Ms. Cruz was a devout Roman Catholic. She lived her life as if the world were coming to an end today. When the saints came marching in, she wanted to be among the chosen few that made it into those pearly gates of heaven. She wanted the same for her only child.

Gloria went to her room and saw that her mother was sitting on the edge of the bed, watching her daily dose of soap operas and chain-smoking Newport cigarettes. She loved cigarettes and soap operas to death. Her day just wouldn’t go right without one of the two. While smoking relaxed her, soap operas allowed her entrance into a glamorous, sometimes scandalous lifestyle that she could only imagine.

Ms. Cruz was pregnant with Gloria when she came to the United States from Puerto Rico. She was a young woman who had shamed her family by running off with an older lover, Felipe. It was he who brought her to the United States and to Philadelphia. North Philly became Cruz’s home away from home and it was here that she raised her only child. She was now laid off from her factory job and frustrated with collecting unemployment checks.

“¿Que es esto? (What’s this?)” Ms. Cruz asked, as she thrust a stack of envelopes toward her. Her mother had found the love letters that her boyfriend, Angel “Green Eyes” Lopez, had written to her while he was in jail.

Ms. Cruz had forbidden her daughter from seeing Lopez, or any other boy, after catching them walking home from school together. He was a handsome young man. She knew from the moment she laid eyes on “Green Eyes” that he was nothing but trouble for her daughter. She felt it in her gut, and she was right. He was a ladies’ man. He was average height, a solid muscular build, dark curly hair, with a sandy brown complexion. His pearly white teeth and emerald green eyes made him stand out. He was a drug dealer, and a baby maker. He fathered a half a dozen children by as many women by the ripe old age of nineteen.

All the neighborhood girls were well aware of his hit-and-run style, everyone except for Gloria. Her mother had sheltered her from the streets and literally, at times, locked her inside the house. She prayed profusely over her. She did all this yet failed to teach her daughter about the facts of life.

So Gloria was easy pickings for “Green Eyes.” He charmed her, she fell in love and was blinded by her feelings. She was willing to defy anyone and anything to be with him, including her mother and her covenant with God.