I would like to tell you a story. It’s yesterday’s night, from my windows. I’ll try to do it in my poor english, with a french/english dictionnary… Sorry for my errors ^^”

I’m living in Toulouse. It’s not a big city like new york, paris or towns like that, but it’s one of the biggest town in France - there’s about 1.117.000 people. I’m living in the limits of the center of the town - just between the rich houses where one people live in 5 floors and the poor buildings where a full family live in 1 room. It’s not a dangerous district, but if you walk for about 5 minutes, you are in an other one, and you should not go alone in the night.

My street is not a little one, but there is an other a lot bigger who do the same way, so there is not much people here at night. 1, or 2. Some little groups, some drunk men, who laught in the night, talking to no-one.

I really like this part of the night, when people are going to or back from nightclub. They usually are in groups, and the smile, they laught, happy to be together. Toulouse is in the south of France, so it’s a hot night, but a little wind make it just perfect. Sometimes, a SAMU - I’ve search a bit on the web, I think the US term is a EMT : a car with some doctors - come. There is an hospital in the road. I can hear their alarms crying in the night.

Sometimes to, there is a car. I saw them : some tired workers, coming back at the end of the day, perhaps working in a restaurant - all the offices are closed now. Some are young lovers, or group of friends with strong music. A dog bark because of the noise.

I’m seated on the windowsill. I’m looking the stars - the clouds are absent tonight. I can’t see a lot of stars, but there is a big light near the window. There is 2 floor in my house, I’m at the first one.

Suddenly, I hear someone who seems to be scared. A women, probably 30. She’s with her boyfriend - I wonder if they are married. I look at them : they’re looking at something on the ground. I can’t see what, there is a parked car here. I don’t say anything - until the moment when the men come.

“Hey, did you see him ?” “Who ?” “There is a man here. He’s not mouving at all…”

Well, this is really a strange thing. I wasn’t at this window from more than 30 minutes, so I could have missed the moment when he came. But 20 or more people passed during this time - they where the first saying there was something…

“Ok, I said, you should call the emergency.” “What is the number ?” “112” (it’s the number from a cell phone, in france, like 911 in usa).

So they call. They talk a bit in the phone. Then they said me goodbye, and left.

I remember I was surprised to see them doing this. But, well, they call 112, so the SAMU should be on the way.

I’ve wait 20 more minuts. 10 people or so passed. All of them act as if he wasn’t there. And no SAMU.

So I call again. With a strange answer : “If there is a problem with someone in the street, call the police”. Hey, I don’t want the police : a dead people won’t attack me (not this one, at least). But ok, no more answer.

Then a little group come. I remember them : 3 girls - one of them was particulary beautifull - and a man. A man who seems to be really annoyed to see the rest of the evenements…

So, they saw this man, and one of the girl said : “Hey ! What’s that !”. They didn’t saw me. I try to call them, but they didn’t hear me - they are talking to each other.

People are strange, sometimes. I was looking since 50 minutes, and 3 peoples have noticed him. But when the group saw him and started talking about, 3 more people came.

They call 112 again and again. Finally, the SAMU come. Blue light, telling that they are here to save lifes. The look at the guy, wake him up and tell him to go away. He was just slept it off. Alcohol is a real danger, but he won’t die tonight. From my window, I’m releived. The people in the road just move away from him, as if alcoholism was some kind of contagious disease. If he was looking for a friend in the wine, he loose.

The SAMU leave. They have some other lifes to save. Perhaps, somewhere, someone call for the 5th time them. There is not enough people. And there is too many problems.

The moon is shining in the sky. Humans are living and dying in the earth. It’s a normal night, in a normal town.