"You need a ride somewhere else?" he says.

     "I can't ask you to drive me any further. Where I need to go is a long way from here."

     "Come on. Get in. I've got nothing to do today. They let us off early at work. Where are you headed?"

     "The airport. I have to pick up my girlfriend."

     "Fine with me. Hop in."

     I get into the car and he drives off towards the freeway. Helen is going to be doubly angry. Not only am I late to pick her up, but I'm coming in some strange guy's car. And the way she feels about Hispanics. She was once accosted and almost raped by three Mexicans who turned out to be illegal immigrants, all about seventeen or eighteen. She was fifteen. Someone or something, she never knew who or what, had scared them off. But the police caught them almost right away. Helen told me that after we first slept together.

     I used to try and tell her that not all Hispanics, and not all Mexicans are like that, but her beliefs are too strong, her fear is too strong. She has already made up her mind. And I have stopped trying.

     As we get to the freeway Raoul says: "I am involved with this church group. We sometimes get together and talk about ways to improve the neighborhood. Do you know what I am talking about?"

     "I think so."

     "I am talking about gangs. I am talking about teenagers on the streets looking for something to do, so they do teenager things. They rob stores, they smash windows. When you are a kid, you think like a kid, you think, this is fun! This is power! Do you know what I mean?"

     "Sure."

     "When I was a kid. I did all that stuff. My mother - God rest her soul - she told me to stop. I did not listen. I would rob people with a knife. I would smash windows on cars and steal stereos. For what? Even now I do not know. Some of my friends did the drugs. I never did the drugs. The drugs are scary. That is what led me away from my dark path. I saw my friends strung out on dope. I saw some good kids turned bad by the drugs. I saw some bad kids turned worse by the drugs. I was scared for my safety, so I chose the path of salvation. Tell me something, Gregory. Are you planning on marrying this girlfriend of yours?"

     "Uh... I hadn't thought about it."

     "You know that if you have relations with a girl, you should honor her and her family by marrying her."

     He paused to change lanes.

     "Otherwise you will shame her and her family."

     "I don't think that's a good basis for a marriage."

     Raoul smiled as if he knew I was going to say that. He said: "What do you think is a good basis for a marriage."

     "Love."

     "True enough. But love will come. Love is not something that happens in an instant. It is a process. You choose the right girl to have relations with, she will usually end up being the right girl to marry."

     He flipped the station to one that had soft music.

     "Tell me, Gregory,” he said. “Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior?"

     "I... No. I don't believe in that stuff."

     "What is it? That you do not believe in God, or that you do not believe in Jesus Christ?"

     "I believe in God, I guess. But I don't know if it matters or not."

     "Believe me. It matters. It matters to God."