The Night I Fought My Intruder
Recalling the night of my fight or flight response, and the strength it gave me today
We lived in a ground floor apartment facing towards the back of our building. It had a deck with a 3 ft concrete pillar-style fence. Easy enough to jump over. My children did it all the time.
It was midnight. I’m a single mom and my two children were asleep. The patio door was open while the curtains let in just the right amount of a nice breeze.
The perfect summer night.
I was relaxing, enjoying my quiet time while fixated on a tv show. Law & Order as I remember.
It was then, when I noticed in almost slow motion, a looming shadowy figure of a stranger climb over the cement pillar fence onto my deck.
This was frightening at midnight, alone with two sleeping children as one would imagine.
Through the semi-sheer curtains I could see the looming shadowy figure of a stranger right outside the door.
If you ever wonder how one reacts during a frightening experience such as this, rest assured your fight or flight response WILL kick in.
My response was to fight.
Of course this all happened within a moment.
I jumped up. I remember screaming… I remember pushing at his body from behind the curtain on this side of the patio screen. I felt the body of this looming shadowy figure of a stranger with my own hands.
I remembered thinking that I could not allow him to enter my apartment. I remembered thinking about my children who were asleep in the next room.
I screamed.
I blindly punched the body of this ominous stranger with both hands three or four times. He was not getting in.
I blindly shoved his body away from my door.
I shouted at him and cursed at him. You can imagine what I said to him…
I reached with my left arm, slammed the sliding glass door shut, locked it and maniacally continued banging on the door with the palms of my hands.
Swearing, shouting and cursing him.
I was the one to be feared.
My adrenalin was raging, my heart was pounding, my hands were shaking. It was my fight or flight response.
We had good neighbours, and they were out on their balconies by now. Each taking turns yelling at this looming shadowy figure of a stranger who was now on the other side of the deck doubled over, catching his breath.
His adrenalin was racing, his heart was pounding, his hands were shaking.
He felt my wrath.
My neighbours took over. He claimed to be climbing over the deck to reach his buddy’s apartment two levels above me.
Why he was outside my patio door, so close that I could feel his body against the screen remains to be explained. The cement pillar was wide enough and flat enough to stand on, yet he was just outside my door.
He was around 20 years old, young, and panic-stricken by my instinctive rage. The neighbour two floors above confirmed his story, the building manager checked his ID, and we gave him the benefit of the doubt. It was clearly an innocent and nonsensical error in judgement.
That night however, regardless of how frightening it was gave me a certain amount of strength and resilience. I am confident in my fight or flight response should I require it in the future.
My fight or flight response works, and it works well.
This isn’t to suggest putting oneself in harms way to test the theory. I was fortunate as the looming shadowy figure of a stranger did not intend harm. Nor did the looming shadowy figure of a stranger have a weapon.
The ordeal not only provided me with strength and confidence in my ability to protect myself and my children, it incidentally provided me with much needed vigilance.
I have grown, and I have become more aware as a result.
Surprisingly both my children remained asleep. And to this day, I will never again leave the door open late at night.
As for the looming shadowy figure of a stranger, I’m pretty sure he learned a strong lesson.
Don’t ever mess with a mom.
Thank-you for reading! You can also find me at Lifestyle by Design!
