Out of My Dreams

“Fully awake now, I gazed out my bedroom window—I’d fallen asleep popped up on my pillows, so at least I could see outside—but my view was gray, gray, and more gray.”

In this passage, Draper uses weather and landscape to parallel Melody’s emotional state. While the window represents a form of freedom and allows Melody to observe the outside world, her position also reminds her of how limited she feels. The repetition of the word “gray” also mirrors Melody’s glum mental state, invoking a sense of the endless, repetitive patterns of facing similar challenges every day.

“They don’t see me. Melody Brooks. I can do eleventh-grade algebra problems in my head. Crossword puzzles too!”

In this scene, Melody articulates her frustration with feeling unseen and unacknowledged by her peers, who judge her by her disability and do not acknowledge her intelligence. The construction of this line shows that Melody sees her true self as her mind—not her body, which often stands in the way of her expression. This line suggests that Melody is actually an poised, proud girl who is deeply confident in her abilities, even if society’s acts of discrimination sometimes cause her to experience imposter syndrome.

“I love bubbles. Yep, the thin, iridescent orbs that my little sister loves to chase. Bubbles are weightless and free—like dreams.”

Melody uses a simile to relate bubbles to dreams, emphasizing that dreams are unaffected by gravity and physical limitations while Melody feels weighed down by both. The iridescence of the bubbles gives them a magical quality, emphasizing that Melody sees her dreams as a similarly magical force. Bubbles also carry an implication of fragility, foreshadowing how difficult it will be for Melody to protect and support her own fragile dreams.

“As I watched her run off, I felt so glad that she doesn’t have to face the world from a wheelchair, that she can say whatever silliness pops into her mind, that she can paint her fingernails ten different colors if she wants to.”

This line showcases Melody’s deeply empathetic nature. Rather than viewing her younger sister with resentment, Melody celebrates her sister’s ability to move and speak freely, and she also encourages Penny’s self-expression. Melody also shows off her observant and intuitive nature, recognizing the small but crucial aspects of her sister’s personality.

“I screeched out to the empty air and closed windows of the neighborhood. Not one single car passed by. Not even a random blue jay. And Miss Gertie was lying motionless in her yard.”

Draper uses imagery of absence and enclosure to emphasize the communication barriers that Melody faces. By highlighting the empty air, the closed windows, and the absence of cars, birds, and movement, Draper places significant distance between Melody and anyone who can hear or acknowledge her. Like Melody, Miss Gertie too is enclosed within herself, unable to move or communicate her needs.

“If not for you, young lady, your neighbor would still be lying there! You are a hero, Melody!”

This line marks the first moment when Melody is explicitly labeled a hero, and the declaration incites an intense internal battle as Melody struggles to see herself in a heroic light. With this scene, Draper introduces the idea of Celebrating Everyday Heroism, and Melody must reexamine her understanding of the term, expanding the definition beyond traditional imagery of soldiers and superheroes—figures that fail to represent her. The dispatcher’s comment emphasizes the real-world effects of heroism, defining the concept based on the help given and the crisis averted.

“Sometimes strangers don’t know about the hurricane stuck inside her head.”

This line comes from Melody’s 5-year-old sister Penny, who demonstrates her capacity for Understanding the Interiority of Others and astutely describes Melody’s experience of thinking deeply and having a lot to say while struggling to express herself. By introducing the powerful metaphor of a hurricane to describe this reality, Draper emphasizes the intensity of Melody’s inner life and the pressure that builds up inside her whenever she longs to make her thoughts known.

“Sometimes when sorrow takes over, kindness can hide from you.”

In this line, Miss Gertie explains why she was so standoffish in the past and rejected a pie from Melody’s mother. By describing sorrow and kindness as separate entities fighting for control of her inner life, Miss Gertie implies the existence of her own rich but inaccessible interiority, and Melody finds this idea to be very relatable. Miss Gertie also reveals that grief can have isolating effects that mirror the isolation that Melody often experiences with her disability.

“Loads of people do nice things every day. So why me? Because I’m what they call “disabled”? Because a kid like me isn’t expected to be able to do something like this?”

In this quote, Melody’s thoughts spiral in frustration, and she feels increasingly upset about the fact that people are celebrating her actions across the internet. Her rhetorical questions build on each other, mirroring the growing intensity of her emotions as she considers the implications of being celebrated for an act that she considers to be an ordinary “nice thing.” Melody fears that people only consider her a hero because they have such low expectations of her in the first place, and this question begins to sabotage her own belief in herself.

“London? Me?”

Melody’s incredulous tone shows that she can barely comprehend the prospect of going to London. The two abrupt, one-word questions place a grammatical barrier between her and London, while the choppiness of the language from the normally verbose Melody emphasizes her intense emotional reaction.

“And then we talked forever. About camp (she’d never been), the ocean (I’d never been), and Disney World (neither of us had ever been).”

As Melody and Sky rapidly build a friendship on shared interests, struggles, and desires, the hyperbolic use of the phrase “we talked forever” emphasizes Melody’s delight at the prospect of connecting deeply with a mind as eager as her own. The parentheticals highlight how Melody and Sky bond over the places and activities they haven’t done but dream of doing, creating a possibility that they could fulfill those dreams together.

“My chair was part of me, part of how I functioned in the world. I refused, however, to be separated from Elvira.”

