The Recurring Dream - Summary | The Magic of Words

English | Summary | Unit One: Stories of the Supernatural

The Recurring Dream | A story from England

                The story is set in England. Kimberly Clark (Kim) is the main character of the story. Janet is her roommate.

                Kim is a pretty girl of 25. She lives in London and works in a reputed company in high post. She is very unhappy because she has the same dream almost every night. According to her, she dreams about a house in a village where she sees an old man asleep in bed. The old man is

small with white hair and a white beard. In the dream, she goes onto a narrow lane, reaches the top of hill and enters the house of the little man. She moves around the house and finally arrives in the room where the old man is asleep. The old man wakes up. When she tries to speak to him, she wakes up herself in her apartment in London. She does not know at all who the old man is. She cannot avoid this dream either.

                In order to help her forget the dream and get relief from it, her roommate Janet takes Kim to her parents’ farm in the countryside. Kim sits in Janet’s car. They soon leave London city behind and drive through countryside. All of sudden Kim sees the house in her dream on the top of the hill. She makes Janet stop the car and walks up to the house. She knocks at the door, and the same old man who appears in her dream opens the door. Kim is bewildered at this sight. She reads the notice that says the house is “For Sale”. She speaks to the old man and why he wants to sell the house. He replies the house is visited by a ghost every night.

                Kim asks him who the ghost is. The old man tells her it is Kim herself and slams the door closed and goes in.