By Nancy Seeley

A rotten thing happened to some good friends of mine recently — but they handled it splendidly…even laughed about it afterwards.  Nevertheless, it’s a wakeup call to be careful about how you react to strangers, no matter how charming they might seem.  Here’s their story… 

Pablo (name changed) was walking home from el centro when a nicely dressed, attractive young Mexican woman who spoke pretty good English asked him for a light.  Being a gentleman, Pablo immediately produced a lighter and helped her out, then continued on his way.  A block or so later found him at his apartment, but as he was pulling out his keys, the same woman approached, clutching her stomach and saying she was so sorry to be troubling him, but she suddenly felt in dire need of a bathroom.  Could he help?  Certainly, my dapper amigo replied, and he escorted her into his Zihua home.