Part 8
Two Mondays later, Buster woke up in his soft bed. He'd be lying if he said he didn't appreciate getting out of bed without aches and pains. Except he missed hearing Miss Crawly greet him with her usual, effervescent "Good morning, Mr. Moon
He developed a routine of making a cup of coffee with his state-of-the-art single cup brewer and sit down at the tv. He spent the first hour checking on his family. His father tried but Buster had put his foot down. He didn't care if it hurt. They were hurting too so he needed to hurt with them.
He flipped through each channel. He smiled when he saw Meena laying beside Alphonso, wrapped in his arms. Johnny and Ryan's channels played an infomercial. Rosita and Norman had been asked to look after Eddie, so he was having breakfast with them and their children. Ash was sleeping in on the couch with Clay nearby. She hadn't slept well since that night. Gunter was in his bed, curled up in the fetal position. He was just as depressed as the others. He was just better at hiding it.
"Oh, Gunter, I'm sorry… I miss you all… please, don't cry for me," he tried not to cry. He heard the flap of his mail slot and he went to get it. This was his first time getting mail. "'Your orientation has been scheduled for this morning at 9. You will meet in the office next to New Arrivals.' Hmmm, alright… so in an hour… interesting." A knock got his attention. "Good morning, Mom!" He called.
She came in. "Good morning, my little joey." She hugged him. "Oh, you got your orientation today. Great."
"What is it like?" He asked her. "What will I be doing?"
She giggled. "It's nothing that serious, son. You'll meet your team and just learn the ins and outs of the job. You might do some training modules but they're not hard. They're more tedious then anything. I have to get to work. But you should get ready, son. You wouldn't want to be late on your first day." She nudged him gently.
"Oh, yep, yep, I'm on it. It would not be professional to be late," he agreed with her. He leaped up and ran to take a shower.
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When James got up that morning, he was surprised to find his wife getting her gear. "What's going on?"
"I have to get to work. Unfortunately, my leave is over today," she explained. "Bonnie will be expecting me. And you," she offered him the notice that had been with their mail.
"Orientation at 9 this morning, in the office next to New Arrivals," he read aloud. "Orientation?"
"Yes, it's time to get back to business," Rosamund handed him a brown paper bag. "I packed your lunch." She kissed his cheek. "Don't worry, it's not anywhere near as intense as what you're used to. Would you like me to walk you before I go?"
He shook his head. "No, I… I can… handle it. Existence goes on." He looked to their wall. Over the last week, as Rosamund predicted, all of the New Moon Troupe was added to their wall. "I would like to check on Porsha first…" She glared lightly. "Come on, you know I can't get started until I see how she's doing. I won't watch long."
"Ten minutes," she ordered. "I promise, you'll get to watch over her as much as you want after you start working."
He nodded and picked up the remote, tuning it to Porsha. She was having breakfast with her new father and the cat. Apparently, Mr. Green had chosen to adopt the homeless teen as well.
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"Big Daddy, where are Johnny and Ryan?" Nooshy asked.
"They went back to Ryan's hotel last night, so they wouldn't disturb the pair of you," Marcus explained.
Porsha looked sadly at her plate. "I'm sorry, Big Daddy. I didn't mean to drive them away. I was being selfish again."
The mountain gorilla shook his head and put a few more pieces of French toast on her plate. "Porsha, wanting to sleep is not selfish. And Johnny is an adult. He's 23. He's going to want to move out at some stage. Especially now that he has someone special." He ruffled her head fur.
"But he's your son. He belongs here, right?" She asked.
Marcus sighed. "He's always welcome here but the truth is… he is very close to making his own home. It's what happens. Children don't stay children. They grow up and become adults and they leave their parents' home to make their own way. Johnny is just at that point in his own life. Someday, you will leave here too. To make your own home. Nooshy as well. It's just part of life. Johnny was already very close to this point when he left for Redshore. So no, you're not selfish and it's not your fault. It's just life."
She looked at her breakfast and ate.
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Crystal recognized her expression, she didn't fully believe him. But he knew he was right. She was almost an adult and far too soon, she would have been ready to start her own life. Had he prepared her at all? Was she ready for how unforgiving life could be? He turned off the box and got up to get ready for his first day on the job.
He took a moment to study his wall. The Canadian lynx was now beside his daughter connected by a white thread. Similarly, she was also connected to the younger male gorilla.
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The office beside New Arrivals just looked like any old meeting room. The walls were a sterile white and there were three long tables with basic office chairs.
When Crystal arrived, he was surprised to see Buster was already waiting, drinking his extra large coffee.
"So… I guess we're working together," he said softly. He chose a seat on the opposite side of the room. While they had agreed to try and be friends, they didn't go out of their way to hang out.
The koala nodded. Shortly after, Naveed and Marion came in, followed by Benji. He smiled at his son. "Dad? What are you doing here?"
He chuckled. "Now that you are here, I get to retire. After I train you to take my place. You'll inherit my team." He gestured to the elephant and gorilla. "And Mr. Crystal will be joining the team. As part of his… well, I think that should be obvious. He will be under your leadership."
