“What we doin’?” The 9-year-old Zachariah asks as he gets in the front seat of my Honda Civic. He confidently pulls the seat belt across his thin frame and secures the buckle. He awaits his answer. Zachariah is black. He’s got close-cropped hair with a little boy’s rat-tail – where he hasn’t allowed the hair to be trimmed in some time – it sticks out at the base of his skull. He’s wearing black jeans and some cute black Vans knock off sneakers. He’s a handsome kid. In contrast I’m a 42-year-old white guy. We are as unlikely a pair as you will find anywhere.

“I thought we’d hit the beach.”

“And then what?” He narrows his eyes, looking at me skeptically. This is our first outing together as participants in a well-known mentoring program. A program you’ve most likely seen ads for on television or perhaps on a highway billboard. We are to spend 4 to 6 hours together twice a month.

“What do you mean, and then what?”

He stares hard. He seems to be wondering if I’m messing with him. “I mean, after the beach… Is that it?”

“Well, Yeah.”

“You serious? Only one thing?” He says, disappointed.

“Yeah, I guess that’s technically one thing.” I haven’t spent a lot of time with kids lately and this line of questioning surprises me.

“How about we do two things?” he suggests.

“Let’s see how we feel after the beach. It’ll be good I promise.”

“Please, can we do two things?”

“You’ll see, there’s more than one thing to do at the beach.”

“It would be better if we went and did something else after the beach. Like if we went two places.”

“Well, we can talk about it after the beach.” I’m ready to shut this nonsense down and maybe he senses it.

“Damn.” He looks sullenly into his lap.

We have met once before, at the administrative offices of said mentoring program, in an office building in downtown LA. This is different. We are on our own. From here on out it’s pretty much just he and I. I knew we wouldn’t be best friends right off the bat, but I didn’t expect the announcement of a trip to the beach to be met with disappointment.

So began my, now close to 2 years and counting, relationship with Zachariah.

Read part 2…