I had returned to Puerto Rico. I was thinking Puerto Rico was close to total collapse due to rampant inflation and economic problems. I was going to see first-hand how a revolution kindled. I planned to go to law school here. I went to the University of Puerto Rico; all the iron gates were locked and the university was still shut down. The grass was high and ragged; so I inferred that even the maintenance men had been laid off. I tried to think what I should do. I was carrying some luggage with me; I would have to find someplace to live. I thought about returning to a house where I had once lived before with some elderly French women. But they might not be too happy to see me since I had left the last time without paying a $15 phone bill.

I contemplated returning to Baylor Law School; but I had just spent considerable money to reach Puerto Rico and I couldn't afford to keep flying back and forth. I should have called first to find out if the school was open.

It began to seem more as if I hadn't actually gone to Puerto Rico, but was still thinking of going; now I was able to see the mistakes I could avoid.

I found myself in a car with Ramon and Marta (two law students from the University of Puerto Rico Law School). We were in the back seat. I was on the left, Ramon in the middle and Marta on the right. They were telling me about one of the law students who had to take a law-clerking job because he had run out of money. Marta said law clerks in Puerto Rico were paid $250 a week. I told them that in Texas law clerks made around $400 to $450 a week and some even made as much as $650. I was thinking that law clerks in Texas made more than actual lawyers in Puerto Rico. Marta said that the law clerk she had been talking about had then taken his bar exam and had become a lawyer. I didn't understand how he could have done that and she explained that in Puerto Rico it wasn't necessary to have a law degree to be able to take the bar exam. Anyone could take it and if they passed, they became a lawyer. I thought that was a great idea; I started thinking about not even continuing in law school and simply studying on my own in preparation for the exam.

I continued looking at Marta—how beautiful she was. I hesitated and then said, "Marta you're the most beautiful girl I know. I've seen women as beautiful as you before but never one more beautiful."

She seemed a little embarrassed but pleased. She said something to Ramon to the effect that was how she thought about me. But I knew she wasn't talking about my being handsome but was referring to something else. Looking at her I knew that she was simply far too beautiful to ever feel anything toward me.

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