At an ungodly hour of the morning, I woke up from a sound sleep. I lay there for a minute trying to figure out what it was that had jogged me awake, but the darkness was silent around me. Since I was the eldest daughter and had just started high school, I was unfortunately forced to wake up earlier than anyone else in my family to be picked up by my carpool. This had been somewhat difficult for me since I no longer had a parent ensuring that I was awake on time. Being a moody teenager, I simply made do with the occasional sullen complaint whenever I thought my parents were listening.

Thinking it was a good idea to go ahead and take my shower so I wouldn’t be late again, I staggered heavily to the bathroom next door. I have never been an early bird and it was with cranky reluctance that I turned the ancient tub faucet on to get the hot water warmed up.

I should probably explain how I have a tendency to walk in my sleep. This is almost certainly genetic and I had grown up listening to all the jokes about how my dad used to be caught standing up in bed apparently using a measuring tape or running across the house in his sleep. For my part, the sleepwalking usually occurred when I was particularly stressed about something. It was not unusual for me to wake up going through my backpack on the eve before an exam or just meandering around my room mumbling to myself. People are often startled when I mention doing skillful things in my sleep. The truth is I don’t walk around like a zombie in an old black and white; my eyes are open and I maneuver relatively well around furniture and inanimate objects.

So at that moment in the early dawn of a school day, I was either in a fog of morning drowsiness or I was going through my morning routine while actually being asleep. For my part, it has always been a little hard to distinguish between the two.

As I straightened up from turning on the tap, I caught a blur of movement outside the window. The window in this bathroom is set about face level with frosted glass for privacy. For some odd reason, the blinds had been taken down by my mom. This didn’t bother me because I knew that no one could really see me in there from the outside.