The white wolf's mouth fell and he sputtered with shock. "You mean I have to defer to him! To that little amateur pipsqueak?"
The older koala only chuckled. "Unless you want me to report your insubordination to Bonnie who will report to your wife." Quickly, the mawl closed and the blue eyes were directed at the desk. "That's what I thought. Now, Marion is passing out your laptops. You will need these." As promised, she took two slender laptops out of a box. She handed Buster a blue computer and Crystal was given a gold-colored model. Stamped on the top of the laptops was the silhouette of a pair of angel wings. "And Naveed is going to give you your phones."
"Phones? Rosamund said they weren't allowed," James argued as the elephant handed him a folding-brick cellphone that matched his laptop.
"Mortal cell phones aren't allowed. Very rarely do our mortal belongings follow us but they're always confiscated. But you will need to stay in contact with your team," Benji explained. "You can also use them to, occasionally, make brief contact with your surviving loved ones. They can't respond but you can say a few words. The connection isn't great though. You will also find a photo library that is frequently updated. Feel free to explore the device when you have the chance. For now, open up your laptop and turn it on with the switch on the top left corner."
Buster flipped open his laptop and noted. "There's no power cord." He said.
"No, electricity like you know it isn't a thing here. There is electricity obviously but it's not powered through the wall. Remember how I told you…" Benji trailed off.
"Love is everything," the koala understood. He pushed the button, aware of Crystal doing the same.
Almost simultaneously, the computers chirped, 'Welcome!'
Benji waited while they got the machines up and running. "Once you are at the desktop screen, you'll notice there are a few programs. The first is called Dream Weaver. This will allow you to visit your charges in their dreams. There are rules involved. Of course, they can't know anything about this place other then it's wonderful. They ask, you talk it up in vague terms, you give them nothing concrete. You also cannot interfere with their right of free will. You can ADVISE, nothing more. The system will catch it if you try to do anything to try and force them to do something against their will and it will censor it and report the attempt. Go ahead and sign into that program for me. You'll see the ones you are in charge of guarding. If they are grayed out, they are awake. But… if they are full color, they are asleep. If they're awake, you'll have the option to build the next dream for them. Get creative. Dreams serve a few purposes. First, they can be informative, a way to give them guidance when needed. Secondly, they can be used to send warnings in the form of nightmares. Third, they can be restorative. Restorative dreams are like mini vacations. A dive in the ocean, flying through space, a tropical island."
The morning was spent with Benji showing everyone how to create dreams for their loved ones. Buster chuckled. "This is fun."
"I love creating dreams for Meena," Naveed laughed. "It's a way to communicate without having to tease them with dream visits."
"Dream visits?" Buster asked.
Benji continued the lesson. "That's next. Most of your loved ones are likely awake now but you'll see an icon of a turtle. That's Tutorial McTutorialson. Click on his full color image."
Crystal clicked on the tutorial and a window of a genetic bedroom popped up. "Hello, I am Tutorial McTutorialson. I'm here to teach you the finer points of Dream Walking. Just like in Dream Canvas mode, you are able to design the location of your visit." With a poof of pixelated smoke, a small digital version of himself appeared in the smoke. A white box appeared on the bottom bar of the screen. The turtle pointed down at the box. "This is your chat box. You can type out what you want to say or you can also use a headset mic to speak to them. The mic that your trainer is bringing you now." On cue, the headset appeared in front of his face. Mrs. Green stared coldly at him and he could only take the headset and look away. "Plug the headset into the jack on the right side of the laptop."
Buster plugged in his headset and popped it on his headset. A gravelly voice spoke from the earpiece, "There you go. Now, we can talk properly. When you use the TALK function, they can hear you clearly. Now, the chances are good that they won't remember the visit but you can use the SAVE function to store important information in the back of their memory with the right keywords to bring it back up. You can even program special messages so that they remember them upon waking. Have you ever had a dream that just felt so real but you can only remember bits and pieces? Then you probably received a special dream message just for you."
The koala realized what it all meant. "So… we're not cut off from each other completely." He looked up at his father.
Benji realized that his son wasn't the only one interested in the answer. "That is correct. You're never cut off completely. You're not really cut off at all. You're going to be an even bigger part of their lives than before." He sat down. "The hardest part is they won't know it. On the very rare occasion, you'll be able to visit in person but chances are they won't see you. And we're talking about the extremely rare occasion. Special moments in their lives where having a guardian nearby can be helpful or in emergency situations." He smiled. "Like when a theater floods and comes crashing down."
Buster grinned sheepishly. "You knew about that?" He asked, though he knew the answer. "I'm sorry…"
Benji laughed and ruffled his son's head fur. "Yes, we saw that. Divine intervention is occasionally allowed. Rarely. But only so many such interventions are permitted. There's a limit. I had reached mine." He said, guilt in his face.
Buster nodded. "I'm sorry, Dad. Sorry that I made you use them all."
"The point is, use them wisely. You'll know," the older koala explained.
Crystal listened and pondered. "You flooded your theater?" He asked incredulously.