The NAFTA Blueprint

by Rodrigo Garcia

  Helena agreed to go with me across the border, it wasn’t as difficult as I had even imagined. I asked, “Have you ever been to Canada?”

  She said, “No, I haven’t, lame huh? But I’d like to someday, I’ve always wanted to go to Canada.”

  “Okay, pack your bags councilor, because we’re going…now! We’re so close Helena, we need to take advantage. We need to finish this story. Are you up for it? Of course your ticket’s paid for. Just worry about spending cash and hotel. Oh yeah, and we’d be flying in to Halifax, to Nova Scotia. It’s just for a few days, no strings attached, and best of all―the Chronicle’s paying for it. I told them I was contracting a freelance photographer, so that’s where the extra ticket’s going, courtesy of the Chronicle.”

  Of course that was a lie, I was paying for her ticket, but I didn’t want her to worry so much about money or the price. Helena had seemed depressed ever since the incident in Barton Hills with the widow, but then again, it seemed like ever since I had met her she had been somewhat aloof. There was something arcane about her behavior and personality, people seemed to open up on holiday, and thus I wanted to penetrate that barricade she designed. She needed a vacation. Both of us did, to get away from the turbulent winds blowing in Texas with NAFTA and the widow.

  Canadian climate would do us justice. From Massachusetts, Emma Marlowe took a flight to an international campaign about water rights in India. She was the guest speaker along with other water warriors around the globe. She put us in contact with her partner to fill in some voids, but prior to doing business we took advantage of the exquisite geographical landscape, engaging in outdoor activities along the seacoast like cycling, fishing, and kayaking. It was during the kayaking adventure on a clear steel-blue day that Helena folded under the pressure of her burgeoning burden.

  Helena met Angelos in her twenties, around the downtown area of Fayetteville just outside the church. Fayetteville, Texas was a refuge for Greek immigrants escaping political instability back in the old country, bringing with them a traditional Christian Orthodox background. They had since established an ethnic community with traditional customs dating to classic Byzantine antiquity―the Byzantine Quarters. From the old country, their relatives brought animal husbandry techniques, a strong work ethic and purchasing power, and their conservative traditions about civil society and marriage.

  Most people had large families, for example, Angelos had nine siblings and Helena had eight, which made growing-up difficult because of food shortages and rations. However, Angelos had other problems with his family that stemmed from the meddling of personal affairs, more so in regards to his relationship with Helena. She had been whisked away by his charm, his ambition, and his pragmatism. She had also concluded that because most of his siblings were married and had produced a healthy line of offspring, he was next. Besides, he was the youngest child and the only one to receive a proper university education, and he had maintained decent employment as a land developer with his civil engineering degree. So the next step was to get married and continue the Stratos’ lineage.

  Helena was a decent candidate, she maintained typical Greek features, she came from a decent family, and she had studied contract law. The stars had lined up for them, an ancient marriage revisited―Helen of Troy and Menelaus. During the beginning of their courtship they often went to church together to solidify their faith and union as a couple, which led them to become engaged and then later to marry, but at some point he fell for a friend months before the wedding…a blue-eyed brunette, a twin.

  His flawed interpretation of the twin was that she wanted to take the relationship to the next level. Thus, he had second thoughts about getting married to Helena, and he was starting to veer from his religious beliefs, but he kept it to himself. Sometimes people were so in-tune with their partners that they realized when there was a problem. Helena knew, but when confronted he denied it. She had even approached him just before the taking of their vowels because he had become distant, but he begged her on his knees to ignore his reluctance…and she did, because she was in love. This Spartan deity was hers, nothing would break her spirit.

  The husband-to-be believed the twin wanted him to break off the marriage, but she was in her own relationship and couldn’t fathom ever being in a relationship with Angelos, he was misguided and foolish. The marriage ceremony came and went, and years later he confessed to a friend that he wasn’t psychologically present during the ceremony. He had drifted outside his body and had a supernatural experience he couldn’t convey to anyone.

  After a few years of marriage, he stopped having intercourse with her. All physical attraction was gone. Once the initiator in sexual foray, he now abandoned the idea, he criticized her appearance and how she dressed, avoided her phone calls, and sought out the twin because of his created pseudo-fantasy world with her. This behavior influenced Helena to confront and investigate her suspicions about the twin, but the twin took an honorable approach and visited their home with her boyfriend.

