Jide awoke with a start. He heard a loud thump from just outside his window. The room was dark and he fumbled around his bed for his phone. Pressing a trembling finger to the power button, he checked the time. 2:14.

What could possibly be outside his house at two in the morning?

Jide set the phone on the bedside table and took a deep breath. “Think, Jide,” He whispered to himself. “You’re a man so act like it.”

Then it dawned on him. Mangoes. There was a huge mango tree outside his bedroom window, one of them was probably ripe. It was mango season after all. But Jide still felt uneasy.

Swinging his feet over the side of the bed, he hurriedly pulled on his blue terry robe and shoved his feet into a pair of slippers.

A few moments later, he was walking outside in the cold night air. Clutching his robe tighter, he made his way around the house to the mango tree were several fruits were scattered across the ground.

Jide breathed a sigh of relief and was just about to turn around when he noticed a shadow slinking away into the shadows.

Normally, Jide loved his terry robe. It was soft, warm and the folded fabric made him feel like a rich, white man in a happy movie. Now, he wishes he hadn’t worn it. The soft, blue furs made him feel like an idiot and he didn’t want to fight off an intruder looking like a total buffoon.

“Is someone there?” He called out in what he hoped was a firm, masculine voice.

There was no answer.

Had he imagined it? Jide almost brushed the whole thing aside until a small, unmistakably feminine voice answered from the shadows.

“It’s me. I’m sorry. I didn’t want to wake you, I just enjoy watching you sleep.”

What in God’s green earth? If Jide was frightened before, he was completely freaked out now. The dim backyard light meant he couldn’t even see whoever it was that spoke.

The voice didn’t sound familiar, but it was obvious that the person knew him.

Jide mentally flipped through the catalog of women in his life and none of them were crazy enough to creep around his house at 2 in the morning, that much he knew.

The situation called for both daring and caution. He wasn’t sure if the intruder could see him, but he pretended to relax.

“It’s alright,” he called out. “You can come out, I’m not angry.”

There was no movement. Maybe she didn’t buy it.

Jide rubbed his hands together and forced a shiver. “It’s really cold, would you like to come in so we can talk?”

 Finally, the intruder stirred. “Are you sure?” she asked in her tiny voice.

“Aunty, do you want to come inside or not?!” Jide sighed, arms spread in mock frustration. Maybe he’d make a decent actor after all.

The girl began to come out of the shadows where she’d been hiding, but what she didn’t realize was that after Jide’s arms had splayed out moments before, only one of them came back down.

The other hand, partially hidden in the shadows, was latched onto an effectively shaped piece of wood hanging from his windowsill.

In truth, from the time he noticed the slinking shadow up till the present moment, all of Jide’s movements were calculated. Precise.

The glass pane on his bedroom window had broken months ago and rather than replacing it, Jide had boarded up the entire window. Over time, the planks had weathered and rotted in some places, resulting in pieces of wood literally hanging by a thread.

He had gradually inched closer until he was within reach of the window. He had been covering the sound of the creaking wood with his voice – when he told her to come out, when he invited her in for a chat and lastly when he pretended to be frustrated.

His voice had been particularly loud with his final outburst because he needed one last tug to free his weapon. So as the girl came closer, he tightened his grip on the wood and prepared to strike.