I fell asleep last night with the heat on and woke this morning hot and uncomfortable--my sheets damp with sweat, my blanket wrapped unceremoniously around my legs, evidence of an effort to escape.

The heat, and the blanket, made me feel captive, and I could feel my body begin to panic.

And yet, I remained in bed, the blanket pushed away from me, my naked skin exposed to an air so tepid that evaporation was another night's fantasy.

I wanted my dreams back. To return to sleep and be held in the arms of the person I was dreaming about, but the dry heat in the air was relentless with reality.

Running my hands through my hair, beyond damp with sweat, as if I had just broken a fever, I resolutely rose to open a window. To let out any remaining whimsy and to let in the cold of a morning alone.

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