Well, I finally got to meet that girl next door. There was no way I was going to let it rest until I had satisfied my curiosity. See, my mother had indicated to me that I should stay away from the girl. And not out of disrespect, but out of sheer curiosity, I really needed to see why my mum thought me and that girl shouldn’t meet. 

The next Sunday, while my mum took her afternoon nap, I sneaked over to the neighbour’s, and knocked on the door. I wanted to introduce myself to the neighbours, after all, aren’t we supposed to love our neighbours?  But instead of the girl it was a man who opened the door. Immediately, I noticed that this man wasn’t the kind of man you took lightly. There was something about him that suggested that he wasn’t friendly. But I hadn’t come to see him, and without wasting time, I asked if Leila was around. I had got the name from my mum.

The moment I mentioned the name Leila, the man suddenly turned suspicious. Squinting his eyes, he asked me, "Who are you”? And I answered, "I live just next door. Is Leila around?” this time the man asked me directly; "what do you want from her?”

That’s when it dawned to me that this man actually was going defensive about Leila. And slowly, I realized that he might be Leila’s man. I wondered why all the girls I got attracted to always have to have guys. I mean, couldn’t I get a single nice girl that wasn’t attached to someone, and even if she was attached, couldn’t the guy be an ordinary kind of guy?

I quickly told the guy that my mum had sent me to call Leila. When I talked of my mum, the man somehow relaxed, and called Leila. She came to door. When she saw me, a suspicious look came to her face. The last time she had seen me, I had been hanging over the wall, staring at her.

She certainly had reason to be suspicious. But I told her same lie, that it was my mum who had asked me to call her.  I could tell she didn’t believe me, but she came anyway.

She was dressed in a simple white dress, but she still looked breathtaking! No wonder her man was that insanely protective over her. When we got out of the gate, I turned to her and told her the truth it wasn’t my mum who had called her. It was me who had wanted to see her. She didn’t act surprised, she probably already knew.

After a moment of silence, she told me. Please leave; leave me alone and never come back to look for me. I told her that I was madly attracted to her, and I had to see her. But she didn’t want to listen. She told me to go back to my house, and however much I asked her why, she wouldn’t tell me. Then she suddenly turned to go back to her house.

I, turning to follow her, I saw her man standing at the gate watching us. There was a look in his eyes I remembered very well. The same look I had seen in Michael’s face.

Michael, my crazy neighbour who had almost killed me because he thought I was hitting on his wife. I didn’t want a repeat of that scenario, certainly not when staying at my mum’s house. Turning abruptly, I walked off to my house.

I found my mother awake, and I decided to tell her everything. I could see she became very concerned when I reached that part when the guy next door had been standing at the gate watching us. I asked her to tell me what she knew, but she refused. 

But I soon found out myself; the guy was simply mad. He had just recently left prison for killing a man who had flirted with his wife! Well I hadn’t exactly flirted with the man’s wife, but I certainly had enough reason to be scared!

Ends