Page 46 - Where the Dream Ends ebook

Marc Erdrich

Harry often had dreams about the tiny apartment in front
of which he now stood. In one recurring dream he returned to
the apartment to look for mail. Unlike the other apartments in
the building whose mailboxes were in the lobby, their mailbox
was attached to the jamb just outside the front door. In his
dream, the box was always filled to overflowing, as if whoever
lived in the apartment had been gone for a long time. Har-
ry would go through the box looking for a letter addressed
to him, but it was never there. Sadly, he would leave and the
dream would fade away. Sometimes the dream would repeat
itself two or three times in a night.

In the most recent dream, the one that brought him back
to the apartment, Harry again returned to look for mail; but
this time something was different. The neighborhood was not
familiar. It was dark and sinister. When Harry opened the mail-
box, it was empty. He opened the door to the apartment, but
instead of the familiar hallway with its three steps, a long flight
of stairs stretched in front of him. He went up the steps. The
entrance to the apartment was at the very top of the stairs.
The door was open and he let himself in. There were lights
on. He went through the living room into the bedroom where
his mother was asleep alone. There was nothing unusual about
finding her asleep. His father generally left for work at 5:30 in
the morning, and she would usually stay in bed until everyone
left the house. In the dream, Harry didn’t wake her. Instead, he
went back through the living room and into the kitchen, where
he found his teenage daughter half naked sitting in the lap of a
strange man who she was embracing. When she saw him, she
jumped up, frightened. Just then, Harry heard footsteps on the
stairs. He went to the door, which had a glass partition, and he
saw another man coming up the stairs. He went back into the

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