Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
As the group of four wildly mismatched twelve year olds finally began to settle into shape, they quickly found themselves with two big problems.
One: how will they come together as a team and create an "A-worthy" group presentation?
And (perhaps the biggest problem yet)
Two: how will Zorah and Timmy reconcile the fact that they both randomly woke up with a nut from Brazil tangled in their hair?
What did this mean? Was there a logical explanation?
Zorah and Timmy may have to go to extreme(ly ridiculous) lengths to find out...
The Epic Bedhead Saga is a serialized audio drama for Dreamers of all ages — exploring memory, belonging, and the quiet courage it takes to face the things we love, and sometimes fear, most.
CAST:
Tyler Michael Jonsson as Percival and Timmy
Tiffany Ward as Zorah
Erin Culpepper as Constance
Lisa Jonsson as Mrs. McDermott
PRODUCTION:
Written, produced, and directed by Tyler Michael Jonsson
Podcast cover art by Andrea Revilla
Additional artwork by Simona Ruscheva
Music and Sound Effects from Epidemic Sound
Creators and Guests
What is The Epic Bedhead Saga?
A family-friendly fantasy audio drama for Dreamers of all ages: four children, one shared dream, and something in the dark that feeds on forgetting.
Zorah Shepard keeps waking up with glitter and nuts tangled in her hair. Timmy has a best friend who hums in color. Constance has a checklist for everything. Garren has a fastball and a weight he won't talk about. Thrown together by a seventh-grade group project, they discover that their dreams overlap in a hidden world tended by ancient, whimsical creatures called Dreamtenders, and that something is growing in its shadows.
Funny, heartfelt, and about friendship, grief, memory, and the quiet courage it takes to keep believing.
There is a moment in growing up when the world tells you that wonder is something to be outgrown, and that the things you feel most deeply should be kept quiet. This is a story about kids who refuse to believe that.
Start with Episode One and follow along. New episodes every Wednesday.
A semester long group project based on dreams with three unlikely comrades. Four mornings in a row, waking up from the most peculiar nighttime adventures with glitter and nuts strewn about her hair. It truly has been a remarkably bizarre beginning of the school year for Zorah Shepard. What new adventures or perhaps more accurately, misadventures will she find herself part of next? For now, it appears that the Dream Team has been put into motion.
Percival:Four students grouped together by the random chaos of the universe, or so they believe, must now decide how best to move forward with their project. But the question remains, can they move forward with each other? Perhaps even more importantly, can they move forward with themselves? Only time will tell.
Percival:Episode Eight: The Dream Experiment
Zorah:Much to my surprise, things managed to settle down after Constance came back to the group. She assigned each of us a different colored highlighter and made sure we highlighted the spots that were specifically designed around our individual strengths and weaknesses. I wondered yet again, how did she manage to have these things just waiting around? Timmy took the printouts rather seriously and to her credit, Constance took him seriously too. He kept asking detailed questions after every subsection and she happily explained in excruciating detail what every bullet point meant.
Timmy:I see.
Zorah:Timmy flipped his page over one more time.
Timmy:So this means that each group member is responsible for making sure that their three number two pencils are fully sharpened before each Project Work Session.
Constance:Correct.
Zorah:Constance beamed.
Constance:You are each responsible for ensuring that your primary pencil and two backups are always ready to go when we start. We can't be wasting precious time waiting in the pencil sharpener line. Punctuality and Preparedness will be the Group Two motto.
Zorah:This continued until Mrs. McD mercifully called a stop to project time for the day.
Mrs. McDermott:Okay, students,
Zorah:She called out.
Mrs. McDermott:I hope you've all had a chance to settle into your groups and start brainstorming some wonderful ideas for your projects. I am so excited to hear what you all have planned.
Zorah:I fought to hold off a giggle as she did her cringey excitement dance yet again. She may be weird, but you couldn't fault Mrs. McD's energy and effort. She did at least try to make class fun in her own way. The bell rang and it was time for the day to continue onwards and upwards. During lunch, I got a chance to sit with some of my friends who'd been placed in Aurora House.
