Angela and Hugo were seated at a table looking out over the harbor. They were enjoying a second ice water with lime and were comfortable. The restaurant was open-air on three sides with the entrance and kitchen area occupying the fourth side. It was beginning to be later afternoon almost evening when Mora and her partner arrived. They weren't late or in a hurry. Independence day at the restaurant Taíno was a celebration of independent realization, thoughtful and happy. Hugo and Angela waved to be sure Mora saw them; she had, and waved in return.

A waiter accompanied Mora and her partner to the table. Angela and Hugo stood to meet them. They all asked the waiter for water, please.

Mora introduced her husband and partner, Sergio Ribeira, to Hugo and Angela. They learned Sergio was from Manaus, Brazil. He was raised as a farmer, studied agrarian sciences at Federal University Amazonas, then went on to Tufts, where he studied ecological economics, sociology and physics.

Though Sergio and Mora visit Brazil often, he has been living outside Brazil for sixteen years, his brother and sister have their own families now and are still living happily on the family farm. Sergio's parents are also still farmers. His uncle was a forest ranger assassinated by someone working for corporate scale agriculture. Nobody knows what actually happened.

"Now you have heard too much of me," Sergio said. "Please tell me a little about you Angela and Hugo, a newspaper reporter and a local billionaire." He said this and laughed heartily. "Here we are together celebrating the independent country of Puerto Rico." He concluded just as the lights were turned on inside the restaurant Taíno and the waiter arrived with a pitcher of water and menus.

"Wait just a moment for our stories," Angela interjected. "I'm a reporter on duty. I am being paid to listen. "Your uncle was assassinated by interests of corporate agriculture. What happens when you and Mora go home too see your family and friends?"

Sergio has a deep copper-brown complexion tanned by the sun. He is an environmental scientist and explained his and Mora's work as advocating for Earth's health accomplished by ecological food production and very low waste at every step from the land to the table and then compost. Sergio said he and Mora are helping establish a form of agriculture that employs people instead of so many machines. "That's how we met," he said with a smiling glance to Mora.

Sergio further explained that he and Mora are very careful when returning home for a visit with family and friends. They are two of many from around the world who have been working to advance food sovereignty in Venezuela. They help the country learn to live with the forest using less machines and chemicals. Many corporations do not like what they are doing. On the positive side, Venezuela provided medical support for the pandemic to Manaus and the entire state, Amazonas. Sergio's home state is receiving help from Venezuela that Brasil itself has not given, so far. Regional sovereignty is frowned on by all national capitals. Food sovereignty and ecological balance are shared concerns of Amazonas and Venezuela. Sergio and Mara work near the border on the Venezuelan side of his home state in Brasil; "We are all extra alert when Mora and I and our two children visit my family's farm," he concluded.

"Did you get all that for your story?" Hugo asked Angela. She nodded positively and smiled.

"Do you work with Sergio in Venezuela?" Angela asked Mora. "And where are your children?"

"Yes. We work together." Mora responded; "We are a team specializing in food sovereignty for border areas," she said with a soft laugh and then hugged Sergio's arm. "It's both serious and fun," Mora continued, "We are temporarily working in Nicaragua at the frontier with Honduras. Our children traveled with us and are with their cousins, here.

"When in Venezuela we work at the frontier with the state of Amazonas. We work border areas to have impact in more than one country. Here we are hoping Puerto Rico will quickly become food sovereign and then show citizens of the US how to accomplish it. That really is the best way for northerners to civilize their country and help stop global climate collapse. Our children are very aware of the world and clamored loudly to accompany us as they have heard of an independent kids movement right here and now. Today our kids went to register themselves in your schools. They do that everywhere we go."

"Do you plan to include our story in your newspaper?" Sergio asked Angela. He also looked at Hugo, who could see him wondering just who he might be.

Yes." Angela replied. "Your ideas of food sovereignty increase our independence. Puerto Rico will be successful and will have a foreign policy similar to Cuba ... Two wings fly Caribbean freedom, we will be social doctors as one wing while Cuba continues to provide medical doctors with the other wing. First, you teach us food sovereignty. The newspaper will be very helpful, I'm sure."

Hugo leaned forward on his elbows toward the center of the table and beckoned them all to huddle close. "I have something to tell you all," he said. He glanced at Angela. She looked into his eyes and laughed. "I'm not a local billionaire," Hugo explained, "It was just a fluke of Angela's word surfing like magic on the sound of silence."

