Meanwhile, across town, Airtime had a dilemma of his own.

He was having a hard time getting people to agree to sign the forms. At most of the doors he knocked on, either no one was home or no one wanted to answer. The few people who opened the door met his request with stony faces. Some of them listened, some of them didn’t. A few of them signed, and most of them didn’t. Some people asked to take a form to read in their own time. One old man took one look at Airtime, said “not today,” and slammed the door in his face.

Airtime was approaching the end of his row of houses. He’d almost given up hope when he saw some movement out of the corner of his eye.

In a thin alley between two of the houses, a kid about the same age as Airtime’s younger brothers was climbing up onto a ground-floor window ledge. The window had bars, but the kid turned his body sideways and squeezed his way between them.

The house was being robbed! It happened so fast that before Airtime realised what was happening, the boy had disappeared.

Airtime looked around for someone to tell. There was a group of young men walking down the other side of the street talking loudly to each other. They were wearing uniforms. Security guards!

Airtime drew in breath to shout out to them, when a large man stepped in front of him.

He was a big man, wearing a flat-cap and a big checked coat. He has a wide face with eyes that seemed too far apart.

He locked eyes with Airtime and put his fingers to his lips.

“Shhh.”

Image: Jaded One, CC-BY-NC-ND

WHAT DO YOU THINK?  Has your house ever been broken into? What happened?