Chapter 6

Unexpected Developments
While in Puerto Rico, I met and befriended many fellow students at Inter
American University whose friendships I would come to treasure. One girl
really caught my attention as she livened up every conversation with her
animated and bubbly personality. She could make anyone laugh within five
minutes of meeting them. Despite coming from a town once labeled as the
most racist in Ohio I could not resist the humor and charm of this dark skinned
Puerto Rican girl who I will call Nancy for reasons you will understand later.
She was popular and after graduation she became a well-liked teacher in the
Aguadilla community. She had an infectious personality and I cannot think of
anyone who did not like her. Her family lived in the neighboring city of Moca
which grows sugar cane and other crops. Needless to say, the more time we
spent together, the more fun and distraction I had. She met all of my Coast
Guard friends and eventually we fell in love with one another and she moved in
with me. Her friends were more than double of my own and they all helped me
learn Spanish quickly. Most of them also became my good friends as well as
hers. A few months later we discovered Nancy was pregnant and this sort of
accelerated our wedding plans in a very conservative Puerto Rico where
abortions are taboo.

My business was growing and although I had not planned to marry so early in
my life, we got along well and I was convinced it would be a good marriage. I
did my best to make it work. I was glad my father had already passed away
because if he learned I married a girl of any color other than white, hed have a
heart attack and not before killing me. In truth, I never thought it possible that I
could ever marry a black or brown girl. But then again, I never thought Id be
living in Puerto Rico or speaking Spanish either. In Puerto Rico there is no
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black or white. Everyone seems to be various shades of brown. Puerto Rico

was once a Spanish colony that had introduced slaves to the island as
agricultural workers and over its long history, the people and cultures
integrated quite well. Whatever racism that may still exist is very difficult to find.
Caucasians in Puerto Rico are the minority.

Nancy would eventually travel with me to my home in Ohio where my mom

was horrified to learn of our marriage and only my closest friends accepted my
wife. Im sure the gossip in our neighborhood continued for months even after
we returned to Puerto Rico. Surely there was no way we could live a normal
life in a 1976 Ohio as a bi-racial couple. My mom pressured me to seek an
annulment but we now had a very beautiful daughter who was our bond. We
actually grew closer and all but one of o ur 20 neighbors on E Street in PR were
good friends. We had a pretty good life in paradise and I thought I would
remain in Puerto Rico forever.

But my new wife, after visiting America started developing Island Fever and
wanted to move to the States. I was not the least bit interested as I was
working hard to expand my business in Puerto Rico. I didnt know that my wife
was looking for teaching jobs in New York where she had some cousins. Being
fluently bi-lingual and quite intelligent with a degree in Education, she would be
a prized teacher in New York City for sure.

One day I came home from a long day at the beach (my office) and she was
abnormally happy and bouncing around with joy and huge smile on her face.
Our daughter had just turned three years o ld and I thought maybe she had
spoken her first words. But she quickly solved the mystery of her elation by
handing me a letter from the City School District of Rochester, New York. It
was an offer to come work as a teacher in Rochester and I learned that Nancy
had already had a phone interview with them. I was both happy and angry. I
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was happy to see my wife so happy getting something she had wanted so
badly, but I was angry that she never really discussed any family planning with
me, nor stopped me from i nvesting money into my business in Puerto Rico.
I was not really prepared to abandon three years of growing my business nor
was I interested in moving to any Northern city where people basically
hibernate during the frigid winters. But she was determined to be a teacher in
America and we agreed on a compromise. She would go teach in Rochester
for a year and then look for a teaching job in Florida which also had a big
demand for bi-lingual certified teachers, and where I could easily find work as a
Scuba instructor. That was our plan and for a year I would become a single
father with assistance from my mother-in-law who would baby sit while I had to
work. She accepted the position which paid triple her salary in Puerto Rico
and we sent her off hoping the year would pass quickly.

This i s the old Ramey Air Force Base and the arrow points to my old home.

Back then there was no Skype so our phone calls were short and limited to
maybe three per week for about five minutes each.

She was having a blast in

Rochester and doing well in her job. We missed each other quite a bit but
accepted the sacrifice as one that would give us a better life in the long term. I
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started looking for a buyer for my business and started looking for dive shops
in Florida that could use another PADI OWSI instructor.

I also sent out some

SF-171 employment application forms and spoke with Jimmy Gaskins the HR
guy at U.S. Customs in Miami. Because I was honorably discharged from the
Coast Guard and had all the patrol and investigative experience I would be
short-listed for a job as a Customs Patrol Officer. I had also sent and
application to the FBI in Miami as well. At this time in my life I had no clue as to
how much corruption was growing inside the FBI. Eventually they would send
me a letter to come in for an interview but as you will see later, the timing could
not have been worse.

