Fifteen

Back to Some things should not be diagrammed...2

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

Some things should not be diagrammed...3

Mel has had a far longer way to travel to get where she is now than has Lexi. Lexi was already emotionally estranged from Bel long before I met these girls. Mel’s estrangement has been a very long time coming, but has snapped in to place only within these last twenty-four hours.

Will Mel’s estrangement from Bel stay firm? I have no idea. All I can do is hope, because Bel is not someone I want around here.

In case you are wondering if I am lusting over these three new girls, the answer is no. It is probably the case that I may bed one or two of them, but lust after them? Why?

There are already too many here. You think you are so big and macho that satisfying seven girls is a walk in the park? OK, so good for you. For me this is already nuts. Bedding thirteen and fourteen-year-olds, which obviously is a fait accompli, is nuts, all in its own way.

Those three girls, who are at this moment buying black leather low-heel/no-heel school shoes, will be in my bed these next two or three days. Each of their mothers will have a fucking party if I get her own daughter pregnant.

I already have a pregnant sixteen-year-old.

Why would I ever want more? It’s not lust that is rumbling around in my head, it’s worry that I need a way to shut the doors and keep them shut.

I just got rid of Bel and am lucky to have successfully done that. Lust? No, not lust.

Maybe I should go out tonight. Why did I decline the offer? There is no reason to stay home. I don’t need to take all the girls with me, just one or two… oh, but that means May or Li2x won’t be with me tonight. That might cause a problem. Yeh, better to not go, but then, do you see? I am having to arrange my schedule so that I don’t cause discord at home! Fuck, no, lust is not a motivating factor here. No, not lust.

The rest of the day I stay out of Lexi’s way and, way out of the way, of the three wannabe maids. I haven’t decided what to do about them when Lyn sits down by me and tells me that she thinks it will work with the three of them.

Excuse me? Do you think I am hiring all three?

You did. Lexi already told them they are hired.

I see. Well, I didn’t agree to that, but I guess Lexi wanted her three as I have three from the other high school. She acted without my approval.

What you going to do. I think it a problem if you change what she do.

I will do nothing. It’s too late. How is it going to work with three?

Each one gets a floor. Each one gets a day off but different days. So there are at least two here every day. Mel cooks when Mel can, but when she can’t one of the three will be the cook.

So, Mel is only the cook?

She will do the shopping, supervise the girls and be your assistant when you go out. Best you not go out alone! Plus, when we start on the new house, there will be other needs.

How do we know these girls are trustworthy?

That Mel’s job. Lexi and I will help Mel. This not your problem. We do it. Craig, how do you know you can trust us?

Huh, good question. I don’t have an answer about the beginning. But I have every reason to trust you seven now.

Don’t worry, we will make sure. … Craig, text that guy. You know … the guy who has the big property you meet last night and want to visit. We have time now.

She’s right and I do want to get out of the house for a bit. Why not see if the guy is free on a Sunday afternoon?

It takes only two texts back and forth to get an invite to come over to his place for a couple of hours. I have Lyn call the guy’s wife to get the directions.

Once again, the directions are nothing that makes any sense to me, but with Lyn behind me on the bike, we ride out to the place.

I’m glad we have done this. The place is on two hectares, the same size as our lot. The dimensions of the land are the same. Two lots, side by side, each one hundred by one hundred meters square. His house is placed dead center on the land, so that if you run a stake through the center of the house, it’s fifty meters to the front gate, fifty meters to the back fence, and one hundred meters on each side, left and right.

There is a graceful drive from the front gate, with a fork half way to the house. One side takes you to a circular drive by the front door. The other takes you around the back. There I find roofed carports hidden from the front view, behind an outbuilding to the left of the house. The guy has three vehicles on the property, but you just can’t see a one of them as you drive up to the house as a guest.

Also, back behind the outbuilding is a large Kubota trailer-mounted industrial-sized generator. It looks like it might be overkill, but maybe not.

The house itself looks like an antebellum mansion, rising two floors and spreading wide, with covered wraparound verandas, graceful and, while understated, announcing wealth, power, stability and belonging.

Trees of mango, mahogany, and coconut abound, surrounding the house, and creating an orchard around much of the lot as they extend from the house to the fence lines.

Inside the house, a first floor sala rises up through the second floor, which frames the sides upstairs with overlooking railings and making that sala ceiling a good twenty-five feet from the floor.

Large crystal chandeliers grace that main sala and two separate dining rooms adjacent to it. Each dining room is filled with elegant hand-carved chairs sitting around large elegant dining tables, each table able to seat at least twelve people.

A smaller, and more modest, table and chairs for six, sit just off the other side of the large indoor kitchen. There is a second kitchen in an outbuilding where the meals are prepared by maids.

