I

we drew closer. I saw the panther’s eyes tracking us, the tiger’s ears flattening just
a little. Then, without warning, the cheetah shot out from the shade with
blinding speed, rocketing right at us.

I panicked, grabbing Sasha by the arm, sprinting with her back up the lawn
toward the house, trusting that Barack and Malia were doing the same. Judging
from the noise, I could tell that all the animals had leaped to their feet and were
now coming after us.

Lloyd stood in the doorway, looking unfazed.
“I thought you said they were sedated!” I yelled.
“Don’t worry, ma’am,” he called back. “We’ve got a contingency plan for
exactly this scenario!” He stepped to one side as Secret Service agents swarmed
past him through the door, carrying what looked to be guns loaded with
tranquilizer darts. Just then, I felt Sasha slip out of my grasp.

I turned back toward the lawn, horrified to see my family being chased by
wild animals and the wild animals being chased by agents, who were firing their
guns.

“This is your plan?” I screamed. “Are you kidding me?”
Just then, the cheetah let out a snarl and launched itself at Sasha, its claws
extended, its body seeming to fly. An agent took a shot, missing the animal
though scaring it enough that it veered off course and retreated back down the
hill. I was relieved for a split second, but then I saw it—a white-and-orange
tranquilizer dart lodged in Sasha’s right arm.

I lurched upward in bed, heart hammering, my body soaked in sweat, only
to find my husband curled in comfortable sleep beside me. I’d had a very bad
dream.

continued to feel as if we were falling backward, our whole family in a giant
trust fall. I had confidence in the apparatus that had been set up to support us in
the White House, but still I could feel vulnerable, knowing that everything from
the safety of our daughters to the orchestration of my movements lay almost
entirely in the hands of other people—many of them at least twenty years
younger than I was. Growing up on Euclid Avenue, I’d been taught that self-
sufficiency was everything. I’d been raised to handle my own business, but now
that seemed almost impossible. Things got handled for me. Before I traveled,