This line illustrates Melody’s view that her assistive devices function as an extension of her body, but she also draws a sharp distinction between the device that assists her mobility and the one that allows her to express her innermost thoughts. While she feels vulnerable without her chair, she is willing to temporarily part with it without losing her sense of herself. By contrast, because Elvira allows her to communicate, this device is more fundamental to who she is. The passage therefore supports the idea that Melody considers her true self to be her mind.

“I wanted to shout, Thank you, thank you, for all you’ve done for me! But all I could do was squeeze. It was enough. She knew.”

This quote describes an intimate moment between Melody and Mrs. V, revealing how unspoken communication can also be a powerful way to share one’s inner life with another person. Melody emphasizes the intuitive connection between her and Mrs. V. Even as Mrs. V interprets the true meaning behind Melody’s physical gesture, Melody can intuit Mrs. V’s thoughts, and the wordless exchange demonstrates the deep level of connection between them.

“What the heck? My chair was a mess.”

This line comes from a moment when Melody faces an accessibility obstacle along her trip. The obstacle fulfills Draper’s earlier foreshadowing, in which she referenced how common it is for wheelchairs to get damaged during travel. Melody’s clipped and surprised language reveals how upset and disappointed she is that this particular issue came true for her.

“She searched my face to see if I was upset. I wasn’t. Not really. I’d seen reactions like his too many times. I just tapped, ‘No time to waste on turd boys!’”

This line showcases Melody’s resilience in the face of ableist microaggressions while out in public. When Sky seeks Melody’s reaction to a rude person, the scene shows Sky’s innate empathy, especially as she looks for nonverbal cues to interpret Melody’s state of mind. Significantly, Melody responds with her signature sense of humor, recasting an awkward social moment into an opportunity to bond with Sky.

“The Rosetta Stone was like, an Elvira!”

This simile shows how Melody’s travels expand her understanding of her own life. Seeing the Rosetta Stone allows Melody to place Elvira in a long history of translation and communication devices that allow people to understand each other more deeply. Seeing assistive devices from the past allows Melody to find valuable forms of representation, and this particular revelation helps her to believe in her ability to contribute new ideas and new technology to further aid communication.

“My very first West End play… was to watch you in Peter Pan!”

In this scene, Teddy gushes to Miss Gertie, and his enthusiasm emphasizes the enduring power of her artistic contributions. Even now, many years later, Miss Gertie can see that her past performance has fostered an audience member’s love of the theater, encouraging lifelong community engagement. Seeing her own impact on others helps Miss Gertie to reconnect with her art, and Melody also finds herself inspired to find unique ways to contribute to her own community.

“And how can I say no to Melody? If she summoned her courage, well, I can too.”

This line marks a turning point in Miss Gertie’s character arc as she takes the brave step to perform and save the play. This line also emphasizes Melody’s quiet act of heroism, which inspires Miss Gertie to find her own courage. Miss Gertie again considers courage as a separate entity, like her sorrow and her kindness, adding in a new element that will inspire her to reconnect to her past life.

“Sky. Oliver. Go see the show. I will leave. I need to leave. NOW.”

This line comes from a moment of high conflict and emotional intensity when Melody is turned away from the Double Trouble show due to the inaccessibility of the theater. Melody’s clipped yet commanding language conveys her frustration even as it masks her shame and anger over costing her friends the concert experience. In this moment, Melody grammatically separates herself from her friends, seeing herself as “other.”

“The weight of feeling guilty, MAD, embarrassed, and even jealous of everyone else who was getting to be at the concert felt like drowning. Drowning inside myself.”

As Melody broods on the injustice of being forced to miss the concert, Draper uses the scene to demonstrate the metaphorical “hurricane” in Melody’s head, emphasizing the damage and discomfort that arises from the girl’s struggles to express herself. The storm of emotions lead to a feeling of drowning as Melody perceives her growing isolation from her friends and from her access to the world. Unlike the weightless feeling of bubbles and dreams, Melody now feels weighed down and trapped by disappointment.

“They don’t just want you, they need you. Remember: they didn’t have to invite you. You’d never have even known about it. They made a choice, and they chose you, based on everything that you are.”

This quote comes from a pep talk that Mrs. V gives to Melody after Melody expresses her feelings of self-doubt about participating in the conference. Mrs. V speaks in logical and direct language, showing how intuitively clear it is that Melody deserves to go to the conference. Because Mrs. V truly sees Melody for who she is, Melody believes her and accepts her argument.

“Whaaaaat? Bethany had the WHY MEs too?”

In this moment, Melody realizes that she is not alone in struggling with imposter syndrome. By labeling this inner crisis of confidence a case of the “why me’s,” she makes the idea more accessible to a younger audience, and her exaggerated “Whaaaaat?” signals the true extent of her surprise, showing how imposter syndrome is fundamentally isolating. This moment allows Melody to connect more deeply with Bethany, and she realizes that she and Bethany are both deserving of a place at the conference.

“And Prince William was waving me up. Me. Melody. Okay, girl. Soar!”

With the repetition of the iconic word “soar,” Melody triumphantly celebrates a moment of intense freedom, and her wording also obliquely invokes the motif of birds that is spread throughout the narrative. This moment shows Melody crossing the final threshold, going onstage to present her idea in front of the crown prince, the conference, and her dear friends. Her use of short sentences no longer expresses frustration, as it has in earlier passages. Instead, the tone now shows that all attention is focused on Melody in this moment. Melody gives herself a final pep talk, metaphorically taking flight and shedding all the weight of shame and disappointment in order to follow her dreams.