She had not expected what was waiting for her around the corner. A bucket of paint was hurled at her face and she gasped as she was blinded for a moment. Her eyes stung as she desperately attempted to remove the slime, and her ears rung from the assailant’s wild laughter. The voice of one, as he shouted hateful remarks, was all too familiar to her.
Charity ran home and rushed into the bathroom. She scrubbed clean her face and hair of the paint, disposed of her ruined clothes, and changed into a fresh, dry, clean outfit. She curled up on the sofa by the window and hugged her knees to her chest. It wasn’t hard to figure out why this happened to her, she had been threatened well enough. And it was only recently that Charity’s friend Nelly had been assaulted by the same person. Walker had a reputation for causing great humiliation to those he felt were too pious. He was part of a group who had come to be known as The Antagonizers. The leader of The Antagonizers was Reed.
Two weeks earlier, Nelly had been cornered and pinned down by Walker and his minions. With permanent marker, they wrote foul words on her forehead, arms, and legs. The event traumatized Nelly and left an indelible mark upon her soul. Charity had tried to console her dear friend, but when unsuccessful, a deep indignation drove her to confront Walker.
Charity found Walker alone at the local Rec center and confronted him about his attack on Nelly. She tried to appeal to him, explaining Nelly’s distraught condition, hoping he would go to Nelly and apologize. Instead Charity found herself on the receiving end of a verbal assault.
“Charity, you’re a fake! Nobody is as goody-two-shoes as you make yourself out to be. And no good you do can take the place of your ugly face. Stay out of my business, or you’ll regret it,” Walker spewed.
As Charity sat by the window she recalled the events over the last two weeks. She wondered, is there really any point to continuously doing good? Whenever efforts are made, someone always gets hurt or humiliated. Is Walker right? Charity sighed. She moved from her window seat to the garden in her backyard. It was a sanctuary for meditation. A hummingbird flitted by and Charity smiled. She looked across her backyard and into the neighbor’s backyard and noticed Reed, sitting alone on his porch steps. His countenance was different, not his typical sinister stare. He had his head in his hands. His face looked red and swollen as if he had been crying or had been struck. Without hesitation, Charity went to him.
“Reed, is everything okay?”
“What do you want, Charity?”
“I don’t want anything. But it looks like you could use some help. Did something happen? Did somebody hurt you? Where are your parents?”
“They’re inside. They’ve locked me out. This is what they do when they don’t want me around.”
“Why don’t they want you around?”
“Because they’re inside with their friends drinking. I don’t know when I’ll be let back in, or if I’ll even have a place to sleep tonight.”
“You can stay at my house, Reed. No one should have to spend the night out on the porch.”
“Charity, you know what I’m all about. Why are you being so nice to me?”
“Because it’s the right thing to do. Don’t worry, I won’t tell your friends. I know how they feel about me. I guess you know what Walker did to me?”
“I do, but Walker did that on his own. I didn’t tell him to do it. Walker needs to remember his place.”
*
*
*
The phone rang, and Charity could tell by the tone in her mother’s voice that something was wrong.
“Charity, remember Jessica?” How could Charity forget? It was only last year that Jessica was responsible for humiliating Charity by stealing her clothes from the locker room. Charity was left wrapped in a towel until her mother could bring her new clothing.
“Yes, what’s wrong?”
“Jessica passed away, just this morning.”
“What happened?”
“She had been drinking, and lost control of her vehicle. She hit a telephone pole. Paramedics said she was already gone when they got there.”
*
*
*
On the way to the funeral, Charity had second thoughts about whether she should even be there. She remembered how hateful Jessica had been to her, and that Jessica was a part of The Antagonizers. She assumed that the rest of The Antagonizers would be there, specifically Walker. Charity had not seen him since the paint incident. Charity convinced herself that regardless of whatever hateful things were done to her, that attending this funeral was the right thing to do.

Heading to her vehicle after the service, Charity was relieved that no one had confronted her so far about being there. But in a moment, a group of The Antagonizers was heading towards her, with Reed leading the way. Charity could not avoid them and as they passed by, her eyes met Reed’s with a look of familiarity. But he quickly glanced away and lowered his head. He said nothing. Walker, however, could not resist the opportunity for more humiliation, even under such sullen circumstances.
“Hey, Charity, why did you bring your ugly face here? We know what happened. We know what Jessica did to you last year.”
Reed rebuked, “Shut up, Walker, let it go.”
The next day Charity learned that there was to be a showdown that day between Reed and Walker. Walker had been overstepping his bounds for too long, and Reed had had enough. The squaring off was to take place at Pike’s Peak at dusk. Charity had seen this before, and knew nothing good could come from this showdown. She was compelled to intervene. She couldn’t help herself. Her motto had always been to do good to others and show benevolence even in the face of malice.
Charity arrived at the scene of the showdown just as things appeared to be escalating. There was so much shouting and commotion that no one noticed Charity’s approach. Her intention was to somehow bring peace and an end to the altercation, but as she neared where Reed was standing she noticed a knife clenched in his right hand.
“Reed, don’t do it!”
“Get out of the way, Charity. You of all people should want me to get rid of this loser.”
“No, I don’t. Nothing ever gets settled that way.”
Walker interjected to Reed, “So what, now you have your little girlfriend coming to your rescue? She’s nothing but an ugly faced little tramp pretending to be good.”
At that, Reed lunges at Walker with the knife, and Charity rushed to come between them, paying no mind to how dangerously close to the cliff they all were. In a split second Charity slipped on loose rock and couldn’t regain her footing. Reed reached out to try to help her, but it was too late. Reed and his followers, and Walker and his followers, watch helplessly as Charity tumbled to her death.
In the days and weeks that followed, the impact of Charity’s death brought drastic change to Reed and some of The Antagonizers. Having realized that Charity was right all along, they disbanded as an antagonizing group and determined to live lives more worthy of Charity’s namesake.