The Running Dream

Jessica, the first-person narrator of the novel, is in the hospital after a tragic accident where she loses the lower part of her right leg. In and out of morphine-induced sleep, she is crying and wishing that her injury didn’t happen, that it is all a bad dream. As an active teenager and athlete, this loss represents a different kind of permanency: “My hopes, my dreams, my life…it’s over” (1). Her defeated outlook on life is contrasted by Dr. Wells’ cheerful nature and positive attitude toward the injury.

Watching Dr. Wells unwrap the bandaged stump below her knee causes Jessica to cry. The doctor is pleased with the way in which the leg is healing, but none of this matters to Jessica, who states that “the pain in my legs is nothing compared to the one in my heart” (2). The doctor recognizes the mental anguish that Jessica is feeling, and he reminds her that she is lucky to be alive and that she lost her leg below her knee, making the prospect of adjusting to a prosthetic leg much better than if she had lost her leg above her knee.

Dr. Wells encourages Jessica to “focus on the positive” (3), but for Jessica, there is no positive,as she will never be able to run again.