PENGUIN ACTIVE READING Level 4 The Dream and other stories.pdf

STORY

The Dream

Frank Tilsley

Even if dreams can show us the future, this dream did not make sense.

Must I never pass a lorry on a clear road?

an a dream show us the future and give us the opportunity of changing it? It

is hard to believe. If we can see the future in a dream, then surely the future

already exists. If it does, then we are not free to act in the ways we wish to; we are

Hot responsible for our own lives.

Before I tell you the dream, I must explain a little about the context. It was

the summer of four years ago, and I was driving my family back from Italy

through the south of France. My son had not yet learned to drive, my daughter

was too young, and my wife doesn't drive at all. I had been at the wheel for the

best part of three weeks. Perhaps I was tired; perhaps I could think of nothing

except cars. We spent the night of the dream in a town called Tain l'Hermitage.

The Dream and Other Stories

Story 1 - The Dream

Now I'll tell you the dream. I was sitting in a big, powerful, cream-coloured

car, and I was driving at high speed through the country. I was coming to a bend

in the road, and in front of me there was a very large lorry.

My foot reached out towards the brake, but it could not find it. I looked

down: there was no brake! Worse: my hands held empty air. There was no wheel

for them to hold. There were no controls of any kind. Already we were almost

into the back of the lorry.

I shouted in fear. Then I heard a calm voice coming from my left, and I

turned my head. A stranger was sitting there. He was a cheerful man of about

forty. He was wearing an expensive shirt, and on his head he had a red hat. I

couldn't understand what he said; he spoke very quickly in French, and my own

French is not very good. I didn't, in fact, care what he said. My eyes were on his

clean, fat hands, which were holding the wheel. This car had its wheel on the left.

He, not I, was in control.

We drove safely round the bend. He turned the wheel slightly to place the

car in the middle of the road. He was going to pass the lorry. The road stretched

straight ahead. It was bright in the sunlight and it was quite empty. Only one

other person was in sight; a woman was sitting outside a small house with white

walls, and this house was almost exactly ahead of us. She was sitting by a table

putting some flowers in pots. She wanted to sell us some, and waved them at us.

This sight, for some reason, filled me with a terrible fear. The flowers made

me think of death and our final resting place.

At this moment we were level with the lorry and ready to pass it, but then the

lorry began to turn away from the side of the road, towards our car. It appeared

that the driver was doing this on purpose. The stranger by my side shouted

loudly and tried to move out of the way. There was a terrible noise from the back

of the car, and then an explosion. The earth seemed to turn over, and the noise of

flames burned in my ears. At that point I woke up in fear.

I was very worried by this dream, and could not sleep again. It seemed to have

a message, and I wanted to explain it.

Even if dreams can show us the future, this dream did not make sense. Must I

never pass a lorry on a clear road? The road to Paris is always filled with very large

lorries. Most of them come up from Marseilles, and I always have to pass them

when the road is clear; I can't drive slowly behind them for ever. No, this was not

the meaning of the dream. At its heart was some kind of fear. I had to recognize

my fear, and then I could forget all about it.

I thought about my driving during the last three weeks. I tried to remember

all the lorries and all the small white houses. I thought of all the cars which were

painted cream. I remembered nothing of any great interest. I had imagined that

the road in the dream must be in France; it was long, empty and straight. But

then I remembered that we had passed the lorry on the right. So the dream was

about a road in England; in England all cars keep to the left. Immediately, I

remembered something.

I wo years before this, I was travelling in the north of England. An American

and I were making some radio programmes. He had brought his car from

America, and of course the driver sat on the left side. The brakes and other

. Dntrols were also on the left, but the colour of his car was not cream.

The American was a careless driver, and often passed other cars against my

advice. Remember that I was in a better position to see: I was sitting on the right.

Once, just after Nottingham, he played chicken'.

You probably know about 'chicken'; it is a game that is played on the roads. It

is becoming more and more popular in America, because long journeys are often

very dull. You just move your car into the middle of the road and stay there.

When another car appears, it comes towards you in the middle of the road. The

di iver who turns away is the chicken. Quite often neither driver turns away.

I expressed my displeasure at this game in language that the American could

not fail to understand. We did not play it again, but it had probably left its mark

on my mind. So then, when I was asleep, I experienced it all again in a dream. I

also remembered something else while I was having breakfast. When we played

'chicken', it was an uncommonly windy day. We stopped at Chesterfield, and the

American bought a hat. It was a black hat, not a red one, but in dreams details

are not always exact. After this I forgot about the dream until the afternoon.

The big French lorries often play their own game. They stay in the middle

of the road, and you can't pass them. You have to stay behind them. Sometimes

you have to follow them for endless kilometres, although the roads are almost

completely empty.

