Mrs. Tune was born with a birthmark that covered most of her head. Everybody recognized her as he rode his bicycle through town but few knew her. Everybody in town just called her Mrs. Purpleface. Sometimes the kids would run along with her singing, “We found Mrs. Purpleface, She’s from outer space, Now she’s gonna race, And leave us in last place”. Mrs. Purpleface knew the children’s curiosity was harmless and she did not mind the attention. Their song stemmed from a silly rhyming comment she made to some kids over a decade ago. They made it into a song that most of the town had heard by now. Strange how that works.

Now Mrs. Purpleface had a job as a maintenance person for lower income apartments. If there was a problem with the plumbing, appliances, electricity, or structural integrity of the apartments, chances are Mrs. Purpleface could fix it. She had studied long and hard at trade school and she was quite successful. Now that she was up in years, she took a slower pace job at the Apartments were the work load was consistent and mostly routine.

Most of the people in the apartments were really friendly to Mrs. Purpleface and gave her some beers as a tip for her work. She really like the way they treated her so she did not mind picking up the trash around the Apartments, even though she did not have to.

There was one apartment block were Mrs. Purpleface preferred to avoid. Apartment Block 18. You could tell because the trash seemed to accumulate around that block. The Apartment owners were also a friendly lot and they knew how to judge character. They stuck all the mischievous people in block 18. If you were nice, they would move you out of 18.

Block 18 was the oldest and most run down block. No sense getting the nice apartments tore up. The Block 18 had loud parties at all hours of the night. The coppers were always responding to fist fights and theft at 18.

One day, Mrs. Purple face was responding to a report of leaking gas at Block 18. That’s when she noticed some guys in a bright shiny auto selling what were obviously drugs to some kids. She went over to the auto and asked the blokes if they were from around? They fliply spat, “what’s it to you?” Mrs. Purpleface cut them to the chase and told them she thought they were doing adverse business with the kids. Drugs had no business being in these Apartments. Especially with people low on their fortune.

Well, the drug dealers did not take to being told what they could and could not do. They got out of their car and pushed around the old lady. They called her freak like that was the first time she had heard that. She would not be pushed around by school yard bullies now that she was up in years. She continued to point out the error of drug dealing ways.

The drug dealers had been up all night from the drive trough the country and were a little on the edge from using their own product. They had a reputation to project and were rough from the big city. You could tell they were winding up for trouble. One of the drug dealers pulled out a gun and shot Mrs. Purpleface in the foot. Auugh! The drug dealers then sped off in their nice shiny auto.

Mrs. Purpleface sat on the ground in bewilderment. She got up and tried to walk but her foot smarted too much. She sat back down thinking she needed to bandage the wound with some tape or something. Everybody heard the gun shot but nobody from Block 18 checked to see if anybody needed help. Nor did Block 18 call the coppers to check up on things. The kids who were buying drugs did not want anybody to know their business and slunk off into the woodwork.

Another kind hearted soul from Block 19 ran out to help Mrs. Purpleface. Somebody from Block 20 called the coppers and then called for an ambulance when they saw Mrs. Purpleface was in dire distress. A number of people contacted Mrs. Purpleface’s family and followed to the hospital to see that he was on the mend. But nobody from Block 18 went, bad apples that they were.

Now remember that Mrs. Purpleface had been on her way to check out a gas leak at Block 18. Nobody had a chance to check up on it. I hate to wish bad things on people, but somebody lighting up a smoke ignited the gas leak. There was a fireball. That whole building Block 18 flamed down in quick bloody order. Fortunately, nobody was killed. But they only got out with the shirts on their backs.

Maybe if the people in Block 18 had been a little nicer, maybe their apartments would not have burnt to cinders. They may wonder why bad luck seemed to follow them around. But I think that some people bring bad luck upon themselves. People were pretty quick to come to Mrs. Purpleface’s aid and see to it that she was cared for. She created a circle of friends who would aid her in her time of need. She created her own good fortune as she had helped others in their time of need. Mrs. Purpleface is living proof of the saying “What goes around, comes around.”