Harvey's Dream Summary

“Harvey’s Dream” by Stephen King starts out on a Saturday morning with Janet and her husband of thirty years, Harvey. Janet turns around from the sink and sees her husband sitting at the kitchen table in a t-shirt and boxers. With the help of Janet’s inner dialogue, you discover that their marriage is boring and lifeless; after raising and marrying off three girls, the marriage that Janet wants is nowhere to be seen. The couple even sleeps in different bedrooms in the summer because of Janet’s allergies. Interrupting her thoughts, Harvey says he woke himself up screaming from a nightmare. Janet asks him to tell her what the nightmare was about but Harvey hesitates, seemingly nervous. When she reassures him by saying if you tell someone your dream it won’t come true, he starts to explain his nightmare. Janet notices that what he is explaining sounds eerily familiar to that same morning; from the dent in the neighbor’s car Janet noticed when she woke up to the devilled eggs she made in the refrigerator. Janet senses a looming feeling surrounding her, making her sweaty and uneasy. The neighbor is known for drunk driving, the same neighbor that their daughter, Jenna, liked to hang around. She walks over to the window to catch her breath and Harvey continues with his story. Janet looks at the dent in the neighbor’s Volvo and sees a red stain in the dent along with a smudge of something dark, perhaps mud or hair. Harvey starts talking about a phone call from their daughter Trisha. He goes on about the phone call and the bad news that Trisha had involving the police and someone being killed, but he woke himself up yelling before he heard anything else. Janet is completely shocked at the similarity of the nightmare to what was actually happening in front of her. She tries to shake the feeling; telling herself that if you tell someone of your dreams, they won’t come true. Then the phone rings, and Harvey picks it up with a “Hello?”