  In front of Helena and her husband, in the living room of their home, two couples joined in hand, the twin poured out her disgust for Helena’s husband’s lust, the letters he wrote her, the messages he sent her, the disrespect to her boyfriend, and the dishonesty of their marriage. She felt sorry for Helena. Everything was out, the husband was incompetent in having an affair, only in his mind, but Helena would now know the truth―he didn’t want her as a partner, he had wanted someone else…even on their wedding day.

  This broke her heart, and of course he denied it. She took refuge in the comfort of Angelos’ siblings and then fled to her parent’s home to sulk. And so began her cascade of insecurities roaring in privation. At this point, most of his siblings became involved―taking sides, passing judgment, offering advice, and Helena’s brothers even put a temporary price on his head. However, after a few days he pleaded for her to return and she acquiesced only on the premise that they talk to a clergyman to mediate their concerns.

  Helena was interested in saving her marriage, divorce was never an option for her, and so she returned to their home about two weeks later with her tail tucked between her legs. The clergymen offered divorce as a final option if they couldn’t remedy their quandary―they rejected. Whatever it was, the husband didn’t want Helena to leave, at least not yet, and he didn’t want to look bad in the eyes of relatives. It was that simple, he didn’t want to appear responsible in the separation or divorce.

  They were from a small town and these ideas still dominated their backwards thinking, rather than take the step to end their sham of a marriage. Next, they saw a marital family therapist who gave tons of advice about listening, understanding, loving, and forgiving. Angelos seemed to have become more affectionate and open about his problems, but it was temporary. Soon thereafter, he started avoiding the church altogether, he told her he no longer believed in the Christian dogma and started researching eastern philosophies.

  This started causing a breakdown with his family. Abandoning the church, abandoning the wife, abandoning Sunday meals with the family, and he stared treating Helena with disdain at home and around people in general. How much could she suffer before leaving?

  This behavior persisted for about a year, he wanted out of the relationship but he was too much of a coward to do it himself. He treated Helena with disrespect so that she would build up enough courage to leave him and in the eyes of the family and the community he wouldn’t look so guilty. This was of grave importance to him―reputation. He wrapped himself up in new-age books and language classes, even claiming he had met with supernatural presences. Often he would break down in an avalanche of tears in front of Helena but never share his experiences, she didn’t know what to do, but one day he offered her a few options.

  He asked Helena to either adapt her behavior and adapt her life to his changes―to change with him and endure all difficulties no matter the repercussions. Or, ado
pt the idea of moving to a metropolis throughout the U.S. or Canada, even though he was uncertain about taking her. Staying in a small town was becoming burdensome for him and he knew Helena didn’t want to leave Fayetteville, her home, her family, or her work. The last option, she could leave the relationship and agree to a divorce but it would have to be presented to the clergy by her. Even though he had drifted from the church, he still wanted the petition to be asked by her to avoid responsibility.

  Helena didn’t appreciate either of the options, he should’ve been bold enough to assume his responsibility and assume the option he preferred. He should’ve been a man. She couldn’t believe he had the actual nerve to plant such an idea in the first place, so she ignored it even though he would ask often if she had made a decision.

  One evening at a local festival, he started up a conversation with a girl from an adjacent town in front of friends, relatives, and Helena, despite her presence. They walked over to a public restroom together at some point during the evening, where he got her phone number and perhaps engaged her in a hasty passionate encounter. Helena and Angelos had a massive argument that evening. He even sent her home on her own while he remained at the festival dancing with relatives and friends, drinking the evening away until sunrise. After that, Angelos disappeared into the great abyss that had been circling around the bend, but Helena heard from rumors and relatives that he was staying and working in Fair Oaks on a land development project while living with a woman in one of the new homes.

  That’s why she was involved with the lawsuit. It wasn’t because she was a crusading activist. Fair Oaks and the lawsuit represented her quenchless feud with Angelos. She was tempered in blood and guided by lightning. She took an independent oath of anguish which she shared with her empty bedroom, where it had stung the most, within the ventricles of her heart…imagining him rolling around with another woman. And after so much pain, he vanished.