The Running Dream

Sherlock wakes Jessica up at 5:45, the time they would typically wake up to go running every morning. She has to tell him that they won’t be running anymore. For Jessica, Sherlock has been “good, faithful company” (65), and she loves him for his acceptance of her, even with her stump. But his insistence of waking her up every morning to run as they always had in the past makes Jessica cry, particularly when he wakes her up while she is having what she calls a “running dream” (65).

Jessica thinks of her mother crying over the photo album and gets angry at herself for wallowing in self-pity. She takes Sherlock outside to play fetch with a tennis ball and teaches him to retrieve the ball by bringing it back to her hand. They play for a while, and when they are both tired, they sit together on the porch. For a brief moment, Jessica is enjoying Sherlock’s company and the world around her. Then she hears a sound that tears at her heart: the sound of a runner going past her house.