Have You Seen Luis Velez?

After offering a fleeting prayer, Raymond knocks on another apartment door. A woman named Sofia answers and invites him inside. She assumes that he is an associate of her husband, Luis, and invites him into an apartment full of people about to share a meal. Raymond immediately recognizes her genial nature. Even though he does not know Luis, the family quickly embraces him. Luisa, the teenage daughter, takes a Saint Jude medal from around her neck. She bestows it on Raymond with the blessing of her grandmother who had given it to her when she was suffering with meningitis. When Raymond leaves, he travels for a second time to the apartment of a Luis M. Velez, not knowing he is at the former residence of the man he is seeking.

Raymond’s mother scolds him for missing supper and not calling to let her know he would be late. When she sees Raymond’s religious medallion and hears he got it from a girl, she assumes he has a girlfriend. Raymond is surprised: “The truth was that he hadn’t bothered to call because he didn’t think anyone would notice or care. It was a comfort to be wrong on that score” (108).