Matthew 18

"So it is not the will of my Father... that one of these little one's should perish." Matthew 18: 14. Matthew 18: 12-13 is an unconventional love story set against the backdrop of dysfunctional Los Angeles inner city schools; ghetto gangs; and the street life of raves, Ecstasy, marijuana, drunken dance parties, early sexual activity and communal living. It involves a deep cast of fresh, interesting characters and is as unpredictable as real life. The main protagonists are little Melissa Flores, an emotionally and physically abused ghetto rat, seemingly determined to march into the same life that has trapped and destroyed her unstable mother; and Bunky Bunkowski, a retired business executive, now a middle school math teacher. Their lives intersect in his seventh grade classroom where he sees what he perceives to be a lost little girl. Anxious for a "genuine inner city experience," he determines to understand her, find her and bring her back to the fold. Headstrong and confident beyond reason, Melissa doesn't for a minute consider herself lost, but intrigued by the world Bunkowski represents, she determines to use the meddling old man for her own needs and ends. Their relationship builds in spite of less than perfect motives, but their tenuous bond is sorely tested in the final crisis of the book. In a powerful climax, Melissa faces a future where her very survival depends on whether an old man can finally find a lost little girl who doesn't want to be found.