“Well, I was just thinking, maybe you could take the bus to Florida. The Campus Ministry has a small discretionary fund we can draw on if a student needs to get home and can’t afford it. ”
Cruz fell into a depression. He didn’t know anybody in Florida.
“Maybe I go to New York and look for a job, ” he then said, hoping she wouldn’t assume he was from New York and therefore the Hispanic serial killer who was running around committing hate crimes.
“That’s a mighty big city, ” Barbie pointed out. “And it’s very hard to find jobs. But I tell you what I’m going to do. How about I give you some money so you can get a bus ticket and something to eat?”
Something whispered to Barbie that perhaps it wasn’t wise to talk about money or imply there might be a discretionary fund inside the Campus Ministry. But she was a bit of a pushover when it came to pitiful people, and although this boy had perfect skin, he was clearly miserable and unlucky. So maybe God was telling her to give him a little miracle, and she thought of her rainbow and felt happy inside.
“Oh gracias, gracias, thank you, ” Cruz said with massive relief. “God bless you. You a nice lady. You save my life and I never forget. ”
Barbie was fortified by his gratitude and felt better about things. She got up from the sofa.
“But first I’ve got to clear this with Reverend Justice–if I can find him, ” she added. “You may have heard of him. He’s very famous these days. I just hope I can get hold of him. He seems to have vanished off the face of the planet. You wait right here. ”
“I be right here, ” Cruz promised.
Barbie went back to her office and locked the door. She called the secretary, who didn’t sound very sick when she answered the phone.
“You got any idea where Reverend Justice is?” Barbie asked as misgivings and fears began to gather inside her again, rainbow or not.
How could she be so sure that Hispanic boy was nice? What if he wasn’t?
“You tried him at home?” the secretary asked in an unfriendly way, as if Barbie were a nuisance.
“No one answers, ” Barbie said in frustration as someone began knocking on her door.
She wished she could call Hooter and get her opinion on giving the Hispanic boy money, but as far as Barbie knew, there were no telephones in the tollbooths.
“Anybody here?” a loud female called out as she knocked harder.
Barbie hurried to see who it was.
“I’m sorry, ” she nervously shouted through the shut door. “Who is it and do you have an appointment?”
“You take walk-ins? I must talk to somebody or I very well may drown myself in the lake. I’m not a Baptist, but it won’t matter if I take my own life and people, especially those who hate Baptists, find out you wouldn’t talk to me, ” the person said in tears.
Regina Crimm’s path had led to Barbie Fogg and Cruz Morales in the most extraordinary way, and the timing could not have been better.
Trooper Macovich had been driving through downtown to return the failed Officer Reggie to the mansion, when he got a call over his radio that an old Grand Prix with New York plates had been discovered in the parking lot of the Country Club of Virginia. It was believed that the car had been dumped very recently because an old, beat-up vehicle that did not have Virginia tags would draw immediate attention at the club, and in fact had. A woman on her way to play indoor tennis spotted the Grand Prix while she was parking her Volvo and didn’t hesitate to call 911.
“Sorry, ” Macovich said to Regina as he hit his siren and lights. “We gotta check something out. It may be that Hispanic everybody looking for. ”
“That’s fine. I promise I won’t tell, ” Regina said, cheered by the flashing lights and whelping siren, and excited by the knowledge that it was against regulations for