Fifteen

Author's note: These chapters are NOT stand-alones...The story starts here.

Commitments, obligations and the cable company...1

I am packed and waiting for a taxi to take me to the airport.

The girls have been clingy all morning and into the early afternoon today, trying to anticipate any need I might have. I am well aware that my leaving is scary for them. I am going to be on the other side of the world and no amount of promises can assure them that I will return.

Yes, Lyn has a fair bit of cash, which suggests I will return, but that is just not enough to calm their agitation. It makes sense to me and yet there is nothing I can do to assuage the fears.

The taxi arrives, each gets a hug and a kiss, even the young ones, and then I am truly on my way back to the USA and Boston. I will get there, though not all at once.

First is my stop in Manila for a night. I know there are plenty of bars and bar girls in Manila, but really, I mean, why would I even consider that now? All I will do is get there, get to The Manila Hotel, check into a room and sleep as much as possible. I need to be at the airport by 5AM for the flight to San Francisco. So there will be no drinking and no bar girls. Just a dinner and sleep.

I will stay a couple of nights in California before getting back to my home in Dorchester. To be honest, I am not really ready for New England winter weather.

Well, ready or not, when I land at Logan on the evening of the 15^th the temperature is a crisp 8 degrees Fahrenheit with wind gusts to 17mph. In other words, it is colder than shit. The only upside is that it isn’t snowing now, but there had been a snow storm on the 8^th that had dumped 10 inches and some accumulation still remains.

On the 19^th we get another storm dumping 19 inches. By March the temps get warmer but I am very much resenting every day I am spending in Boston.

Each day I spend time texting with the girls. That really does seem to make them happy.

I work with my bank to wire some cash into Lyn’s account. That works OK, so then I wire far more into my account in the Philippines. I sign documents which will allow me to get funds wired on a semi-annual basis automatically from an account I maintain at the bank in Boston to my Philippine bank account.

I had placed a hold/suspension on my TV/Internet contract, but now I need to find a way to end it. That is proving difficult. The cable company says that I must continue with the contract and they will just ‘move with me’… assuming I am moving across town. In frustration, I agree. I tell them I will start paying as soon as they can deliver service to my address.

They are happy! Where is the new location, they ask. And so I give them the address, City Heights, General Santos City, Philippines 9500.

There is silence on the other side of the phone… and then, When will you be returning?

I have no intention of returning.

Silence.

Sir, I am sorry to inform you that we do not serve that region.

Well, I am leaving for there within the next few weeks. I am discontinuing the card you are billing. I will have no US address. What is your suggestion since you say I can’t cancel and I am not going to pay if you can’t provide the service?

Sir, I will have to transfer you to another person, please hold…

And I am on hold for 25 minutes, only to start this entire thing again.

This gal tells me she doesn’t believe me. I have to prove that I am never going to come back from the Philippines. How am I to do that? She has no idea.

She warns me that if I don’t give her a correct US address, and fail to pay my monthly bill, they will report me to the credit agencies and ruin my credit.

OK, so given that promise from your company that you will trash my credit rating, why should I ever pay even the current bill? You have given me no reason to pay you another cent.

Sir! Don’t threaten me!

Miss, I am not threatening. You think I am lying about relocating to the Philippines. True?

Yes! We get these types of claims all the time. It’s a scam.

OK, so since I am really leaving and you are really going to trash my credit, I have no reason to pay you anymore. To my way of seeing it, it is you who is threatening me and I am just telling you what my only sane response is. By the way, where do you want me to drop off the DVR/Cable box?

Sir?

I have already explained that I am leaving. Where does the hardware go?

To your next home!

It will not work in the Philippines.

Sir, you can use it when you return.

I am not returning.

I am sorry sir, there is nowhere for you to return it.

OK, I give up. I will contact whoever in government regulates this. Maybe they can talk to you. Clearly I cannot.

I really want to lease out the house, but as I will be a truly absentee landlord, that is proving to be a problem. Property management companies want so much of the leasing payments and their contracts absolve them of any financial obligations that it just isn’t making any sense.

I put the house up for sale. It is a good time to sell! I get the place professionally cleaned and appraised in March. I list it the first of April. I get two offers. Both offers are at the asking price and I am told I need to accept the one I got first when, out of the blue, I get an offer above the asking price. It is a clean cash offer.

