Fifteen
Copyright © 2019-2020 by VeryWellAged
Back to Construction, connection, and change...3
Author's note: These chapters are NOT stand-alones...The story starts here.
Construction, connection, and change...4
It’s been a while, sweetheart. I am glad you are here.
I think you will ask for Dina.
Why would I do that?
They say you will.
I see.
None of them asked me. All they were doing was guessing.
They also say we need to watch our cycles and maybe not get pregnant again.
Maybe not for a while and not so close together this time.
Oh, OK. But this is in the middle of my month. It is not safe for me.
Well, we can just hold each other, or have oral sex.
Better if I send someone who not in the middle maybe and I come when I am safer. OK?
So, now I am smiling. By my edict, they will choose with whom I will be lying. By using power I have also ceded it.
OK, Mel, I accept defeat. But I want to be with you soon.
You will. I promise.
And she leaves the bedroom, having won the right to choose.
Twenty minutes later, there is a knock at the door. That is weird. If one of my girls is going to spend the night with me, she won’t have to knock.
I open the door to find Dina standing in front of me.
Yes? What is it?
I am with you tonight.
Who said so?
Everyone. They say no one but me OK tonight.
I don’t believe it for a second. I grab my cellphone and text Lyn,
Get up here right now!
Using the cellphone is the only option unless I want to run down a couple of flights of stairs. Yelling down two floors isn’t cool and might not work anyway.
Come sit on the balcony with me for a bit, Dina.
And I walk out there myself. She is stuck. Nothing is going to happen out here and that’s where I am. She follows, if a bit reluctantly.
What did your mother tell you today?
She told me, I had to promise to not be with you on my fertile days and I could be with you.
Didn’t I tell you by text that I would think about it when you get older, but not now?
Yes, but Mel say I can go up here now.
Just Mel?
No, we talk and decide it should be me. It my time to be next.
Lyn has come in.
Out here, Lyn.
There are only two chairs here, so Lyn is standing and has no idea why I have called for her.
Did you give permission for Dina to be here tonight?
You not asked for her?
No, I absolutely did not. I invited Mel. But, once Mel was here, she said she knew that she is in her fertile days. She really felt she shouldn’t be with me tonight. In the end, I agreed that one of the girls who is in her safe days should come here instead. There are ten of you. Am I to believe that none of you is in a safe time?
Why is Dina here?
Ask her, Lyn. Ask her.
OK if we talk in our dialect?
OK, sure.
The conversation seems to start sweet enough. The voices are calm and there are smiles. But that doesn’t last long. The sentences seem sharper and more staccato-like. Things are getting louder and more animated. Finally, Dina is crying and Lyn is shouting. I gather she is telling Dina to leave as she is pointing to the door.
Yeh, that’s what it is, as the girl skedaddles right out, not looking back for a second look. Lyn is almost in tears again and just plops down into the recently-vacated chair.
OK, what happened?
Complicated, but you don’t want her here and so she should not be here.
Well, that much I will grant you, but there was more to it.
It is for me and the girls, not you. I need to do this.
Why?
Because I know you better?
Do you?
I think so.
Do you know that I don’t want to see her in this room until she is at least fourteen?
Yes, that is what I told her. I also told her that if she caused any more trouble you will kick her out and she will not be able to even talk to you before she is gone. I told her that the same goes for Mica and Lanie. Fourteen and no younger. … Craig, I need to go down and talk to the girls.
Wait a bit please. I just want to be with you and feel safe.
You? Craig, you need to feel safe?
Does that sound silly?
No… No. I just not think this before. But it true. For Alfonso, he only think about the pesos and his penis. But you think about us. You think about what life is like for us before and now. You worry for us, maybe more than we do. And then we do this to you. It wrong. We think, he a guy, give him a girl to fuck. In the beginning maybe that true for you. Maybe when I meet you, yes? It me and Jana and then Mel? But even Lexi, you thinking bad idea. No one hear you, I think. Each just wants to be safe in your bed.
They are safe, even not in my bed.
Yes, I know this. Maybe, they not.
Who you want tonight?
Someone who was not part of this mess tonight and who is not going to get pregnant.
OK, I see if there anyone like that. If not I text you that all are in trouble with you.
I didn’t say they are in trouble, Lyn.
Yes, they are. I tell them they are.
OK. Maybe you are right.
I get another kiss and she is gone.
Lyn thinks she knows me. Lexi thinks she knows me. Jana thinks she knows me. Si2x thinks she knows me. Each do, a little. A piece here, and a little piece there, but on a night like tonight, I wonder, how little must it be to have things like this occur?