The foyer way, which I have failed to mention, must be a good forty feet long and ten feet deep. But the wide expanse is not flush with the exterior wall, as an entrance way is fifteen feet square before you get to the foyer.

While on one side of the foyer for most of its expanse there is one of the dining rooms and then the grand sala, on the other side there are state rooms whose windows open on the front side of the house. These rooms are not the master bedroom suite of rooms. That suite starts via its own double doors and announcing the end of the foyer, after you pass a large, circular grand staircase to the second floor at the farthest end of the foyer.

There is just too much here to describe, but walking around this first time, I have a sense of what it must have been like in 1840 South Carolina… and I am in conversation with the ‘Planter.’

Outside, as I approached the mansion, I saw folks working as gardeners. Inside, there are two maids in view.

George, I am going to be rude. I guess I don’t expect an answer, but can you tell me how much this cost you to build?

Well, it’s hard to explain because the exchange rate has varied a great deal since we built this. But in terms of US dollars, about half a million. That includes the things like the chandeliers and such plus the outbuildings and the fence around the property.

How many outbuildings are there?

Four.

How many square feet in the main house?

Ten thousand, but that is because the second floor is partially lost due to the ceiling of the sala.

You have your own water?

Yes, we went down about one hundred and twenty feet and get about forty gallons a minute of good potable water.

The well is included in that half a mil?

Yes.

I note it’s a bit warm in the house. There are floor fans every once in a while but I haven’t seen any air conditioners.

That adds to why I am feeling it’s a throwback to an earlier time. But the architecture alone really doesn’t need any help in that regard. There is statuary abounding all along this foyer, but no modern conveniences. There really are plaster casts of roman busts on marble pedestals.

To me, the place is disorienting. For Lyn, who has peeled off to talk to the wife, I can only imagine what is running through her mind.

I think of Stefan’s little bungalow, and then this. I wonder… George, how often do you get calls from expats to meet them at night at bars?

Never. I stay away from all that.

Reason?

That’s nothing but trouble. I’d stay away from them for your own safety. I rarely go out to parties. Last night was the rare exception.

Thanks for the heads up about the potential trouble.

For the rest of my visit, we sit at the table close to the kitchen drinking Gin and Tonics and discussing building permits, taxes, and the way local government works here, plus the politics of getting a well dug.

This may have been the most productive three hours I have had since I arrived in the Philippines.

There are things about George that would not recommend him to me as a friend, if back in Dorchester, but here?... Here, I think maintaining a friendship with him is essential.

As we walk back toward my bike and Lyn, George asks, Is that your ride?

It is, when it is just me, or me and another. I have a Toyota van I just bought, as there are eight of us, but I hate taking the van when I don’t need to.

Makes sense. Here, it’s just Ara and me. Our Land Cruiser works great.

I may need something sized between the bike and the van. I will have to think about it.

I collect Lyn from her tête-à-tête with George’s wife and ride back to the house a little before time for supper. Lyn wants to talk and I guess I do, too. I suggest we sit up on my balcony. The idea seems to please her and, so, we climb those two flights and sit in shade as the sun is setting.

Are we building a house like that?

No.

But the land is the same size, right?

Yes. It is exactly the same. And I like how their house is sited in the middle like it is. That much will probably be the same. … and I guess I like the fact that the vehicles are parked behind and out of sight. So, maybe we will copy that idea, too.

The statues?

No, not my style. No statues.

Two dining rooms?

No, Lyn, we won’t have two dining rooms. And I don’t think we will have fancy crystal chandeliers like they have.

Good! Oh my God! They would be so hard to clean.

Huh, can’t say I thought of that, but it’s true.

Ara tells me, George only eat American food. She have to train each girl how to cook for him or there is trouble. We not do that for you. It OK what we do?

Yes, it’s fine. I am not George.

You know George has many guns? That not legal¹, but he has them.

No, we didn’t talk about it.

Ara afraid he will get in trouble.

I see. Lyn, each of us is different. Just because George is from the USA does not mean we share all the same ideas and habits. Ara has George. You have me. Ara might very much not like me. We are all different.

I not think Filipina are so different. We same in many ways.

I see. But I think you are wrong. Mel is not like Lexi and neither are like Bel.

Oh, I not think of that. It true. OK, maybe I am wrong.

And because not all are the same, I need to know if our three maids are trustworthy.

Yes, you right, we will make sure of this.

Lyn’s questions and concerns are not only fair, they are nothing other than smart, right, and exactly what any good wife would have asked. That alone makes me happier than I can explain. She wasn’t being a gold digger. She was saying, ‘Do we really need all this? Isn’t it a little over the top?’ She wanted to know if I was really happy or needed the type of support that George needs to be happy.

