Seven: Seven DiesI felt the sun’s warmth on my eyelids. I sensed black night thinning to morning gray. But I could not open my eyes, could not blink or flutter or move them at all. It was a bizarre paralysis that should have passed immediately. It did not. Minutes went by and I was definitely not dreaming, but I was also unable to move a muscle. It was terrifying—my body was sleeping but I was conscious and unable to wake it. I tried to scream. I tried to shake my head, pinch myself, take a deep breath, strained with all my might to open my eyes, but I could not do it. I had had lucid dreams before, and forced myself to wake up. My grandmother had taught me that to find myself in a dream I only had to rub my fingers together. I had nightmares when I was a child. My father kept dying, over
