I Think It's Impossible Not to Wonder What's Being Expressed in the Dream

The story leaves a little bit open the idea of whether this is, in fact, happening in bobby's dream. And i don't really think it's answerable in the story, but i think it's scary, and it's there right in the image of the black cloth that he somehow can't get his hands or feet out of. There's a sense that he's cast off whatever was binding him. But maybe inappropriately, you know, she would let her son do this, but this boy isn't allowed to do it.