The train tracks lining the edge of the forest are like shiny silver teeth reflecting the moonlight, grinning at him with evil intent. The cold hard steel of the track like that of prison bars, the train howling in the distances curls his toes and only teases at a chance of escaping this place. "No train ever comes". .
"People move from the darkness outside the house to the darkness inside". Have you ever had a dream where it is difficult to see? Faces are blurry and unclear; the lights are dim and hazy like those in a low budget horror film. I imagine Mikal's family moving about the house, levitating from room to room like the ghosts in the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. "They are all back from the dead". This is a disturbing quote to me. It would be one thing if this dream were about a memory Mikal has when his family was alive, but in this case I believe he is stating that his family has returned from the grave, they have been re-animated and are walking about and talking. .
We learn much about Mikal's family through his dream. Mikal's mother Bessie died "calling the names of her father and her husband-men who had long before brutalized her hopes and her love". Never before in the story did Mikal indicate that his mother was in any way abused by her husband. Perhaps this is an issue that Mikal Gilmore had not totally accepted, or has difficulty expressing. In her final moments Bessie cries out to men who brought her anguish and pain. She lived a life in which these were normal conditions, and in many cases it is proven that people adapt to abusive situations and learn to accept them. .
Mikal's brothers are all there. He speaks very passionately about Gary "who murdered innocent men in rage against the way life had robbed him of time and love, and who died when a volley of bullets tore his heart from his chest". One could argue that Gary's heart was already torn out by his father years before.