Zorah:They had Mr. Blatt for Language Arts. They were surprisingly jealous of me having Mrs. McD even after they learned about my disastrous Dream Team project. I guess the rumors were true. Mr. Blatt really was that boring. As I sipped on my juice box and ate the ham and cheese sandwich Mom packed, my thoughts zeroed in on the group.
Zorah:Sure. There was a greater than 0% chance that our dream project would make us the laughingstock of the entire school. But it couldn't be worse than the candy versus broccoli project. Right? This wasn't going to be that cringeworthy.
Zorah:After all, this was going to give me an excuse to try and find out what the heck was going on in my nut tastic dreams lately. This was going to be a good thing. I knew it deep down. I reminded myself of that fact until the final bell rang. Time to pack my stuff away in my locker and head to the bus.
Zorah:While I was attempting without much success to balance my textbooks and notebooks in my locker in such a way that they wouldn't fall out and break my nose the next time I opened it, someone tapped on my shoulder.
Timmy:Zorah, we need to trade.
Zorah:A familiar voice said. I turned to find Timmy holding the Ziplock baggie with his Baru Nut inside. I let out a dramatic sigh and caught my breath. Timmy, what? What do we need to trade?
Timmy:Our Baru Nuts. We need to trade them.
Zorah:Timmy said that as though everyone wakes up with food in their hair and exchanging it with other people was totally normal. Come to think of it, he probably does think that. This day already ranked at 11 out of 10 on the weirdness scale. What was another notch or two? I put my hand into my pocket and grabbed my Baru Nut.
Zorah:I held it out in front of me. Not sure what Timmy had in mind. At this point, nothing would have surprised me.
Timmy:Thank you.
Zorah:Timmy removed his Baru Nut from the Ziplock baggie, placed it in my hand, and scooped mine up. Yeah, no problem. So, cool. Was I supposed to understand any of this? Did I miss a memo somewhere?
Timmy:I think we should run an experiment tonight.
Zorah:He told me. An experiment?
Timmy:Yes, a dream experiment.
Zorah:Okay, so I was wrong when I said nothing else would surprise me today?
Timmy:Zorah, we both woke up this morning with these strange nuts in our hair, right?
Zorah:Yeah, I suppose so, I replied. I mean, he wasn't wrong.
Timmy:Well, I know that Hushglow left mine for me to find. Maybe that means that your dream best friend left yours for you to find too.
Zorah:Timmy's eyes sparkled.
Timmy:What if they're trying to give us a clue to something?
Zorah:But Timmy, I don't remember what happens in my dreams the same way that you do. They just sort of happen. And then they fade away in the morning and life moves on. Not only that, but I don't have a dream bestie or whatever. Sounded kinda sad when I put it like that.
Timmy:Maybe that's true, Zorah. But the nut was still there, wasn't it?
Zorah:He had me there. No matter how hard I tried, I really couldn't explain it. I wanted to be able to explain the nuts, the glitter, all of it, but I couldn't. Alright. I'll bite.
Zorah:We trade nuts and then what? I asked.
Timmy:We each found our Baru Nut stuck in our hair when we woke up. What if tonight when we go to sleep, we put the other Baru Nut back in our hair instead? Maybe that's the answer to the mystery.
Zorah:The answer to the mystery is sticking more weird things in our hair?
Timmy:No, Zorah. The fact that each of us found identical clues in our hair is the answer. They're connected somehow. My dreams with Hushglow and your dreams, they have to be connected. We need to find out how and why.
Zorah:I closed my eyes as the little narrator voice in my head laughed nervously. Okay, Timmy, I said. The crazy train was officially leaving the station. I'm in. I'll put your Baru Nut in the same place I found mine this morning when I go to bed.
Zorah:Timmy smiled.
Timmy:Great. And I'll put yours where I found mine.
Zorah:People filed past us on their way out, none of them suspecting Timmy and I of planning a dream venture. So how do we know if this experiment actually works? What are we hoping to accomplish? He gave it genuine consideration.
Timmy:Well, I think you should start your own Dream Archive. You can call it a dream journal if you really want, but I think Dream Archive sounds much better and more official.
