Ell strolls down the moderately quiet sidewalk of downtown Los Angeles and enjoys the midday heat.  Her white sundress with light yellow and sea foam green polka dots sways playfully about her knees and the curls of her wheat gold hair dance down her back. She pushes her sunglasses back into place after they've misbehaved and slipped as her head tilted down to look into her bag.  A small black coin purse emerges out of the bag in her pale hand and she smiles.  The young woman quickly walks up to the street vendor selling sweets and requests a fudge pop.  The balding middle aged man is quite instantly smitten with the buxom blonde and produces the cold treat with a flourish of his arthritic hands.  She smiles toothily, gives her thanks and rewards him by taking the first lick of her ice cream in front of him.  She gets a small twinge of satisfaction as she watches him shiver in the midst of all the heat.  Winking, she starts on her way back down the street.

Halfway down Hollywood Boulevard, where the daunting pillars of Grauman's Theatre break from the ground and rise into the air, the sweet, composed woman trips on a crack in the pavement.  She staggers and twirls crazily on the sidewalk.  The cool, smooth treat she had so been looking forward to... crashes with a sticky plop to the ground.

Ell is speechless.

She stares at her treat which has become a quickly melting pool on the hot pavement and nearly breaks into tears.  Frantically she whips her head back in forth but no one has noticed.  The street vendor is busy with a mother and her three children and the one business man near her at the time simply sidestepped out of the way.  He didn't even look at her.

Finally her emotions get to much for her.  That tacky business man was the lass straw and she cries out, "My God!  What is wrong with everyone in this town that they won't even check to see if a lady is okay?!"

She pants and takes a breath while the people still on the street start to take notice.

"How is it that we are okay to let our city just rot?  When did it become common practice to not reach out and steady a lady when she loses her footing near you?  If this is how it is... If this is how it'll always be... well then, LA is gonna need a hell of a lot more ice cream to win me over."

The people on the street who had stopped to watch the scene slowly start to move again and no one pays attention to the pretty woman in the polka dot dress.  Ell remains where she is, leaning on a pillar and catching her breath.  She rarely goes outside alone and now she remembers why.  A slight tugging on her skirt snaps her out of her daydreams and down to the small little boy at her side.  He smiles at her and with his one free hand reaches up and hands her a small vanilla ice cream cone.

"Here pretty lady," he says, "Don't be sad, its got sprinkles."

Ell kneels down and laughing, hugs the little boy.  She kisses him on the cheek, ruffles his tawny hair, and says, "You're sweet, kid."

The child runs back to his mother, down the cracked sidewalk, careful not to trip himself.  His mother hugs her son and hands him another cone.  The woman smiles at Ell, who simply mouths "Thank you, ma'am," and proceeds down the street.

The young woman is careful of her steps now and of her ice cream.

Applauds loudly

I fully agree no one does take enough time to help a damsel in distress now-a-days and I for one am applaud by it. But now I also want a fudge pop and I have none.