"You are a witch?" Mora asked Angela, whose response was to put her finger over her smiling lips as a shush, which made Mora laugh.

They were all still leaning forward in a huddle and Hugo whispered, "Angela can make a zone of silence for conversation in the middle of a crowd." He hadn't thought about it then, but as soon as he spoke the words, Hugo remembered Mora had conversed with Angela across the din of independence day conversation at Rosie's cafe. He looked at Mora with new interest.

Mora looked into Hugo's eyes and smiled, as did Sergio. And then the waiter appeared and asked if they were ready to order their meals.

"We will be happy with the Taíno special," Angela said. "No private portions. Empty plates with all our food in the center." Together they visualized avocados, beans, corn, peanut sauce, plantain, chicken, rice, fish and spicy hot picante orange and pineapple salsa. The table was soon piled high with good smelling good tasting colorful food.

Mora and Sergio were interested to learn Pablo and Ynez were Angela's parents and the younger woman who had joined them in conversation was her sister, Adriana. "You made an interesting group in my line of sight by chance," Mora commented, glancing at Hugo. "I'm still curious what you told the ambassador," she concluded.

Hugo looked at Mora and could clearly see she expected an answer. "Ready?" he asked. Mora nodded affirmatively and said, "Now is good."

"Angela pulled me closer so I could hear," Hugo began. "The US Ambassador was proposing a team of State Department lawyers be put on the job of annulling the vote so Puerto Rico could be a state instead of a country. I know about the US weaponizing law and how it was used to make a coup in Brazil because, until this afternoon, I was a policeman sometimes reading police journals."

"You were a police officer until this afternoon/" Mora asked Hugo, with keen interest.

"You are not going to believe this," Angela interjected, smiling to Hugo, "He pulled me over for speeding this afternoon. Hugo quit his job after I told him we were a free country."

"So you are a billionaire after-all!" Sergio said, laughing merrily. "I was right."

Mora laughed along with her husband but soon grew serious, she had a perplexed expression. "How did it happen that you are here with Angela and us?" Hugo could see that Sergio was as curious as his wife. He could see Angela was also curious.

"I knew something like this would happen if I went to the newspaper and found Angela. We crossed paths with each other at the front door. She didn't recognize me. I introduced myself and here I am, celebrating independence and no more austerity with you. I am celebrating with new friends."

Sergio was taken in by Hugo's story. He saw Hugo's eyes flash affection and wanted to know how Hugo knew something like this might happen if he found Angela.

"Strong energy," Hugo responded. I wrote a speeding ticket, crumpled it up, and then put it in the speeder's outstretched hand. That was a first. Then I quit the police department. It was a short bus ride to the newspaper. And here we are." Hugo concluded. "But I am curious about your kids. You take them with you wherever you go and they register themselves in school? How old are they? And, Who are they with now?"

"The children are with my older sister, Catalina, she married a Cuban doctor whom she met while working next to a Cuban medical brigade, in Syria." Sergio responded. "Cuba sent them here to help. They have been here since the pandemic began. Cuba and Puerto Rico are two wings of the same Caribbean freedom bird. Cuba and Puerto Rico fought against the Spanish empire together and won freedom from slavery. Now they see a bright future."

Hugo saw Angela was writing what Sergio said and decided he could ask one more question he was still curious about. He hesitated until Angela glanced toward him though she was still writing.

"How do your children register themselves for school without an adult?" Hugo asked Mora, who happily answered.

"In this instance they had Sergio's sister, Catalina, whose children are attending the same two schools." Mora answered. "Interestingly, our children heard from Catalina's kids about the big adventure going on at the schools here in Puerto Rico. As a result, it was our children who convinced us we should be here now. It was our children who figured out that if we taught food sovereignty here in Puerto Rico, the idea would spread across the north american continent."

Sergio laughed. "We sent their proposal to the UN."

Mora joined in Sergio's laughter, "We estimate that our children's proposed method to civilize english speaking north americans will be accepted and put into action about the time they finish college."

That idea made them all laugh together. Though none among them thought about it then, solidarity grows one small step at a time. Four people found connections that created a new direction. They had found a path together, their pace of life quickened as the evening and meal drew to contented silence.

"What will we do tomorrow?" Hugo asked no one in particular.

Let's meet back at Rosie's cafe after the kids are all in school," Mora suggested and everyone agreed.

© Garrett Tobin Connelly