I take a shower and get into bed. No one has arrived and there has been no text. I have no idea what is happening, but I am tired.
I turn off the light and then my cellphone tells me I have a text.
Jana safe, but involved
Mel involved
Lexi not safe, not involved
Si2x too pregnant, not involved
Jing2x not feeling good, not involved
Reina too pregnant, involved
Dido, May, Li2x all involved
OK. Damn.
I am super angry with Jana.
Lexi is very angry with Mel.
Si2x ask if she can come without sex
Tell Si2x yes.
OK, night na.
A few minutes later Si2x, who is seven months along, is sliding into my bed, awkwardly.
Do you want your belly rubbed?
She giggles a bit before saying, It OK, Sir, I just want to be with you. It a bad day I think. Each of us sad. Maybe we happier together, you and me?
Yes, OK.
It is possibly the best ending, considering what came before it.
Morning has me back out on the lot. To my huge surprise, there must be fifteen new men out here today. Each one is assigned to someone who has been working here for a while. As we had twenty men before, by my count we are now at thirty-five. The guy who has the pakyaw tells me there will be more men tomorrow.
Lyn is a marvel! This may mean we will finish in two months instead of four more. And I should be elated, except for the fact that Gladies and Shara are also on this lot. I am not feeling particularly warm and cuddly with regards to either of them.
I suspect Gladies has already figured out I am not happy with her because she is staying away. Shara, on the other hand, tries to chat with me first thing in the morning. I suspect I am way more than a little pissed at both of them, and Gladies has had the good sense to steer clear. Just twenty minutes ago, Shara got the full force of my unhappiness with both of them. The rest of the day, Shara plays it smarter and hides in her hut.
Lexi and Lyn join me at nine and stay until noon. Lyn, bless her heart, never mentions the miracle she has pulled off in getting more men here. That is, until I thank her.
She laughs. It easy. See? No problem. He not angry.
OK, so how did you do it?
I say to him, ‘Kuya, why you want to be difficult? Don’t you want to make more money?’ He say, ‘How that?’ I tell him, ‘Kuya, this man will build a very big house plus maybe four or five smaller buildings. You not want or need the work?’ See, he do. He plan to do that too, he tell me. So I ask him, ‘Why you think he will hire you again? He wants you to hire more men to finish the fence and you refuse. Why you think he will hire you when you this way?’ He say, ‘Why is the man impatient? It will be done!’ So I ask him, ‘He truly impatient? Or maybe you are difficult? It him with the money!’ Finally he understand. He say, OK, tomorrow.
Lyn is a wonder and now, in a way, I can appreciate that more than before.
Lexi has Oscar with her and is feeding him in a sort of casual fashion. When the kid seems to be receptive, he gets something. When he is distracted, she ignores him and doesn’t push the food on him. Craig, do you want to talk about last night?
I am not sure. What is there to discuss?
You really mean that the girls must wait until they fourteen?
Yes.
But I don’t think that was what was going to happen before.
What does it matter? It is fourteen now.
Oh. You are really angry. Maybe it change later.
No, Lexi, it will not. But I do want to understand how it all happened. I don’t think all have evil intentions or were out to manipulate me. Something happened that should not have happened … do I blame both Shara and Gladies? I think they were partially responsible, but I don’t understand the events of last night. I know who was involved but not all of the why and how of it… do you? Do you, Lyn?
Neither do.
Lexi, I am concerned that Mel has learned too well from Bel. I am wondering if this was all Mel last night, attempting to manipulate me like Bel tried. But, and this is a big but, I don’t know.
Lexi seemed stunned by the question and Oscar begins to cry. She consoles our boy, screws up her face and, her brow knitted, before, It is the way ’Nay would do it. I hope you are wrong. But what happens if you right? You throw her out?
No, I said I would not and I won’t. But if that is the way she is, I think that I will not be with her and she can’t have a big role in the family. I would have to reduce her ability to cause problems.
Maybe she leaves?
Not with our son, she doesn’t. Jon stays even if she leaves. But, we are getting ahead of ourselves. I really do not know what happened. I don’t want to make any decisions, other than what I have already done, until I know more about what happened. Lyn, you find out from Mel. Lexi, you find out how Jana is involved. I really don’t think I would have seen Dina upstairs unless both of those girls permitted it. May, Li2x, Dido and Reina don’t have that much power. Once we know how Mel and Jana are involved in this, we can spend time on the others.
Lyn is looking out at the workmen. But that’s not what is on her mind. Everyone at home is scared. You know that?
I do now.
They wonder who is leaving. It OK I tell them no one leaves?
