At breakfast, Jonas and his family go through the daily ritual of telling their dreams. Jonas usually doesn't remember his dreams, but this morning is a different story. In Jonas's dream, he narrates to his family, he was in a bathtub, like the ones at the House of the Old, he was bare-chested and Fiona was there. He was trying to convince her to get in the tub with him. Jonas talks about two feelings: wanting, and feeling that he shouldn't. Then his family thanks him for sharing.
While Jonas's father takes Lily off to school, his mother asks Jonas to stay behind. She tells him that these feelings are called stirrings, and that he has to report them every time they happen, and that she has a pill that will make them all go away. Everyone takes these pills, every day, until they end up in the House of the Old. As Jonas bikes off to school, he remembers that the Stirrings felt good and that he wants to feel that way again. But when he took a pill, he forgets all about the dream.