It was a rather warm summer night and I was home alone. My mother was attending a work function and probably wouldn't be home until around midnight. When I went to bed it was, in my opinion, far too warm to bother with a nightie so I just lay on top of the sheets and dosed off.
I woke around midnight to the sound of someone moving around. I hopped out of bed, slipped on a big floppy t-shirt (Don't walk around the house naked. It's impolite.), and strolled out to see how the work event had gone.
Her bedroom door was open so I just waltzed straight in and got a hell of a shock. My mother was lying on her bed, fully dressed, plainly out cold, and a man was starting to undress her. (Starting with her shoes, fortunately.)
I didn't hesitate. I gave an angry yell and tackled him. He gave a startled yell and fell sidewards, which I approved of, but he also caught hold of my arm and took me with him, which I didn't approve of quite so much.
That mongrel seemed to twist about as he fell and when we landed I finished up flat on my back with him on top of me, holding me down.
I started struggling and yelling at him, telling him precisely what I thought of brutes who assaulted young ladies and their mothers. I tossed in a bit about low-life swine who drugged older women so that they were helpless to resist them. I also made a number of threats about what I was going to do to him once I got my hands free.
When I stopped to take a breath he said, "Prawns."
I was like, what? I just looked at him, wondering if he was a genuine nutcase instead of your standard lowlife rapist.
"Prawns," he repeated. "Your mother, I assume that she's your mother, not your sister, is allergic to them."
Was he saying that my mother looked young or that I looked old? I mean, twenty versus forty? How could he possibly think we were sisters? I contented myself with giving him a nasty look.
"I know she's allergic to them. She's always been allergic to crustaceans. What's that got to do with you attacking her?"
"Not attacking, helping. She didn't know that the tasty pink sauce was made from prawns and she had a decent helping of it. When her face and throat started swelling and she threw up her dinner we surmised that something was wrong and called an ambulance. I went to the hospital with her and the doctor gave her some antihistamines to combat the allergy and a sedative to let her sleep. Said to take her home and put her to bed and she'd be right as rain in the morning. They were short of beds and wanted any spares for serious cases. Seeing I was there I volunteered to take her home and put her to bed.
When you did your buffalo charge I was just taking off her shoes so she could sleep more comfortably. Those heels would probably rip the sheets to shreds if she had them on all night."
He had a point there. My mother always did favour high heels with a narrow base. The one time I tried them I fell off them and twisted my ankle.
Now that he'd explained things I had to admit that it all seemed quite reasonable. Not a potential rapist but a good Samaritan lending a helping hand.
"Sorry," I said. "I guess I jumped to conclusions."
"I guess you did," he said. "That's OK. You're allowed to protect your mother."
