The Running Dream

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2011

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Part 1, Chapters 16-18Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapter 16 Summary

Jessica wakes up alone in the early morning hour. She looks to the chair her mom normally sleeps in, but it’s empty. She remembers that she told her mother that she didn’t have to stay overnight anymore. Her mother was uncertain of Jessica’s request, and tells her, “I’d switch places with you, Jessica. In a heartbeat” (36). Jessica knows that her mother would do just that if she could.

They both know, however, that her mother cannot take Jessica’s place. Still, it bothers Jessica that her mother “has been sleeping in that chair” (37), so she tells her mom to go home, that she will be okay on her own. But, in fact, Jessica finds herself alone and upset, and she begins to cry. It’s been eight days since the amputation, and it already seems like a lifetime.

Part 1, Chapter 17 Summary

Fiona stops by the hospital after attending Lucy’s funeral service. She confesses to Jessica that the experience was terrible. Although the service itself was beautiful, with people telling stories about Lucy and flowers all over, all Fiona could think about was why this had to happen at all.

Jessica is moved by Fiona’s tears, and she knows she should be thankful that she survived the crash, but she can’t. She recognizes that her feeling is a selfish one and admits to “thinking that Lucy is the lucky one. For Lucy, there’s no pain, no rehab, no learning to live disabled” (39). Lucy is at peace, not in a world of anger and self-disgust, like Jessica.

Part 1, Chapter 18 Summary

Fiona changes the subject by sharing school gossip with Jessica. Gavin has become involved with Merryl Abrams, a field-event athlete and teammate. Fiona comically describes Merryl hanging on Gavin and saying, “‘I can’t bear the thought of that horrible, horrible day!” (41), even though she wasn’t on the bus at the time of the accident. Jessica describes Merryl as a member of the team who didn’t care about competing and only wanted another participatory item to list on her college applications. The girls discuss whether Gavin will fall for Merryl’s superficiality and manipulative nature.

When Fiona asks when Jessica will return to school, Jessica immediately freezes. She tells Fiona that a home-school program might be best, but Fiona disagrees. She offers to push Jessica—literally—in a wheelchair through the school halls. Internally, Jessica starts to feel panicked. She still has trouble making it to the bathroom on her own, and she worries that she won’t be able to cope at school.

Part 1, Chapters 16-18 Analysis

Jessica spends her nights alone at the hospital after assuring her mother she would be fine on her own overnight. However, the truth is that Jessica is both alone and angry, still struggling with her injury and loss. Here, we see Jessica’s independent sprit at odds with the reality of her disability.

During Fiona’s next visit, she shares her experience at Lucy’s memorial service with Jessica. While listening to Fiona break down in tears, Jessica knows she should be happy that she didn’t die like Lucy, but that isn’t the case. In fact, Jessica is envious of Lucy, who is now dead and at peace. It’s easy to view Jessica’s thoughts as selfish, which they are; at the same time, they make sense for a minor still coming to terms with terrible trauma—there is a logic, to Jessica, to be envious of the dead.

Fiona also shares school gossip with Jessica, including the blossoming relationship between Gavin and one of their teammates, Merryl Abrams. Jessica portrays Merryl as a manipulative and self-centered person, and she wonders how Gavin can’t see the truth of Merryl’s superficial personality. Jessica’s envy may be taken as a positive, though, as it denotes a “normal” feeling for a person: she has a crush on a boy who is going out with someone else.

This is counterbalanced by Fiona asking about Jessica’s return to school. Here, Jessica becomes uneasy. Even with Fiona’s offer to help push the wheelchair around the school, Jessica doesn’t think she is ready to face everyone at school yet. Situations and environments where she can’t control reactions to her disability, and in which she may not be able to physically navigate, remain overwhelming.