Last Sunday night, when I was opening the door to my house, I heard Addielle’s voice from inside, “Jez, is that you?”
“ya?”
She quickly opened the door, frantically motioned for me to enter quickly, and Jade was standing next to her with an unusually pale face.
She then shut the door behind me, and asked “Are you alone?”
“No, Tim is outside. He went to check why the back door is opened.”
She opened the door, “eh Tim! Faster come in! faster!”
With her shivering voice, Jade explained that while she was in her room skyping, she heard a knock on her window. A black guy was standing outside motioning for her to open the door. She thought he was Addielle or my friend, so she continued to make hand signals to ask what he wants. They exchanged a little more hand signals, but she only could understand the “open the door for me” message. So Jade went over to Addielle’s room to ask if she’s expecting anyone.
Once Addielle said no, Jade’s knees went weak and she started to panic. Addielle went over to her room, saw no one was at the window, closed it, and went straight to the front door. That was when they heard someone entering and was relieved to see me instead of the black guy.
Now why would anyone walk into our backyard to tap on her window?! Why would he want her to open the front door?! How did he leave so fast considering Tim went to check once we arrived home?! What’s he trying to do at our backyard at that hour?!
I recalled hearing footsteps outside my window two nights ago at 1.30am, and when Tim went out to check (with my smallest pot in one hand), no one was there. That was an added fear for us girls.
After concluding that it might have been an attempted break in, all 4 of us took out our phones and started calling all the guys we know who lived nearby. In less than 10mins, 5 guys appeared at my place. William from Botswana (holding a rolling pin), and Offered from Zimbabwe macho-ly checked the backyard if the guy was still there or not. But it was just darkness with a bit of moonlight (and our laundry) filling the backyard.
Genesis said we should call the cops immediately. Well, I did. Only 20mins after the incident. I had to do the talking cuz Jade was still shivering. The police woman said there’s nothing she can do now but to get some cops to patrol the area in the coming nights. And I should make a report at a police station the next day, too.
So that night after Francis and Jon played with Jade’s BB gun, we 3 girls had minimal sleep, and the following day of ultimate paranoia.
Just as Jade and I were to leave the house to make the police report the next day (around 4pm), I saw a black hand knocking on the grill just when I opened my front door. I jumped back a little and all the defensive moves went flashing through my head. “aim and kick at balls, pinch armpits, poke eyes, jab adam’s apple…”
The black skinned guy stood in front of me smiling. All we had between us was the grill netting and my fear. “Hi, I came to apologise for what I did last night” I must say… his British accent was rather charming.
“I’m your neighbor from Unit 2. I forgot to bring my keys out last night and I thought I’d get my housemate to open the door for me. But I didn’t realize I was at the wrong house until I saw your (Jade’s) face. That’s why I ran off quickly. I’m so sorry… I had a bit too much to drink last night. I'm terribly sorry about that. I hope I didn’t cause much trouble”
Jade and I was speechless at first, then I couldn’t help but burst out laughing. “Did you know we actually had a hand signal conversation going on?” said Jade, who I think was a little mad but relieved to know we’re not victims of robbery or assault.
He shook his head, buried his face in his hands, crouched down near our front garden patch, and moaned about how embarrassed he was.
We didn’t make the police report, but we got an alarm system for our house just so we can now sleep in peace.
At least now we’ve got to know our unit 2 neighbour is from the UK (and kinda make friends with them), our house is armed, and we know which macho boys to call whenever we're in trouble.
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