Yes.
You want to question Jana and Mel?
No, Lyn, I don’t. At least not until you have told me what you have learned.
If Lexi say there really no problem with Jana, she come to you tonight?
No. I want to hear all of it and understand it first.
You alone tonight? Maybe, no one not involve has a safe day. Si2x too pregnant and Jing2x is truly ill.
Lexi, is there any reason why we can’t be together without sex?
The girl laughs. That will be nice.
So that’s the decision.
We spend the rest of the morning wondering how many men it would take to finish the fence in one month, and talking about the design of the grillwork that will be on the street-facing portion of the fence and on the gates.
Most of the grillwork designs here are interpretations of the Spanish style, evoking the colonial era.
Our new house, while not a block type ‘modern,’ is modern in a way, evocative of the Prairie school architecture as seen in the Darwin Martin House in Buffalo, NY, by Wright. I have shown pictures of the house/complex to Gilbert. That house is two floors, the second one being pretty small. Mine will be three floors of rooms with the third reprising the other’s second floor. That floor with have a raised roof creating a terrace like open fourth floor. Our floor plan is nothing like the Wright building. Like I said, evocative, not a copy.
Still, what amazes me is this house I am using as inspiration was clearly built for a cold, snowy climate but has overall design elements that, in many ways, work better here than where it sits.
The roof design provides good protection from the heavy rains we get. It seems well suited to block excess sun from heating the house. There is a large dining room in the Wright design, which we are stealing directly and unapologetically. There are things we are modifying, and one is to create a walled in courtyard in the back with bedrooms opening onto the courtyard from all sides. We will put a fountain in the courtyard, our one nod to the Spanish influence.
Anyway, my point is that a Spanish grillwork doesn’t fit with what I am building. I have shown some pictures of mission style / Arts and Crafts Movement furniture ornamentation to Gilbert, to suggest what our grillwork might take inspiration from. It is both spare and special at the same time.
Gilbert tells me I will have very much a one-of-a-kind home. He comments that our house, being made of concrete, will be very different from Wright’s work. I then had a lot of fun showing him Wright’s California work that was entirely concrete. It seems he was really and completely unfamiliar with Wright. Hard to understand, but there you have it. Still, he is a civil engineer and not an architect, so maybe that was not really part of his background or the curriculum for his degree.
I give up trying to describe the ideas we have been working on for the grillwork with the girls. They will just wait and see the drawings.
Lyn wants to get back to take care of our daughter, Nita, who I am sure is being cared for very well by the other girls. Still, Lyn and Lexi leave at noon, and I have my sack lunch undisturbed today.
It is too soon to really see a relative improvement in the speed of construction here, but I hope it will become clear in the next few days. I want one part of my life to be a little less stressful!
Each day, it seems, brings salesmen trying to tie me into contracts for roofing and windows. Each I send away. I am just not ready to even consider those items. I don’t even have the final house plans yet. And though this is not an easy project, if the fence is going to be finished in two months, then I sure need the house plans now!
As I am doing little more than running salesmen off the lot and perspiring, I text Gilbert.
Fence will be fully up in two months, with temp gate. Need house plans completed.
Gud PM Sir Craig. Yes, I am working on them now. Soon Sir I will have them for your review.
Glad to hear it. Thanks.
Will the fence be complete in two months? Hell, I don’t know, but will I really see the house plans soon? This is the land of bukas1! Everything, you are told with be ready bukas, and bukas, when you ask, ‘yes, Sir, bukas!’
I get that only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noonday sun. Here, they break for lunch at eleven-thirty and nap from noon to one, before returning to work until four-thirty. They do start at seven in the morning, so the workmen give you a good four and a half hours and then, later, three and a half which sure does amount to an eight hour day. So the labor is fine, but deliverables? Well, now, that is often bukas. The house plans are quintessential bukas.
As to the labor, it is true that no one gets in a hurry, but they don’t stop, either. So it may not look super busy, but under this sun, well, I am not complaining. They do work hard. I am not having a problem with the laborers.
At the end of each day, I am here until all the workmen are gone. I walk the lot and make sure all is OK before going home at five-thirty.
The house is quiet as I walk in. The young ones are setting the table and I am told that Li2x and Si2x are doing the cooking. I surmise that Lyn is still talking to Mel and Lexi is still with Jana. I am asked if we should wait for them before we sit down. So, as I have no idea, I text Lyn.
You want us to hold dinner for a while? Jana and Lexi are also not here.
Go ahead. We are all together talking.
OK, let’s eat.
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1 - Tomorrow. (boo-KahS)
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