WAG: What are you indexing on?

>Anybody able to help me on this unusual error message? I am encountering this strange message when I try to USE a certain table. This table is a free table with 3 character fields. 2 of the fields are 10 char long, while the third is only 6 char long. When I issue the command USE brdx.dbf, I receive the message 'Variable [record_id] is not found.'. I click on OK and the table opens fine. If I include this table into a DBC and rename one field 'record_i' to 'record_id', I can open the table without getting the error. As a standalone table I have tried to issue the FREE TABLE command, alas, only to get back a message that this table does not belong to a database. I am having a serious frustration level increase going on here trying to get past this. Any help will be greatly appreciated....