Hellhole is the only way to describe the Harlem, neighborhood were Melvin Carpio grew up in. It is a neighborhood rampant with drug dealers and violent street gangs. Children played amid drug sales and drug busts, amid gang fights and shootouts. There were no safe streets, no safe parks, and no safe playgrounds were they could play unharmed and unmolested. Every one of them were crawling with derelicts, druggies, and deviates.