Thunk in the night

After a nice bath with a paperback I was just dozing off at 11:51 last night. Instead of counting sheep I was counting pleats (see above) when an almighty THUNK caused me to jackknife in the bed, hitting Hubby in the hip just in case the commotion hadn't woken him. It honestly sounded like one of the sturdy posts had hit the little deck off our bedroom just 5 feet from my head. He left for the front of the house to get a torch, and I turned on the light to the deck. I couldn't see any burglars with black masks and sacks over their shoulders, so I opened the sliding door to investigate.

Evidence;

• wet splat marks on the deck
• pawpaw (papaya) pulp in some of the gaps
  
• vigorous swaying lime tree overhanging the deck
• no breeze to cause said swaying
• a moment later, a slow leathery flapping sound leaving the opposite side of the lime tree

Conclusion;

• a fruit bat got an under-ripe pawpaw from Hubby's tree (no one else eats them)
• said fruit was too big for the greedy mammal
• Gutsa dropped the fruit on the deck
• then managed to hoist it into the lime tree before we saw him
• and then flapped off to the rain forest to enjoy a midnight snack

I say we chop the tree down.