// this is the function I call from my code. it is in mdb2.php
function &query($query, $types = null, $result_class = true, $result_wrap_class = false)
    {
		$offset = $this->offset;
        $limit = $this->limit;
        $this->offset = $this->limit = 0;
        $query = $this->_modifyQuery($query, false, $limit, $offset);

        $connection = $this->getConnection();
        if (PEAR::isError($connection)) {
            return $connection;
        }

	$result =& $this->_doQuery($query, false, $connection, $this->database_name);
        if (PEAR::isError($result)) {
            return $result;
        }

        $result =& $this->_wrapResult($result, $types, $result_class, $result_wrap_class, $limit, $offset);
        return $result;
    }

The line $result =& $this->_doQuery($query, false, $connection, $this->database_name); is not going inside. instead it is bombing in  

function __call($method, $params)
    {
        $module = null;
        if (preg_match('/^([a-z]+)([A-Z])(.*)$/', $method, $match)
            && isset($this->options['modules'][$match[1]])
        ) {
            $module = $this->options['modules'][$match[1]];
            $method = strtolower($match[2]).$match[3];
            if (!isset($this->modules[$module]) || !is_object($this->modules[$module])) {
                $result =& $this->loadModule($module);
                if (PEAR::isError($result)) {
                    return $result;
                }
            }
        } else {
            foreach ($this->modules as $key => $foo) {
                if (is_object($this->modules[$key])
                    && method_exists($this->modules[$key], $method)
                ) {
                    $module = $key;
                    break;
                }
            }
        }

        if (!is_null($module)) {
            return call_user_func_array(array(&$this->modules[$module], $method), $params);
        }
        trigger_error(sprintf('Call to undefined function: %s::%s().', get_class($this), $method), E_USER_ERROR);
    }