The Running Dream

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2011

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Part 1, Chapters 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapter 4 Summary

Jessica replays a recent 400-meter race in her mind, a race against her rival, Vanessa Steele. She remembers every detail about the race, from Vanessa’s deep-red painted fingernails to Vanessa’s habit of psyching out her competition by being the last girl in the starting blocks. Jessica recalls feeling confident and calm as she settles into the blocks before the gun goes off.

The race begins, and Jessica knows she is running well. Her “kick is good” (10), and she is “soaring around the track” (10) as she approaches Vanessa and the most challenging part of the race: Rigor Mortis Bend. She draws even with Vanessa with 100-meters to go. Both runners give it their all as they speed toward the finish line.

It is right before the finish line that Jessica leans forward one last time and “duck[s] over the finish line in front of [Vanessa}” (11). She has won the race, and not only is she the winner, but she ran the race in fifty-five seconds, a league record. It is also, Jessica remembers, the last race of her life, a race she calls “My finish line” (12).

Part 1, Chapter 5 Summary

Drifting in and out of her medicated stupor, Jessica catches bits and pieces of the conversations that seem to float around her. In particular, she recalls her father talking to Dr. Wells, asking “about things he’s researched online” (13). As he rattles off the various items for Dr. Wells’ opinions, Jessica thinks that her father “sounds like a doctor” (14).

The doctor replies realistically to Jessica’s dad, telling him to consider the realities of insurance coverages, the small-town community they live in, and the successful strategies the hospital has used on previous amputees. The doctor’s responses frustrate Jessica’s father, a man who “likes to fix things” (14) and someone who is struggling with the catastrophic impact this tragic accident has had on his child.

The reality from Jessica’s perspective is that her father is a handyman, but she is not something that he can fix.

Part 1, Chapter 6 Summary

Annoyed with the slow response of the nurse on call, Jessica takes the crutches from her mother and attempts to make her way to the bathroom. Her mother helps by pushing the IV stand as Jessica hobbles forward. Although her mother gives her encouragement, Jessica suddenly doesn’t feel well.

Now angry, Jessica considers the contrast between the fifty-five second 400-meter race she ran a few days before and the five minutes it’s taking her to walk to the bathroom. As she lowers herself onto the toilet, her good leg collapses, and she falls onto the toilet, urinating all over her gown in the process. Jessica breaks down in tears while her mother reassures her that “Things will get better” (16). But Jessica believes that she sees fear in her mother’s eyes, a fear that Jessica will never improve.

When a nurse finally arrives, she helps Jessica wash and change into a new gown. Then both the nurse and her mother assist Jessica to the bed where they put her under the covers. Her mother kisses her on the forehead, and although Jessica tries to smile, inside she feels “destroyed” (16).

Part 1, Chapters 4-6 Analysis

Robbed of the ability to run, Jessica can only revisit her races in her memory. She recalls her final race, the last one she ran before she lost her leg in the accident. In a 400-meter dash against her rival, Vanessa Steele, Jessica pushed herself as hard as she could, and in a last effort, beat Steele at the line. She set a new league record by winning in a time of fifty-five seconds.

Now Jessica is bed-bound in the hospital, and her handyman father, a self-employed man whose nature is to fix the problems before him, is faced with the one job for which there is no solution. She drifts in and out of sleep, hearing her father talking about potential remedies with Dr. Wells, knowing that he’s trying to solve a problem that can’t be fixed because he doesn’t know what else to do.

When Jessica calls for a nurse to help her to the bathroom, she gets frustrated waiting for over fifteen minutes. She attempts to use her crutches to get there by herself, but she falls while trying to sit on the toilet and pees on herself. Mortified and broken, Jessica bursts into tears, believing that her life is over.