I was completely awake, with no groggy feeling of being between sleep and awakeness, yet I didn’t recognise anything. Not the PJs I was wearing, or the single bed with white sheets, or the doona fallen to the ground. It was hot, which was odd, because I remembered being cold. I slid out of the bed, pulled open the curtains. The world outside was white and grey. The sun was up. At least it wasn’t dark. It had been before, even in the afternoon. Somehow time had stopped working right. I pulled open the window and peered through the bars, trying to catch a glimpse of the sun, but there were too many buildings, the clouds too heavy. Was it morning? It didn’t feel like morning. Why were there bars on the window? If I needed to get out of this room in a hurry, the thick bars would leave no exit except the door. Besides, the bars were icy. I shivered and hugged myself, then shut the window. I remembered being colder than I’d ever been in all my life. A cold so cold it could kill you. That really was snow outside the window, smothering everything, even the sound of passing cars.