Our house at 125 E street sat atop a cliff overlooking Borinquen Beach

Then one night I got a call at 2:00 am in the morning from Nancy and she was
crying. I did not know what to think because all she did was cry. At first I
thought maybe she was mugged or raped or maybe even fired from her job. I
asked her if she was okay and she said yes but she could not speak. I asked
her if I needed to come to Rochester and she said no, and that she would call
me back later and then hung up. This cryptic call drove me nuts but when I
attempted to call her back for the next two days she did not answer. Finally
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she called me back, I suppose after collecting her thoughts to tell me she had
gotten extremely lonely in Rochester and after being invited to a holiday party,
she had too much to drink and was befriended by an executive from Xerox.
Long story short, she had a short affair with the man who apparently then
abandoned her after a few romps. She wanted to come home but I was not
sure I how I felt any more about her. Inside I wanted to forgive and forget and I
kept rationalizing this desire by telling myself that at least she was honest
enough to tell me.

In reality, if she didnt tell me I would never know. More

importantly we had a daughter to raise who was absolutely beautiful and

delightful. Her name was Christian and we were just beginning to bond.

Nancy had already been in Rochester for seven months and I thought she
should finish her one year contract and get a letter of recommendation. But
now I guess she was feeling homesick and just wanted to come home . I told
her to do what she wanted but to calm down and think about it for a few days
so she would have no regrets. She opted to come home and I still have no idea
what she told her family. They were just glad to see her back home in Puerto
Rico and Christi jumped up and down with joy when Mama walked through the
door. I suppose it was the right decision after all.

But now I realized personally that forgiving was a whole lot easier than
forgetting, and I was finding it impossible to be intimate with Nancy no matter
how hard I tried. Although we physically slept in the same bed I had no desire
to hold her and Our sex life basically died. We tried talking things out but when
I asked her, if she would ever betray me again, she took more than a minute to
answer and finally gave me an answer I never expected I dont know I hope
not. Again, at least she was being honest with me.

We stayed together for another month trying to let time help us heal but it
wasnt working and we finally separated. I was very depressed and although
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my daughter was still able to make me smile and laugh, the good times were
gone forever. I would not date anyone again for more than a year and our
divorce was inevitable. My mother was directly overjoyed with the news even
though she would still ask for photos of Christi and forever ask about her. I had
a hard time coming to grips with this obvious contradiction.

Then I received a call from a woman in Miami named Marjorie. She worked for
the Department of Justice and she said she wanted to interview me for a
position with the Justice Department and she would tell me about the job only if
I passed the interview. I agreed. We talked for about 30 minutes and she said
shed get back with me in a few days, and she did. I had passed the interview.
Now came the sales job She told me she had an immediate position for me
in Miami with the Immigration and Naturalization Service and if agreed to take
it, she would recommend me to the FBI after one year. As she explained,
getting into the FBI was competitive but I would have 4 years federal law
enforcement experience under my belt in a year and being bi-lingual and a
military veteran would make me a preferred candidate. I bought into her pitch
because I certainly was not interested in working for the Immigration Agency
which has a thankless and much maligned mission keeping people out of
America. But Marjorie sounded very sincere and told me directly that I only
had to endure one year and shed move me up and over to the FBI. I agreed
to the deal since both agencies belonged to the Department of Justice and
frankly, I had no reason not to believe Marjorie. She said I would be an IDO
at the GS-5 pay level and after one year be eligible for an FBI entry level at
GS-7 of GS-9 pay grade.

It wasnt until after I moved to Miami that I learned what an IDO was. Looking
back it would be quite ironic and I suppose poetic justice. But for right now I
was really depressed with my failed marriage in Puerto Rico and since 80% of
my friends were Nancys friends first, I began to feel awkward and even
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ashamed that we failed as a couple. As much as I loved Puerto Rico and my

daughter, I had to get away. Was I running away from my problem or just
seeking a new start?

I still dont know, but as time would tell, the decision

would have a monumental impact on my life as it would begin a chain of events

that lead to my current predicament.

My sudden departure would take all my

friends by surprise including the Mayor of Aguadilla who was trying to talk me
into running as a candidate for the Puerto Rico Senate or House of
Representatives at the time since I had accumulated some influence in the
Aguadilla community after the Dow Chemical fiasco and my newspaper
editorials. Today Puerto is a bittersweet memory for me but much more
sweet that bitter and I long to see Christi again. The last I heard she married a
soldier and by now I could be a grandfather!

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