The Running Dream

Jessica’s mother has an after-school snack waiting for her when she gets home. While eating, Jessica shares parts of her day with her mom, but she doesn’t talk about the harder things, like the uncomfortable stares, or the Gavin-Merryl incident, or meeting Rosa. She feels too exhausted to bring up those subjects.

What she does ask her mother about are the insurance issues that her coach mentioned. Her mother thinks that Coach Kyro shouldn’t have said anything because she doesn’t want Jessica worrying about insurance at all. Her mom explains: “Your father’s not really mad at him, really. He’s mad at the situation, and I think that in the beginning Kyro got the brunt of that” (110). Jessica staunchly defends her coach, saying it’s not his fault, and telling her mom about the “Lucy” bracelet.

Jessica asks her mother to tell her the truth. Her mom explains that “payment is clogged because the different insurance companies are dragging their feet, each pointing the finger at the other” (110). The driver who hit the bus, Jack Lowe, did not have insurance coverage. His truck wasn’t legally registered, and because Lowe was self-employed, there is no company to cover the costs his actions have incurred. Jessica’s mother says that eventually Lowe’s estate will have to pay for everything, but his widow will likely need to sell their property to do so. The widow has hired a lawyer to prevent this from happening, and the school and bus company refuse to take the blame and won’t pick up any of the bills.

Once Jessica understands what is going on, she asks her mom if their family has health insurance. Her mother admits that they used to, but they let it lapse because it became too expensive. When Jessica asks who has been paying the bills, her mother refuses to answer, telling her not to worry about it: “Your sole focus should be getting back into life” (112). She asks Jessica to keep this conversation between the two of them, and Jessica knows then why her father has been working from dawn to dusk: they have to pay the bills, and still need to pay for the prosthetic leg.

Jessica throws herself into completing her homework on Saturday because it’s a task she can complete and helps distract her from thinking about the track team participating in the Glenwood Relays. Her family helps move her bedroom back upstairs again as Jessica has become proficient at scooting up the stairs. She improves in her ability to navigate the house with or without crutches. She also rediscovers crawling, although she only crawls when she is alone, as it bothers her mother to watch her on the floor.

While showering on Sunday evening, Jessica begins to feel that she is mentally and physical ready for her prosthetic leg. Although she is proud of what she has accomplished, she’s tired of crawling and scooting around. Having the fake leg would be “a liberating luxury” (115). She feels that she is now ready to make the next step in her recovery.