A Few Years Ago I Had the Following Dream
- David dreams that he's six years old again, living alone in a big house with a large garden and a high wall.
- He's afraid of the outside and has never left the house; instead, he explores the world with a remote-control car, which he operates from behind a window.
- One day, while driving the car, he sneezes, and he accidentally drives the car into a fountain.
- As he contemplates leaving the house to retrieve it, he hears a sweeping sound, and he looks over the garden wall for the first time.
- There's a big old building, and his mom's sweeping a path to it from his house.
- It's the state asylum where his grandmother died. His mom motions for him to walk down the path and come on in.
- The book ends with the words, "I didn't."