Within

Summary

One day a long time ago, my phone rang. The man on the other end of the call fumbled around for a bit and then finally said, “I want to talk to you sometime soon. Would you be willing to meet me?” I knew this young man fairly well, but I had no idea what he wanted. So we agreed to meet in a coffee shop.

When we sat down in a corner of the coffee shop with our mugs, this man hemmed, and hawed, and beat around the bush for maybe 15 minutes. Finally he blurted out: “I don’t want to tell you this story, but I have to. Last week I was driving around the city at night, when I went by some young women out on the street. They were all dressed up, with makeup, jewelry, the works. I parked my truck and went over to talk to them. They looked and acted like prostitutes. Our conversation gradually got racier, and before I knew it, one of the women pulled out her police badge and arrested me for solicitation. They packed me into a patrol car, took me down to the station, and locked me in a jail cell. After a while, they let me call my wife. Since this was the middle of the night, when I called I had to get my wife out of bed. She came to the police station and bailed me out. That’s why I want to talk to you: I need help.”