Mid-Night Ruckus

Friday to Sunday, we were at Christian and Maryelle's house in Sanilhac, Ardêche for Franck's going-away party (he's leaving soon to study for a year in Montreal). Thanks to Laureva, the girls and I were always the first ones up. Sunday morning, we were up shortly after 6 and headed into the kitchen (the only room that didn't have people sleeping in it). Marie-Elisabeth came and joined us after a bit. She said that sometime in the middle of the night, she had heard a woman scream "Franck!" in a high-pitched voice. Then she had heard all of the people in the atélier moving around, talking, and turning on lights. She didn't know what had happened because she hadn't gotten up to ask at the time. We hadn't heard anything. Between our room and the atélier (a spare room so called because Christian's grandfather used to use it as his painting workshop) is the bathroom, the master bedroom, the living room and the kitchen. We didn't even know who exactly was sleeping in the three single beds and one double bed in that room. When Maryelle got up, she said she had heard the same yell. Awhile later, we had set up breakfast outside and got more of the story when Michèle (a friend of Maryelle and Christian) joined us. In that room were Michèle and her husband, Patrick, Franck and Loriane, Loriane's brother, Jean-Rémy, and Maryelle's aunt, Nadine. Michèle said that sometime in the middle of the night, Franck had leapt out of bed and onto her bed in what seemed like a single bound. Loriane had screamed "Franck!" Michèle woke to find Franck crouching over her face like a feral cat and breathing deeply and muttering nonsense in a deep, husky voice. As the various occupants of the room joined the breakfasters one by one, the story got told and retold. We had quite a lot of laughs about it even though it was apparently quite disconcerting for all involved. Maryelle said that Franck has always talked in his sleep, but that he had never been a sleepwalker. Franck himself was one of the last to rise. He provided the final key to the puzzle. It turns out that he had been dreaming that Laureva had fallen off a cliff and he immediately leapt up to catch her! We could only but applaud his great godfatherly instincts!