In the early 90s, my wife and I came out of a local mall, JC Penney to be exact. Almost immediately, a rather desperate looking man approached me saying something like, "Excuse me, sir…" "He we go," I thought. He started in with the tough-luck story and I waited for the "can I have some money?" My policy is that I don't give money, I'll give food if I have some, or help if I can.

I didn't listen too closely to his story, waiting for the ask, something about Portugal, a cruise ship, two daughters, got to get home, the port, lost track of time, the cruise ship, get a fine, two weeks…on and on. But, his plea was different. First, he didn't ask for money. He opened his wallet, showed me, and actually had money. Secondly, as his unexpected situation came into light, things seemed to check out. The upshot was this…

He was a cruise ship worker who had come into port. He showed a cruise ship photo ID. Yes, there is a local port that ship's embarked from. He pointed the right direction. He said he was from Portugal, had two daughters (showed us pictures of them), and had come into town to, as I recall, get presents for them. Somehow, he'd either lost track of time or misjudged time or whatever, but was now in a time-jam to catch the ship before it left port. He was asking for a ride to the port and offering to pay for that ride. If I recall correctly, he had about $200 in his wallet and he was offering me all of it, or a lot of it, for a ride. He was desperate.

This was not what I was expecting. Skeptical me, I wondered at this angle. Was he trying to get us in the car to pull a robbery or car-jacking? Inviting a total stranger into my car, with my wife, is not something I do. Thinking back, I still am surprised that I did it, but there was something different about him and believable. I kind of looked at my wife, she has better instincts than me and her expression seemed to match mine, I said, "Yes, we'll do it."

There were logistical problems though. He said the ship leaves in like 20 minutes and the port was like 19 minutes away. Plus, at the time, my wife and I had a tiny Geo Metro convertible (people joke about the Metro, but we loved that car and still miss it). A Geo Metro convertible is definitely not meant for three adults. He didn't care and scrunched in the "back seat" which was actually just a gap of about eight inches to put a couple of grocery bags in.

I drove fast, which I don't do. He was nervous, but growing more and more optimistic as we got closer. During the ride, as we gradually realized he wasn't going to 'jack us, we kind of got more at-ease with him. His name was Alvaro D. (I still remember his last name, but don't want to totally dox him even this much later.) That's when he told more about his kids and Portugal and the cruise ship. He said if he misses the ship a series of bad things happen: it's been a long time, but I seem to recall something about not being paid or at least a heavy fine from the cruise company, being stuck for two weeks until the ship returns which means not being paid for that time period, now he is deemed as illegally being in the country (maybe more fines?), not to mention failing to get home to family and them not knowing what's going on (this was pre-cell phone, pre-Internet). All sounded bad and serious.

We finally got to the port and, just like he'd said, there indeed was a cruise ship. However, he calmly said, "We're too late." Sure enough, the ship had pushed away from the port and just a hundred yards or so away from the dock.

There were about five men standing around watching the ship leave. Alvaro walked over to them dejectedly. My wife and I walked with him. Alvaro explained the situation. One man, obviously the boss, was annoyed and immediately scolded Alvaro. Somehow it came out that he was the cruise line owner. Annoyed, the boss went down the list and mentioned something about fines, now they've got to put him up in a motel, something about "the authorities" etc. It was all spoken very rudely. "You got any money?" the boss barked at Alvaro. "No," Alvaro lied. Clearly, Alvaro knew he was in a helpless position, basically a legal slave, and had to keep his mouth shut and allow a demeaning overlord berate him. Going forward, he needed every bit of money he had. My wife and I knew he had some money, but we weren't about to rat him out. The boss was not happy about this money-less tardy worker. I said something like, "Is he going to be okay?" The boss didn't like this. "Who are you? Who do you represent?" He asked me. Obviously, the boss was asking if I was an attorney or a part of some civil rights group or something like that. (I should have said, "Yeah, I'm a bit time federal civil rights attorney, just rolled up in my Geo Metro.") I said something like, "I'm just a regular person, I want to know if he'll be okay, maybe I'll take a cruise of your ship one day." Since I was a nobody, the boss was done with me. He turned to one of his lackies and said, "Great, they want to take a cruise, book 'em a cruise," and he walked away without looking back. The others followed him, along with Alvaro.

It can still picture that scene. The men walking along the dock toward an office, Alvaro hanging his head, and the cruise ship slowly moving away from the dock. My wife and I just stood there, teary-eyed, then we drove home. Still remember that day.