“I’ll see you soon, ” she promised him under her breath.
“See you soon, too, ” the acne-afflicted student said as she went out the door.
It was then that Barbie noticed the scruffy-looking Mexican boy sitting on the sofa. She frowned a little and felt a prick of anxiety. He certainly didn’t look like one of the students, but then young people could be so slovenly these days. He also seemed a little young for college, but the older Barbie got, the younger other people looked.
“May I help you?” she said in a professional tone she had learned on the job and knew never to use at home because it annoyed Lennie.
“Si, ” he shyly replied, barely glancing up from the magazine.
“I only speak English, I’m sorry, ” she admitted. “You do speak English, don’t you?”
Her anxiety intensified. If he didn’t speak English, how could he attend the University of Richmond? And if he wasn’t a student, what in the world was he doing here at the Baptist Campus Ministry? Barbie wished Reverend Justice were here today. He hadn’t called to say where he was or when he would be in, and the secretary was out with a cold, so Barbie was all by herself in the small building.
“Si, ” Cruz replied. “I speak a little English, but not so good. ”
“Do you have an appointment?”
“No. No appointment. I need help bad. ”
Barbie sat on the other end of the sofa, keeping her distance and realizing it would not be a good idea to take this poorly groomed Mexican boy back to her private office and shut the door.
“Tell me about yourself, ” Barbie used the line she always began sessions with, and wished Reverend Justice would walk through the door right this minute.
But the reverend had been busy visiting that poor beaten-up truck driver in the hospital, and there were many demands for Reverend Justice to give talks and make appearances on local television and radio shows, Barbie reminded herself. She shouldn’t be so selfish as to wish he would tear himself away from truly needy people just because Barbie was a little ill at ease.
“I don’t got no money, ” Cruz told her as his criminal intentions began to weaken. “I not from here and got no money to get home. I just in town on a job, you know? And all these things happen. I scared. ”
“Well, there’s nothing to be scared of at the Campus Ministry, ” Barbie said with conviction and a touch of pride. “We’re here to help people and you couldn’t be in a safer place. ”
“Si, that good. I no felt safe and am very hungry. ” Cruz blinked back tears.
He also needed to shave the black fuzz off his upper lip, and his hair needed cutting, Barbie couldn’t help noticing, and his fingernails were dirty and he had a tattoo on the back of his right hand. This was a child who had endured a hard life. Poor thing.
“How did you find us?” she wondered out loud.
“I see the sign and think maybe you family of Gustavo and Sabina or maybe Carla. ”
This made no sense to Barbie.
“So I come in. ” Cruz shrugged. “You know a way I can get home?”
“That depends on how you got here to begin with, ” Barbie said, confused. “And where might home be?”
Cruz wasn’t terribly bright, but he realized he had New York plates on the car he had ditched, and the cops were looking for a Hispanic from New York. So maybe it was best to leave New York out of the equation at the moment.
“I just bet you’re from Florida, ” Barbie said. “A lot of Spanish people live down there. My husband took me to the Everglades on our second anniversary. You know, he’d just always wanted a ride in one of those airboats, and then we spent two nights in Miami Beach in one of the few hotels that wasn’t boarded up back then, because I just love Jackie Gleason. You ever watch The Honeymooners?”
Cruz frowned and scratched his head.