What is the theme of the short story "The Cliff" by Charles Baxter? ... ?

This is a story about a young boy who is being driven to a cliff at an unspecified location on the California coastline. The driver interrogates the boy en route, suspicious of his experience with women, how well he has memorized the old man's instructions, his moral, spiritual, and emotional purity, and his impatience to get started with the initiation into what the old man calls "the spells."