Atarama

The one instance Ata can remember of her sleepwalking occurred when she was aged about 11. Picture this setting, if you will: Ata has a room of her own. Her brothers share a room. When someone is staying overnight (as happened occasionally, because we lived about half-a-day's drive from the middle of nowhere and Premier Inns become hard to find once you get to that distance from civilisation AND workmates of Ata's father were often passing through) - Ata was usually displaced to the floor of her brothers' room while the guest got Ata's room. Also, the place Ata lived was hot and tropical and a long way from civilisation, so Ata (and her brothers, but they're irrelevant to this story) typically slept in just her knickers.

Let me rephrase.

Ata usually slept in HER knickers; her brothers usually slept THEIR knickers. But being boys, they would say "undies" instead of "knickers". Also, theirs never had lacey elastic on the edges. Why do girl's knickers come with that lacey edge elastic? It's scratchy and stretches easily and tears away from the rest of the knickers if mishandled. Ata would have preferred to go about in just knickers most of the time, but her parents insisted on her wearing outer clothes when leaving the house or when non-family members were present, and at eleven Ata was beginning to develop some self-awareness about the need to wear clothing. Anyway. This story is not about young Ata's knickers. Back to the scene. Guest is staying in Ata's room, Ata is sleeping in her brothers' room. This was the one time Ata went sleepwalking - into her usual room, then (bizarrely) into the wardrobe. This is where Ata woke up - sitting on the floor of her wardrobe, wearing nothing but her knickers, while a man Ata had met just that day slept peacefully between Ata and the doorway. To exit the room and return to the safety of her brothers' room, Ata had to creep past the sleeping guest, open the bedroom door, and scoot into the room next door. How is it that when sleepwalking, one manages to move like a ninja? On entering the room Ata had opened the bedroom door, skirted around the bed, and entered the wardrobe without making noise to wake the guest. Exiting the room, however, was a monumental journey fraught with the tension of potential embarrassment. Ata put one careful toe down at a time as she crept across the bare wooden floors. Years of living in wooden-floored houses had blessed Ata with light feet, and she arrived at the bedroom door successfully - it wasn't until she tried to turn the doorhandle that the guest awoke and Ata fled the room in a rush.

The next morning, he asked about Ata's appearance at the bedroom door, and Ata was forced to confess - in front of the guest and all her family - that she had sleepwalked into the wardrobe.

"Oh!" said the guest. "So that actually happened! I thought it was a dream!".

That was the one and only episode of sleepwalking Ata can remember, but she took away one important lesson: people woken from sleep are not really sure what's real and what's not. Therefore, if she ever finds herself standing semi-naked in a stranger's room again, she will DENY ENTIRELY THAT IT EVER HAPPENED.