Dreams- Reading

Dreams”

The relationship between my mother, sister and me had been cold and inimical for as long as I could remember.

To me, my mother was irrational, hurling hurtful invectives for the slightest infraction. “Don’t matter,” my mother grumbled when I asked her where she moved my watercolor paints. “It ain’t like you got talent.” The time our mailbox got knocked off she somehow got it in her head that I was the culprit. “Never respected nothing” I heard her say. And my sister took my mother’s side against me every time. Five years my senior, Tammy seemed not to have a brain in her head. She dithered about everything, incapable of making any firm decision. No matter how often my mother deprecated her— “dumb, ugly, fat”—Tammy made futile attempts to fawn her way back into mother’s good graces.

My father would pontificate, “You three are more alike than you know.”

In April of 2000, my mother kicked us both out of the house. (Dad had been exiled many years before.) After that, my sister and I went our separate ways. It was then that I began having recurring dreams.

In one, I am running to catch up with a woman. Each time I get near, I trip and fall. Another woman, smiling and shouting my name, comes with great alacrity and offers her hand, but when I reach to grab it, she disappears.

In another, a female professor hands me a test. Although I have spent hours studying for it, I know none of the answers. The professor derides me for my poor performance. I watch while she relays my ignorance to the class with comic hilarity.

These dreams were not hard to understand. In fact, it was just the opposite; they were pellucid, and absent any knowledge of dream interpretation, I was still able to devise their significance. I knew that they both reflected the pugnacious relationship I shared with my mother and sister.

However, there was one dream I could never quite construe. I bite into an apple.

All my teeth fall out. I had this dream far more than any of the others.

Years later, in an effort to heal our fractious relationship, Mom, Tammy and I elected to go to counseling together. After several sessions, I told my dream about teeth tumbling out of my head.

“My God, Chris,” said my mother. “I’ve had the exact same dream many times.”

“Me, too,” said Tammy solemnly.

Breakthrough? No idea. But I was reminded of the words of my now-dead father. Maybe the three of us are more alike than we know.

1) About what is the story?

R: The story begins with the narrator’s description of the difficult relationship between him, his mother, and his sister. Then, the narrator tells the reader about his recurring dreams. Finally, the narrator recounts a counseling session during which the narrator, his mother and sister discovered that they were all having the same dream.

2) Which is the best synonym for inimical?

R: Hostile

3) How was his relationship with his mother and sister?

R: In paragraph 1, the narrator says, “The relationship between my mother, sister and me had been cold and inimical for as long as I could remember.” They were hurtful with him.

4) What think about his mother?

R: For him, his mother was irrational, hurling

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