Todd slept all day that Sunday. He woke up at five p.m. and it was already getting dark out. He took a shower and put some peroxide on his neck. He would heal. He put a band-aid on it and smiled to himself in the mirror. I'm a killing machine, he mused. Two guys and one had a gun. And I won! Damn, I'm good. He showed his muscles to himself in the mirror and his smile got bigger.
    Todd was feeling good when he turned on the news. Two men were brutally murdered by a sword wielding killer, early this morning on the west side. Robbery was apparently not a motive. A man was struck by a hit and run driver and remains in critical condition at Loretto Hospital, with multiple injuries, including a broken pelvis. That was all they said about Todds crimes and he wondered if they had any clues.
   Todd spread his crime maps out on the kitchen table and looked at them. There sure are a lot of robberies around North Avenue and Western, he thought. And murders too. He wondered if there was a connection. Maybe they rob you and then kill you. This was where he would go tonight. He put his maps away and fixed something to eat.
   At about eleven p.m. he arrived at North Avenue and Western, dressed to kill. He drove around the neighborhood for a little while, trying to get a mental picture of it, as a whole. And also to see what streets go through and which ones are dead-ends. As he was getting familiar with it, he noticed a lot of dope dealers and gangs. He stopped at a stop sign and looked at the crowd on his left.
   "What you need, mang?" A Spanish accent asked him. "I got rocks, cane and bo."
   Todd took off without saying a word. On the next corner, the same thing happened. Todd saw a police car drive by and they didn't even slow down. They only glanced at the crowd of dope dealers as they went by. Todd wondered why they allow this to exist. They know it's here and yet they do nothing about it, he thought.
   He saw enough. He parked his car a few blocks away and walked up to a crowd of dealers.
   "What you need, mang?" One asked.
   "Anybody want to buy an ounce of coke?" Todd asked, then added "I'll give you a good price, I need the money."
   "How do I know you ain't a cop?" One asked.
   "Because cops try to buy off of you, they don't come here and try to sell to you, stupid." Todd said, with authority.
   "Well, let's see it." A tall one with a lot of gold asked.
   "It's a few blocks away, in my car. I didn't want to carry it on me. I wanted to wait until I find a buyer. Besides, if I walked up here with that much dope, you guys would probably just take it from me. I need to be careful not to get robbed or busted. I'm am old man. I'm not as strong as I used to be. When I was younger, I would have walked up here and robbed you guys. But now that I am old and weak, I have to play everything safe." Todd said.
    The tall one with the gold spoke again. "What do you mean, you would have robbed us when you were younger? I don't think I like your attitude old man. Maybe you better just leave while you still can."
   "Well, maybe they'll buy it on the next corner." Todd said and started to walk away.
   He took a few steps and a bottle hit him in the head! It busted on his helmet and he didn't feel a thing. He turned around to see them all laughing. "Who through that?" He demanded.
   "I didn't see nothing, old man." One said, taunting him.
   Todd was walking slowly backwards as he said "what's the matter, you aren't man enough to fight an old man one on one? You have to throw something at him when he's not looking? What a pussy, who threw that. A straight up, chicken shit, pussy."    Still walking backwards, he noticed them stepping toward him now and added "what's the matter, you need a whole gang to fight an old man? Why doesn't the pussy who threw the bottle step up and fight me one on one?"
   A skinny punk with a hooded sweatshirt stepped forward. "You guys stay back. I'll take this mother fucker. Yeah, it was me mother fucker, now what you gonna do about it?" He stepped ahead of his friends, walking toward Todd. But his friends kept walking too, only slower than him.
   Todd responded, still walking backwards. "If you are a man, then you don't need all of them. Meet me on the next block, by yourself and I'll teach you a lesson, punk."
   With that, the punk charged. Todd stood ready, with two fists up, one holding the cane, to protect his face. As soon as he got close enough, he threw a kick at Todds head. Todd ducked and kicked him in the knee that he was standing on, breaking his leg! He fell on the ground, holding his leg and yelled "somebody get that mother fucker, he broke my leg!"