If I hadn’t said it so many times before, I would want to shout it right now. Lyn is a keeper. How does someone so young have so much rock-solid good sense inside her?

I am afraid that the way she got where she is will not have been a pretty picture. No one is this savvy, this good, this young, unless very bad things have come their way and, instead of breaking them and making them mean, it stiffened their spine, educated them and helped them learn what is precious in this life.

I feel it, but there is no way to tell her what I feel. All I do say is, Thank you for being mine. Thank you for your heart and your head. And, sweetheart, thank you for loving me.

Lyn comes to me for a simple embrace. It’s not sexy. It’s not noisy. It is quiet, calm, and meaningful.

As much as I have been struggling, so has Lyn. She has been engaging with other women attached to expats and each has a very different story to tell. Lyn thought we were all the same. She thought she could figure out what she should be doing for me, by asking others, only to come to the conclusion that it isn’t helping one bit.

More and more, Lyn is having the same type of awakening as I have been having about GenSan.

For her, I am no longer an expat, a cookie-cutter thing. She can’t assume anything based on other expats. She is paying attention to me. So far there have been many surprises for her, because of things that she had no reason to expect based on the way other guys behave. Now, I suspect there will be less of that and more careful attention to what I am up to.

When she said she will make sure the new girls are trustworthy, she isn’t seeking to paper over what she might have otherwise seen as an over-active imagination. She will do it.

But, now the embrace ends and we need to rejoin everyone. Supper is probably already on the table.

Tonight there are ten mouths to feed beyond my own. I am not happy about that, but I am the one responsible for needing maids.

If I didn’t insist the girls go to college, I would have four maids already. If I hadn’t taken that impromptu walk up Aparente Street, I wouldn’t have the three high schoolers. If I hadn’t been an asshole and told Mel she could join my other two, I wouldn’t have Mel and Lexi. It is absolutely all my fault.

So tonight, I hold my tongue and eat my supper. There is little talking at the table, but there is some whispering between the new girls and Lexi.

I am ignoring it as I see no reason to ask what is happening. Jana, however, is possibly hearing more of it and speaks up. Her voice is firm.

Ask him.

There is an equally firm shaking of the head.

Ask him! Lexi doesn’t know. None of us know. He is the only one to ask. Ask him.

One of the three has some courage, sort of…

Sir, my friend say she want to know when you will do us.

OK, so I do know what she means, but as she is accusing another of the question she wants answered, I am not going to let her off the hook that easy.

“…. I will do you?” I’m sorry, but what does that mean?

Lyn is snickering. Mel is rolling her eyes. Jana just thinks it is funny. Lexi is maybe feeling a little protective and starts to speak.

Lexi, they have voices. Let them speak for themselves. … OK, now, girls, what does that mean?

Take us to your bed, Sir. When we make love?

Ah, I see. Yes, it is a fair question. I have an answer, but it is not a short one, so please pay attention to all I say, before you even think about asking another question… I told Lexi I needed two maids. She hired three of you. And because she has done so, for now, all stay and work here. However, there will be no sex with any of you while we figure out if all stay. I do not want to have sex with a girl we need to let go. But, there is also the question of trust. I trust my seven girls completely and without limit. But I do not know I can trust you three. … Lyn and the other girls will tell me if you can be trusted. That may take a while. So while all three may stay, if one isn’t working out, she will leave. If one of you can’t be trusted completely, she will leave. Once we have figured that out, if you are still here and want to make love with me, you can ask, but I will not demand. OK, any questions?

There is not a sound to be heard in the room. Not one. Not for half a minute. And then Dido giggles. And she can’t stop giggling. Her giggles seem to infect May, who starts giggling. And then Jana breaks into giggles.

One of the new ones, I still don’t remember who is who, asks the girls, What is so funny?

Li2x answers. You are like me and my friends. We think Craig will fuck us and we are safe. Ha! Yes, we safe, but he not want to fuck us. He think, too many girls already! It take time to get him to take us. Yes, he say we need maids, but that all. He not really want other girls for sex. That why it funny. It true, maybe you will be in his bed, but you will have to ask, maybe many times! Why Lexi not tell you this? She knows.

Three girls are looking at Lexi. Lexi is looking at me. I only smile back. Lexi looks at Mel and Lyn.

And Lyn asks, Why didn’t you tell them?

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1 - Firearms require permits and foreigners are excluded from permits. However there is a thriving black market in guns in the Philippines. It is possible for a wife of a foreigner to get a permit, but that would be for a sidearm and nothing more.

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Some things should not be diagrammed...4