Dreamland

Beverly cannot stop thinking about cameras. She reviews her escape, carefully going over every step and the ways Gary would be trying to track her down, finally willing herself to believe that he could not possibly track her to this town and this house. She tries to convince herself that she is safe.

To stave off the anxiety that continues to plague her and knowing that she must start thinking more clearly, Beverly decides to prime the kitchen walls for repainting but is unhappy with the results and decides to go into town to find Tommie some clothes. She dons her disguise and heads off, carefully monitoring whether anyone is taking notice of her. At a thrift store, she finds inexpensive clothes in Tommie’s size, then begins her long walk home. Lightheaded from hunger, she takes frequent breaks but returns just in time to greet Tommie from the bus.

While Tommie eats a sandwich, Beverly chats with him, explaining that the roof is too steep for anyone to have climbed on it. Tommie insists that he was awake, not having a nightmare, but Beverly remembers that he always says this after a nightmare. He asks when his father is coming, and she replies that he is working, then retrieves a mason jar for them to catch tadpoles in.

At the creek, as Tommie collects tadpoles, Beverly’s thoughts race through her various fears and worries about her son, his anxiety, and his missing his father. As they return to the house, she sees an old pickup truck in their driveway and panics. Claiming she lost her bracelet, she leads Tommie back to the creek then creeps back toward the house to assess the situation. Concluding that it could not be one of Gary’s men, she waits for the man to leave then brings Tommie back home. The man’s footprints do not pass the front porch, and nothing inside the house shows signs of disturbance.

Beverly sends Tommie to watch cartoons while she prepares dinner. She momentarily forgets whether they are meant to be having hamburger or chicken, and Tommie reminds her. Too anxious to eat, she prepares just one hamburger for Tommie, along with carrots and cauliflower. While Tommie eats, she frets about the pickup truck and thinks about Gary’s threat that he would track her “to the ends of the earth” if she ever tried to leave him and take Tommie with her (184). He said when he found her, he would make sure she never saw Tommie again. After they bring the tadpoles back to the creek and Tommie has had his bath, Beverly reads his favorite story and puts him to bed. In case it is her last night in the house, she decides to complete her painting project and is still working on it when Tommie wakes up the next morning.

Finishing the kitchen energizes Beverly. After Tommie goes off to school, she decides to tackle the “intolerable” burgundy living room walls. When she runs out of primer, she checks more of the paint cans and finds a bag of marijuana, pipe, and a lighter. Worried both about potentially being discovered in a house with drugs and with the possibility of Tommie finding drugs, she flushes the marijuana and tosses the lighter and pipe, resolving to check the house thoroughly for any more drugs. The amount of marijuana convinces her that it was not only for recreational use, and she realizes that the house’s previous inhabitants are likely on the run.

While preparing to search the kitchen, she notices that she forgot to pack Tommie’s lunch. Grabbing the bag off the counter, she manages to hitch a ride to his school from a young mother. Beverly is confused by the building’s interior, then realizes she had been remembering the layout of Tommie’s previous school. A staff member asks for her name, and she introduces herself as “Beverly” and explains about the lunch. The woman offers to deliver it. When Beverly gives her son’s name, the woman studies her and says she will “take care of it” (194). Unable to find a ride home, Beverly walks the whole way. When she passes a farm, a few men stop their work to stare at her, “as though they’d been waiting for her to return” (196).

Back at the house, Beverly tries to calm herself, knowing that racing thoughts will help neither her nor Tommie. She decides to take a shower to clear her mind. While changing out of her clothes, she remembers the marijuana and checks the medicine cabinet, finding enough prescription drugs for “a small pharmacy” (197). After disposing of them, she considers where else in the house dangers might be lurking. She clears out the cupboards, checking every container, disposes of harmful chemicals from beneath the sink, and clears the pantry shelves, but she finds nothing else hazardous.

On the back porch, she finds potentially dangerous tools and rodent poison, which she throws in the trash (though she knows mice are in the house). Finally, she checks under Tommie’s bed, noting that it is the first place she should have checked, and finds guns.

There are two of them, one longer than the other. An open box of ammunition lies beside them. Beverly begins weeping as she realizes the danger that she put Tommie in by not checking his room beforehand. She imagines his excitement at finding the guns and her mind fills with nightmare images as she cries herself to exhaustion. Determined to get rid of the guns, she considers where to bury them. Her thoughts fall on the state of the house, the landlord’s willingness to rent it to her without identification and on a cash basis, the off-limits barn, and she decides it is too dangerous for her and Tommie to remain. She must find other accommodations for them, though she does not have money to run again. She considers inspecting the barn despite the strict off-limits instructions, then decides to go to the creek, where she digs a deep hole. Returning to the house, she finds the pickup truck from the previous day waiting in the driveway again.

Trying to fall asleep, Colby tells himself that he cannot have fallen in love since “real love require[s] time and multitude of shared experiences,” but his feelings for Morgan continue to intensify (207). The “overwhelming emotions” he feels with her are unlike anything he has felt before, but his “logical side” reminds him that they are on different life paths (207). Throughout the day, Morgan consumes his thoughts. He works on his song inspired by her, its lyrics filled with memories of their day together.

Though a storm is expected, his set at Bobby T’s goes on as planned. Towards the end, she arrives. He plays the song he had been working on and sees the recognition on her face. Extended applause greets the end of the song, but when thunder rumbles nearby, the show is cut short. Morgan and Colby leave together and get caught in the downpour. As they approach his rental, the power goes out. They return to a dark apartment. Colby lights two candles, and they kiss. Morgan pulls away, telling him that she needs to change into dry clothes.

Colby also changes into dry clothes, then retrieves snacks from the kitchen. He knows Morgan is aware of his feelings for her and wonders about her feelings for him. He reflects that only by leaving the farm and North Carolina was he able to relax and allow himself to fall in love, and he feels regret for not having pursued his music dreams. He resolves that whatever happens with him and Morgan, he will “reinvent [himself] as the person [he] wanted to be” (215). He wonders about the effect of love and whether it makes one want “to become someone new” (215). Memories of Paige when she first began dating her husband return to him. He recalls how Paige in love had seemed like a stranger to him.

Morgan returns in a dry dress, and her beauty overwhelms him. Her phone rings with a call from her mother, after which she seems agitated. Unlike Morgan’s father, her mother worries. Wanting to keep Morgan close, she has been pressuring her daughter to take a teaching job in Chicago rather than move to Nashville. After Colby comforts her, they begin kissing, then undressing each other, finally going to the bedroom.

After having sex, they fall asleep together. At dawn, Colby kisses Morgan and tells her that he loves her, and she replies that she loves him, too.