Zorah:You're not wrong. Like something out of a fantasy book. It's, you know, kinda cool. Alright. I'll start my own Dream Archive.
Zorah:I smiled. If you tell Constance, I'll deny everything.
Timmy:From one Dream Archiver to another, your secret is safe with me.
Zorah:He said with an obvious wink. A big bright light bulb switched on over Timmy's head. That's it, he cried. I said nothing at first waiting for him to explain.
Zorah:After a moment, go on.
Timmy:The Dream Archives? Now we're both Archivers. We can call ourselves the Archivers.
Zorah:He practically shouted, throwing his arms in the air like the home team just scored the winning touchdown. Sounded a lot more original than the Dream Team, I'll give him that. I giggled at how excited he was. His genuine joy was infectious. I can't promise that we can get Constance to agree to it, but I'm pretty sure Garren will.
Zorah:He seems down for whatever the group decides. Hang on. Starting a Dream Archive was only the first thing you mentioned. What's the next step of our experiment?
Timmy:We have to connect with each other in our dream tonight, of course.
Zorah:I half expected him to call me a silly goose. Connect with each other? You mean like both of us together inside the same dream?
Timmy:Well, yes. We both got the same dream presents in our hair. The dream realm must be trying to bring us together.
Zorah:Yeah. Okay. I get it. We both had super weird morning bedhead, but something didn't add up. Timmy, we've spent almost the entire day together in classes. I mean, it probably wouldn't be that weird to dream about a person you've been around all day. Right? The gears in Timmy's head spun for a few seconds.
Timmy:You're right. It must be even deeper. We make sure it's a true two way dream connection.
Zorah:And how do we do that? Timmy dropped his head and rubbed it. He snapped as another light bulb went off.
Timmy:I got it. Assuming I am right and the experiment does put us into a shared dream together, we'll make up a secret password while we're there. Tomorrow morning before school, we write down the secret password. If what we write matches, it means we learned that password from a true shared dream.
Zorah:Wow, that made a lot of sense. Timmy Jorgensen was full of surprises, I'll give him that. I think I understand, I said, even though I kinda didn't. He didn't need to know that. Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow to compare secret passwords.
Timmy:If I'm correct and Hushglow is trying to connect our dream worlds, I'll actually see you later tonight, technically.
Zorah:Oh, right. I laughed half heartedly, trying my best to cover how awkward this whole thing really was. Timmy gave me a little grin and a hand wave before he turned and marched off. And there we go. I arrived at the end of the first day of school, and I had already managed to find my way into a dream pact with the only other kid in school who woke up with nuts in their hair.
Zorah:Not exactly how I had envisioned seventh grade panning out, but here we are.
Percival:It only took one school day and some very bizarre circumstances, but Zorah now believes that she may be on track to discovering the mysteries of her inexplicable morning bedhead. That is assuming, of course, that Timothy's dream experiment plan is not complete and utter craziness. But what other explanations could there be? Zorah could think of none. Was Timothy actually on to something?
Percival:Are their dreams trying to tell them something? To connect them? To bring them some sort of message? For Timothy, apparently, this is just another normal occurrence in his vivid dream life. But for Zorah, this is something altogether new.
Percival:And if she is being honest, frightening. What will I discover tonight in my dreams she wonders as she rides the bus home, sitting quietly by herself. But perhaps the question she ought to be asking is not what will she discover, but who.
Announcer:Thank you for listening. If you'd like to support the show and help bring the story to life, please consider joining us on Patreon at patreon.com/epicbedheadsaga. Patrons receive episodes one week early and exclusive behind the scenes content. You can also find us at epicbedheadsaga.com and on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. And if you're enjoying the show, please follow us on your podcast app of choice. It helps more than you know.
Announcer:The Epic Bedhead Saga is written, produced, and directed by Tyler Michael Jonsson. Episode eight features Tyler Michael Jonsson as Percival and Timmy, Tiffany Ward as Zorah, Erin Culpepper as Constance, and Lisa Jonsson as Mrs. McDermott. This episode was made possible with the support of our Dreamtender tier patrons, Nancy and Grant Jonsson. We'll see you next time.
Announcer:Until then, keep dreaming.