GOD AND MR. GOMEZ

To our little house,"" said LA Times columnist Jack Smith, raising his glass. ""To the most beautiful mansion in Baja California,"" said Mr. Gomez, the builder, raising his. No doubt about it, the house was sheer folly. Smith was having it built on a remote Mexican peninsula -- no sewers, gas, electricity or telephone -- on land he didn't own, could never own by law. On Mr. Gomez' land though there was no material evidence for that claim only that proprietorship ""so eloquently implicit"" in his bearing. And then there was the question of water. ""The water, it comes from God"" explained the unflappable Mexican. And so it was. Their home, a very beautiful house of native brick and tile took shape. Smith grew to trust Gomez implicitly -- well almost implicitly -- and to like him and his family enormously. He writes with quiet humor and irony and the benign presence of the enigmatic Gomez gives this simple story unexpected grace.