Adventures of Charity III

Chapter III: Safe Streets Great Streets

When we last left our hero, Charity was on her way driving America all the way to DC, but on the way, she passed through a number of towns, small and large, and all of them had the same problems as her cousin Joe had back in Philadelphia. But one in particular caught her attention, Smalltown was not such a small town any more. Since its founding, the population grew so fast, several sub-communities were built all around, most of them were old and in desperate need of renovation, but there was no money for that. Charity noticed a group of teens standing on a street corner, huddled around a mysterious hooded figure. “I have a bad feeling about this,” said Charity as she pulled over to the side of the road, the kids dazzled by America. 

“Woe, cool car,” they said! The hooded figure started to walk away, as Charity leaped from the front seat and started walking towards the mysterious person, she noticed the kids were carrying tickets with the name, “Candy Man” written on them. As she approached the hooded figure, he began to walk faster. “Hey, wait a minute, I’d like to ask you something,” she shouted. But chase gave way as the person took off running, Charity running as fast as she could to catch up. The hooded figure ran into an alleyway and jumped onto a ladder he used to get to the roof, pulling it up to prevent her from following. “Whoever this guy is, he’s got skills, but so do I,” said Charity, recalling her gymnastics training. She leaped onto a large gutter pipe and climbed it to a window ledge, from which she jumped onto another ladder that took her to the roof as well. Suddenly it was a rooftop chase as the hooded figure ran and jumped from one building to the next, thankfully they were close together. Charity was relentless in her pursuit however, until she finally caught up to the suspect. “Hey,” she said, “It’s okay, I just want to talk.” There was nowhere else to go as the person was cornered on the roof top. He removed his hood to reveal his young face… “You’re just a kid,” said Charity in a surprised tone! “Don’t call me kid,” he said, “please let me go, he’s not going to be happy.” “Who’s not going to be happy,” asked Charity? “The Candy Man, he doesn’t like cops, not one bit,” said the boy. “OK, but I’m not a cop,” said Charity, “I’m just a normal person like you trying to do the right thing. Don’t you want to do the right thing? Tell me, who’s the Candy Man and why are you so afraid of him?” 

“You must be new around here. The Candy Man runs these streets. Ain’t nobody gonna stand up to him,” said the boy. “What’s your name,” asked Charity? “Name’s Roy, now let me go!” “You’re a pretty brave person Roy,” she said, “and you seem pretty smart, if you lead me to the Candy Man, I’ll stop him, you have my word.” “Why should  I trust a lady with a mask? I don’t even know your name.” “The name’s Charity, and I’m the one who’s going to stand up to Candy Man.” “Candy Man’s tough,” Roy said, “he’s got friends in pretty high places, connections in politics and stuff. This town hasn’t changed in years because of him, nobody leaves and nobody crosses him.” “He hasn’t met me yet,” said Charity.

Stay tuned for part two of Safe Streets Great Streets, in the epic Adventures of Charity, brought to you by the Endow America Network Foundation. Visit www.socialsecharity.org for more information.