as soon as he sees Joy and the kids looking at weapons in the weapons cabinet. “Joy! No weapons! No one touch the weapons!”
Angela comes out running.
“Justin, what’s–Holy shit! Dad, Mom, there’s a huge ship parked outside your house!”
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Joy’s face grows red a bit. Her games, the ones famously confiscated during the lava god adventure, are not, uh, for kids. Suddenly, her face lights up. “I have a pirate ship!”
“No you don’t!” Tommy says immediately.
“Yuh-huh, she does!” Charlie helps.
“Wanna see?”
“You don’t!”
“Want to see my pirate ship, Grace?” Joy asks her.
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Justin opens the door. Joy hides behind Charlie.
Suzy looks at Walt. “It doesn’t matter. We haven’t seen her in months, so you better be excited to see her!”
Angela is in the doorway, holding 4-year-old Grace in her hands.
Suzy’s right. It doesn’t matter what happened or who Ethan is. I haven’t seen my daughter in months. In my mind, she’s still a teenager. What a woman she’d become!
“What’s up, fart-face?” Angela asks Justin.
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“I don’t want to do it!” Joy crosses her arms.
Once we’ve all gotten over the shock of who Ethan is, Justin suggests we try meeting his sister and her two sons. Again. He wouldn’t be able to summon Ethan again, because Joy made sure to turn him permanent before killing him. But at this point no one wants to see him anyway.
“It’s not up to you,” Justin tells her. “She’s my sister. She’s your aunt. She’s family. You’re going to meet Angela. And you’re going to meet your two nephews, because they’re super cute.”
“I won’t do it! I’ll kill them!”
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“Ethan can’t be evil,” Suzy says. “You got that wrong.”
“I looked into his eyes,” Joy says. “I looked into his eyes when he tried to kill me once. Then twice. And I looked into his eyes when he killed Charlie’s dad.” Charlie looks down with sadness in his eyes. “He was happy to kill. He wanted to kill everyone in his dream!”
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“What the fuck is going on!” Angela demands from Justin.
“Angela, Angela, calm down,” I tell her.
“Dad, shut up!” Angela shouts at me. “Justin, your daughter stabbed Ethan! He turned to dust like a vampire! You high fived her! Justin!”
Justin is thinking. So much has happened.
“Your husband is a killer!” Joy shouts at Angela. Joy doesn’t need time to think. “I killed him like he deserved!”
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I am so staggered by the fact that Joy, my granddaughter, just stabbed my son-in-law in the heart that I can hardly think.
Tommy is screaming. Grace is crying. Angela keeps whispering, “Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit.” And I can’t see any of the rest, since my eyes are blurry.
“Joy-what-Joy-what-Joy-what–” Justin is saying.
I try to look at Joy with the long kitchen knife, the murder weapon, as she stands there in the door to our home, framed in that door.
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“This is exciting!” Suzy says, as excited as I’ve seen her since we met Joy six months ago. “I’m so excited! Walt, aren’t you excited?”
We’re all standing in the living room in Suzy’s and my home: Suzy, me, Joy, Justin, and Charlie. Master Mind is waiting outside on the deck of Bonny’s Revenge, docked just a few meters away.
“Very excited.”
“Right,” Justin claps his hands once. “We’re going to do this the way we do it in the real…I mean, in the waking world.”
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