The Running Dream

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2011

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Part 5, Chapters 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 5, Chapter 4 Summary

Before she falls asleep that night, Jessica gets an idea. The next morning, she heads into the garage, pulls out the wheelchair, and throws a sack of soil in it. Then, Jessica tries to run while pushing the wheelchair with Sherlock trailing behind her. She runs their regular route over the bridge, and as hard as it is to run and push the chair simultaneously, she keeps going until she feels blisters forming on her stump.

Jessica is suddenly interrupted by a handsome man who is calling her name and running towards her. To Jessica’s surprise, it’s Gavin, who laughs at seeing her pushing a wheelchair with a bag of soil in the seat. Gavin offers to run with Jessica, but she brushes him off, prompting him to ask Jessica if he bothers her since she is always trying to avoid him. As they run together for a few moments, Jessica says that she doesn’t want Gavin to be kind to her because he feels sorry for her.

Suddenly, Gavin tells Jessica that he broke up with Merryl and that it was a mistake ever to have dated her. He tells Jessica that what he wrote on her running leg was the truth: “You inspire me” (291). Gavin says Jessica is the most amazing person he knows, and then he kisses her.

Part 5, Chapter 5 Summary

After they kiss, Jessica admits that she had tried hard not to like Gavin, especially because she thought he liked Fiona. When he asks what the wheelchair is all about, Jessica shares her plan to give Rosa the chance to experience what it’s like to run and cross the finish line. She wants to push Rosa in the wheelchair during the ten-mile River Run race in November. But Jessica found it so difficult to run with the wheelchair for only two miles that she confesses to giving up on the idea.

Gavin encourages her to give it some time,as she has just started running again and needs time to build up her strength. He asks to meet her to run tomorrow morning, so they can try again together. With Gavin’s faith in her, Jessica realizes that “anything seems possible” (296).

Part 5, Chapter 6 Summary

Jessica runs into the house to call Fiona but stops when she realizes her father has seen everything between her and Gavin. She sits down and tells her dad first about Gavin, and then about her plan to run with Rosa. While her mother absorbs the news that Jessica might have a boyfriend, her father points out that she needs better wheels on the wheelchair if she’s going to push Rosa in it. Jessica hugs her father and says that he is “the best” (298) and that she doesn’t tell him that as much as she should. As soon as she can, Jessica runs upstairs to call Fiona and share all the news.

Part 5, Chapters 4-6 Analysis

Inspired by her desire to keep Rosa’s friendship a mainstay in her life, Jessica comes up with a plan to run a race while pushing Rosa in her wheelchair. This event would give Rosa so much joy and the opportunity to know what it’s like to run. While practicing pushing a wheelchair on her run one morning, Jessica sees Gavin, and after an uncomfortable few moments, he tells her he has broken up with Merryl because he is interested in her. They kiss, and Jessica suddenly feels like everything, including pushing Rosa through a ten-mile race, is possible.