The question is asked as to why Gail Godwin titles her story "Dream Children" when it seems that only one dream child is mentioned. It is simply because there is more then one dream child, and they are present in more places then just the McNair’s house. Gail Godwin makes the assumption that many people are or were dream children, including Mrs. McNair.

Mrs. McNair was a dream child when she was young, and she has carried the special abilities of dream children with her into adulthood. The dream children travel through the night to places other then their bedroom. They visit places in their sleep. When Mrs. McNair was a child, "she had gone through a phase of walking in her sleep" (Godwin 1044). Her parents began to worry that she might drown or hurt herself when she traveled in her sleep, so they sent her to a psychiatrist. After seeing this psychiatrist, her "night journeys had stopped" (1045). Now, in her adult life, she travels in her sleep again.

It all began when Mrs. McNair met the child she believed to be her own. Unfortunately, her child died at birth, but in a tragic hospital mix-up she is handed a baby belonging to another mother. This brief meeting with the newborn child affected her profoundly. This terrible situation, that never should have happened, caused her to look at life differently. She never forgot the baby that was handed to her. Mrs. McNair thought of him all the time, and she believed he thought of her.

The child she had possession of for a brief moment would sometimes come back and visit her at night. Mrs. McNair would lie in her bed in a "weightless though conscious state’ and "send her thoughts anywhere" (1045). It was in this state that she heard the sound of "pebbles being shaken in ajar" coming from the guest room (1045). Knowing that this sound was not a sound she normally heard, she "sent" herself to the guest room to see what it was. That is where she saw him, kneeling in the corner of the room. She went over to him and just knelt there, staring at the child she once held in her arms. After she awoke in her bed, she did not know if she had actually been out of the room. They had met at another level.

Mrs. McNair used this ability of traveling in her sleep to see him many more times. She traveled with him outside the house to show him the dog, Blue Boy, and her horse. This was the farthest they had ever traveled together. She found it magical how he found the ability to "project himself upon her" (1048). She knew he loved her, "even if he never remembered her in his other life" (1048).

When they went to see Blue Boy, he "whined and backed away in fear" (1048). The dog was able to feel their presence and was frightened by it. Blue Boy did not understand what was going on, but he knew that something was there. The horse "perked up his ears and looked interested" when they went to visit him (1048). This made Mrs. McNair believe that horses were "more magical than dogs" (1048). The horse could understand why the two of them were there in a weightless state, traveling in their sleep. He could accept the fact that they were there in a different form.

Mrs. McNair had a connection with miracles and the supernatural. She read books about spiritualism and other worlds. It was in these books that she realized that other people had the ability to experience the same things she did. She started to read these kinds of books because of her connection to the child who visited her. Mrs. McNair believed in all the miracles and unexplained mysteries of the world. When she needed a break from everyday life, she went into the guest room and read about magical things that happened to other people. That room was very special to her because that is where she had all the experiences with the dream child. It was like another realm to her. That room was magical to her.

She believed that everyone had some sort of magic within them, especially children. All creatures had the ability to project themselves to another place, only they had to believe they could. She mentions a lot of situations where this happens. For instance, when Blue Boy is "running" in his sleep, she wonders where he really is. Animals also have this ability to "send" themselves places, not just humans. Also, she questions how she can sit down and watch her husband on television while he is sitting right next to her. He is, in a way, projecting himself through the television. She also is reading a book where a man projects himself to a house when he is miles away. All these examples are of people or animals traveling to different places.

Her psychiatrist told her when she was young that "the race of children possesses magically sagacious powers" (1046). Mrs. McNair still believes this because of the proof she has. This young child, who she was the mother of for a short while, visits her from a far away place. This child possesses magical powers and so did she. She has the ability to travel on another level with the child she always wanted.

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