On a hunch I decide to sit on it until I have to accept it by the nature of the offer. I wait the entire three days. It pays off and I get an even better offer. It is also a straight cash deal. I take it.

That gives me just one month to clear out. The buyer’s bank is weirdly ready to go and they are in a damned panic to move it. I think the whole thing is a little weird, but cash is cash and I want nothing more than to get back to my girls.

I spend the month getting rid of shit and finding a moving company to ship the rest. The cost isn’t nearly as bad as I feared and with the absurd profit I am making on the house, even that shipping fee is softened a bit more.

I sell my car which more than pays the shipping costs. I cancel my health insurance, and my auto insurance. I notify my agent for the homeowners insurance that I am selling the house and will no longer need insurance. I stop the delivery of the Boston Globe.

I use the held mail I had from the post office as a way to figure out all the things I need to cancel and just go through all of it methodically.

Everything I had in Dorchester is at an end.

I do stop at the bar a few times, just so I would have those memories, but don’t tell a soul there as to what my plans are.

I speak to a few old friends to say goodbye. Each thinks I am being a little melodramatic. I promise to email once that option becomes available to me in my new home.

I arrange to hang out at a friend’s house for a few weeks as I will be out of my house and needing a place to stay for a bit before departing. Once again I am told I am over-playing it… is it really necessary to get rid of everything?

I have a chat with a bank officer about the funds I will be receiving from the sale of the house. I want to move those funds to the Philippines. As nice as the house is which I have leased in the Philippines, I know I will need my own place, even if I cannot own the land. I will need the funds from the sale to build the new home.

I can’t begin to describe how hard it is to wrap everything up. It isn’t as if people don’t move in the USA. But when you do, you have your mail forwarded and you can catch things on the ‘other end’ once the move is made. This time that isn’t possible.

The closing is on the 14^th of May, a Wednesday. I know that is going to be the date for nine days but, resist buying my airline tickets for fear that something might go wrong.

Nothing goes wrong. By 2PM on the 14^th I have a cashier’s check in my hands. Rather than run to the bank, I run back to my friend’s house and get online. I need to purchase tickets. The money can go into the bank tomorrow.

My flight out is on Sunday, the 18^th. I will be in Manila on the 20^th and on to GenSan also on the 20^th. It is done. In doing so, I splurge. I have a fair number of airline points and suspect that this may be the last time to really use them. I am flying business class.

The next morning, after depositing the check in the bank account, where they tell me it will take between seven and ten days to clear, and I am now essentially afoot, having sold my car, I take a taxi to the government agency that regulates the cable company. I have the DVR under my arm, a printout of my plane ticket, a copy of my latest bill from the cable TV company, and my passport.

I believe I must have made someone’s day as I start explaining why I am there. In the beginning there are chuckles. Then they are asking questions.

Then they are on the phone with the cable TV company. Then they are looking at the DVR, the passport, and the printout of the electronic plane ticket. Then they get back on the phone with the cable TV company and they ask, Did you really say that unless this gentleman gives you a valid US address so as to send your bills that you would report him to the credit agencies?

Evidently they are told, yes, because next they ask, What if he was telling the truth?

….

Yes, I know you don’t believe him. But, what if he is telling the truth? Do you think you have the right to damage his credit even if you are wrong?

…

Yes, I know you don’t, but I am looking at his plane ticket and his passport. We believe him and you don’t want to go to a regulatory hearing on this. … Yes, I’ll wait.

Five minutes later the cable TV company seems to suggest that the agency inspect my ticket for a return ticket. It is true that you can’t fly in to the Philippines, as a non-Filipino, without a return ticket to leave¹ but my ‘return ticket’ is a flight to Malaysia for 12 months from now.

I show that to the folks at the agency and, following some chuckles, they inform the cable company of the nature of my return. That seems to cause a bit of confusion on the company side as we hear one person claiming that the agency person is lying while another is telling the first to cool such language.

Now the cable company wants proof that the ticket is real. Maybe I just made this all up.

I have no idea how to do that, but one of the folks at the agency says that with my e-ticket number, I can log onto the airline website and display the information… would I be willing to do that?

I think it’s a dandy idea and so, with the cable company still on the phone, I am able to log on and display the info. One of the agency folks tells the cable folks that I have proven that the ticket is real.

In the end, the company agrees that there is no way to continue the contract. However there is also no way to ‘return’ the DVR. They are saying I should keep it and I am saying, I can’t.