This afternoon we were following a large vehicle which was making terrible

noises. When I blew my horn, the driver moved to the side of the road, but it

was the wrong side. He was driving along on the left, instead of keeping to the

right. There was enough space on the right for me to pass him. But to do that

would be wrong. So I just followed him for a few kilometres and I told myself

not to pass him.

I considered the situation from every point of view. I could certainly turn

my car more quickly than he could turn his lorry. It was a very big, heavy lorry.

Could I, perhaps, pass him quickly on the right before he could do anything? If

he turn ed to the right, though, he could easily kill us all. He probably wanted a

brake /breik/ (n) the part of a vehicle that makes it go more slowly or stop

horn /ho:n/ (n) the part of a car that you push to make a warning sound

The Dream and Other Stories

bit of fun, but he might want an accident. If he killed us, nobody would say it

was his fault; the law would be on his side.

The road ahead was quite empty, and went on for many kilometres. I drove

more slowly until some distance separated us. Then I increased my speed as

much as I could. I drove towards that empty space beside the lorry. My car was

moving at about 110 kilometres an hour.

The front of my car was almost level with the back of the lorry. Then I saw

something that knocked the breath out of my body. On the grass beside the road

a woman was sitting outside a small white house with a table of flowers!

For the first time in my life I changed my mind while I was preparing to pass

another vehicle. My foot went down hard on the brake. The car rocked from side

to side. From behind me I heard the sound of a horn. Another car was following

us at a high speed. I knew its colour before I saw it; it was cream.

I pressed hard on the brake and turned the wheel slightly. I was just able to

move in behind the lorry without touching it. The other car passed us and the

driver blew his horn wildly. It reached the lorry - and then the lorry turned

towards it.

For a moment I thought that the car was going to pass the lorry safely; it was

moving very fast. Then the front of the lorry just touched the back of the car. It

was only a light touch, but it knocked the car towards the side of the road and

the woman at the table.

The driver of that car knew exactly what to do. With the greatest skill he

turned it back into the middle of the road. His control was wonderful, much

better than mine. He waved angrily at the lorry driver and drove quickly away in

a cloud of dust. He was soon out of sight.

We stayed that night in Fontainebleau. A big car was standing outside the

hotel, and the back showed signs of damage to the paintwork. It was a cream car,

and so I looked for the driver. He was not wearing a red hat or an expensive shirt.

He was a young man from Paris - not like the driver in my dream. He spoke

good English, so I asked him if he would like the number of that lorry. I had

noticed it, and I was happy to give it to him. But he only laughed; the law wont

help you if you pass on the wrong side of the road. To him the whole thing had

been a game.

'It tests your skill,' he said. 'If the car is powerful enough, you can do it. But

you couldn't do it, not in your car.'

I didn't tell him about my dream, my reason for not passing the lorry. There

was no time; he was in a hurry and wanted to reach Paris quickly. It made me

think, though. I don't really believe in dreams, of course; but something saved us

all from a terrible death.

Activities 2

The Dream and Other Stories

Were you right?

l .inguage in use

Look at the sentence on the right and the

rx .imple below.Then complete the other

ttntences with verb forms.

1 Look back at your answers to 1.2 on page iv. Then complete these

sentences.

| This sight, for some reason, filled

me with a terrible fear.

In the dream, the driver is in 1 ............................... where people drive on the

, The story-teller is the 3 ......

and a

1 This sight filled me with fear.

What did you

crashes into his car. But, in reality, there is

What do they

Put your hands on the controls.

crash.

Her death was unexpected.

When did she

................................ ?

2 Which of these are true of the dream (D) and in reality (R)? Tick ( ) them.

4 l here was an explosion.

What

5 I had a terrible dream.

What did you

................................ ?

6 We've got an invitation.

When were you

1 The driver of the cream car is a cheerful man of about forty.

2 A woman sits outside a white house with a table of flowers.

/ It is his second marriage.

Who has he

3 The lorry turns towards the story-teller's car.

8 His business has been a great success.

How did he

4 There is another car behind the story-teller.

5 The lorry turns towards the cream car.

What's next?

The next story is by D. H. Lawrence, one of Britain's

most famous writers. He wrote about human

relationships and emotions. This story takes place

after World War 1 (1914-18).

Look at the pictures on pages 8-19. How happy do you

think the blind man and his wife are, alone on their

fcrm? What are their worries, for themselves and for

each other? What effect will the other man, a visitor,

have on their lives? Make notes below.

6 The driver of the cream car is a young man from Paris.

7 Nobody is hurt.

What more did you learn?

Who might say these words in the real events of the story?

Are we going to be

in this car much

longer?

Can't you pass this

lorry? It's making

terrible

The flower seller!

We're going to die!

noises.

Pass me! You can't

do it, can you?!

Dad, you nearly

killed us all.

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