It was a fleeting and near effortless gesture on his part.

He just decided, on the spur of the moment, to walk Cyndi the three blocks to Snyder’s deli over just giving her directions. He was sort of headed that way anyhow and there was that tricky turn near 4th. He didn’t know her, but what the heck? He also didn’t know that had he not come along, a desperate Maxton, sweaty with nervous panic, was ready to add robbery to his list of bad decisions in the form of Cyndi’s purse.

As the two left, M slid back into the alley shaking with a heavy breath and asking himself if this was really what he had become. A battle of conscience churned in his head, and he kicked and punched the nearby dumpster several times before hearing the tiny and timid whimper from the other side.

As he stepped around to the back and saw what took refuge there, the rage and indecision faded. His path seemed clearer somehow. And while new questions presented themselves, he could imagine answers, and the ripples that followed set the world, at least for the moment, on a more positive rotation.