There is some back and forth about getting all this down in writing so that there is no back-tracking later.

I do agree to pay a final bill, and I leave the DVR at the agency. They tell me that it will be presented to the company at their next hearing. That would have been interesting to sit in on, but I will be back in GenSan by then.

It is the middle of the afternoon of the 15^th. I am honestly just hanging out without anything to do for the next two days.

When I board my flight at Logan on the 18^th it is 51 degrees Fahrenheit. Having given away my all winter clothing, I have a windbreaker on and it will be the last time I will ever need it.

There is nothing pleasing about flying such a long distance, but business class makes it far, far nicer. Being able to really sleep in a comfortable manner makes the trip so much easier.

I land in Manila feeling pretty damned good and well rested. The wait to board the PAL flight to GenSan is no problem at all.

The girls know I am coming. The entire time I have been gone, we have been texting. Not a lot each day, but at least a little. They know about the sale of my house and the container of my stuff that still hasn’t left its US port but will eventually find its way to GenSan.

While I have been gone, Lexi has had a birthday. She is now 16. May and Jocelyn are now 14. I am aware of all this and was aware as the birthdays occurred. Katrina’s birthday is not for another month. Jana’s is soon after that.

From all I have gathered via the texts, Lyn has handled the finances as I had hoped. She told me three of them registered for their classes just last week.

I haven’t told them, but I will purchase a motorcycle for them to get back and forth to school on. I want it to be a surprise.

From what I was told, the cashier’s check has yet to clear the bank. I guess I should be nervous about that. But as an officer of the issuing bank is the person who handed the check to me, I really don’t think there is any reason for concern. I am simply looking forward to it getting to GenSan, as I have plans for it.

Once I decided that these girls and I were going to stay together, a number of dominoes fell into place, if a bit slowly.

The first was education for them, and transportation for us (not just for me). But housing is also an issue. The leased place we have now is great. But it isn’t ours and that makes it unstable.

I need stable.

All I had in the USA is now gone. I thought I was going to have to swallow hard on that issue. I didn’t. The longer I was away from the girls the more I just wanted to get back to them.

But now I need to create stability in GenSan. I think I know how to do this, but I am not one hundred percent sure. And in any case, before I move forward with most of my plan, the money from the house needs to get to my BPI account.

Stability is the cement that assures performance of prior obligations. It is a commitment to the future. Stability has entanglements, and so entering into a stable place means giving up some liberty in the process. It means a respect for those who buttress that stable place. It is not just me anymore. It must be me and my girls.

My girls.

There they are. Each and every one of them is here as I exit from the arrivals area of the airport. It is summer break here, so no school for four of them. In just a couple of weeks three of them will be college kids and three more return to high school.

Lyn told me she was renting a van to pick me up. It wasn’t too expensive and I know they are excited. In a way, it’s a nice home coming. In the coming week, a van is on my list of things to purchase, so this is simply an acknowledgment of that need.

I see smiles. Seven smiles, and… one pregnant girl.

She walks up to me. She is not as large as she will get, but she is clearly close to four months along. Her arms encircle me, her cheek on my arm. She just hugs me for a bit as the others hang back and wait.

You were right, Craig.

In want way?

My plan would not have worked. Now I need you to protect me and my baby, maybe even more than Mel.

Lexi, you don’t have to worry about that. You, Mel, and your baby are mine.

The only reason I not cry every day is because you text us every day. I know you are coming back. If no text, what I do? If you not come back, what I do?

I understand.

Good! Ha! I have the first one! I think the others, they jealous.

Does your mother know?

Yes! Yes, she do! She cry. I tell her she is foolish. She cry. She say, better it be Mel. I tell her she has a bad attitude.

I am sorry, Lexi.

No reason you be sorry. She not a good mother. I not care. I am happy I have your baby.

Lyn, why did you enroll Lexi in class?

She can complete one semester. It will end in October, the child will not come until the second week in November!

That is cutting it close.

It OK.

I am still hugging Lexi but indicate a desire to hug the others. It is a sweet loving crush.

May gets as close to me as is possible while still fully dressed. She tips her head up requesting a kiss on the lips. I consent to the public display and jokingly comment, You’re almost old enough now.

You mean for my second time?

Huh?

Remember the last night in bed? That was me!

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1 - I learn later that there are two exceptions to that rule, a SRRV visa and a 13A visa.

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Commitments, obligations and the cable company...2