Fifteen
Copyright © 2019-2020 by VeryWellAged
Author's note: These chapters are NOT stand-alones...The story starts here.
Tick tock...3
Family tradition, indeed!
I see, so is it very important that we carry this tradition on?
Yes!
How many of you want to carry this on?
All of us girls.
And you are sure of this?
Well, I am really only sure of Sisa, Mi2x, Mia and Lou.
Four of these kids turn fourteen, all before June this coming year, 2018. Lou turns fourteen in November. She just turned thirteen last month. Jing2x and Reina both had boys. Gladies has a girl, Zoe, but her child is younger. Lanie’s and Mica’s girls are even younger than that.
I really don’t want to be bedding these kids. And, who the fuck told them that their cunts were my manholes? Of all the crazy crap I have heard over the years, that may well be on the very top… well, there is some amazing crap being said these days back in the USA, but I am not there and I guess I don’t care.
Nita, don’t you have many friends in school?
Yes. Of course.
Well, if I get you with child, you can’t go back to school and you won’t be seeing your friends any more.
I know. Dad. … We all know.
I see. Nita, your birthday is not until March. So until then, there will be no pregnancy.
We do it then?
We will see. But not before. Are we clear?
Yes, Sir. Dad, are you angry?
No, sweetheart. I am not.
OK.
And she leaves the room.
You make two goofy, ego driven requirements fifteen years ago, and things just seem to get increasingly crazier from that point until years down the road, and you no longer even recognize yourself anymore.
I had to be a hotshot asshole and insist that Lyn could not be with me unless she brought another girl with her. That was the first, and that was bad enough. The second was when Mel wanted to climb aboard and I not only allowed it, but subsequently ended up with Lexi.
Now, if you are to ask me if I don’t really love them… OK, I do love each of them. I don’t want to be without them… but that doesn’t say anything about whether I should have been with them from the beginning.
I ended up with my fifteen and they have, each of them, been loyal and good loves. Not one of them is a disappointment. You can’t say that about many monogamous marriages in the USA. And yet, here I am with fifteen good and true loves.
In saying that, I know full well that the man I was when I first came here was both single and without anyone to even call a girlfriend. I was not looking for one.
So, if that was who I was, who am I now?
I am falling down a rabbit hole thinking of all that has transpired in these last fifteen years, and then realize, I have not even looked at my stocks for a long time.
With the fast internet I have now, it doesn’t take but a few seconds to get the shock of my life. My Apple stock is trading for 171.08. I plug that into my calculator and come up with a tiny bit over sixty-seven million and sixty-three thousand dollars. My Cisco has also, miracle of miracles actually gained. It is trading today at 38.59, which puts the value over eighteen million and nine hundred thousand dollars.
I am having a hard time believing my eyes as I add the two numbers and realize that, at least on paper, I am worth damn close to eighty-nine million dollars. And just because my mind is already blown I decide to look at what that means in Philippine pesos at the current exchange rate. I am worth over four billion pesos.
At this moment, all thoughts of my daughters are shelved. I decide that, as crazy as the US has become politically, it is time to cash out one hundred percent of my stock. What I will do with the cash I have no idea, but I have to end this craziness. Who can possibly be worth eighty-five million dollars with an initial investment of twenty grand?
At ten in the evening on December 28th, I pick up my landline phone, courtesy of the fiber optic connection, and call my US brokerage. I have my account number, passphrase and other identifying information all in front of me. It takes some time. I am being passed from person to person. One guy explains that end of the year sales has them swamped. My old broker is no longer there.
This is getting to be an expensive long distance phone call, but should I give a fuck? I mean, really?
I finally get a gal on the phone. She sounds bored.
With everyone I talked to before sounding slammed, why do you seem so laid back?
Because your account, like all the rest I have, is dormant. No trade, no activity and therefore no income for me.
Ah, I see. So maybe I am about to make your day.
Ha! I can’t wait. What is it? You want to sell enough to afford a vacation this year at Disneyworld?
No. I want to liquidate everything.
So what … let me guess… there’s not even enough for Epcot Center?
Oh, I wouldn’t say that. Do you need my account number again?
Sure, what is it?
I give it to her and wait. I know she is going to make two percent on the trade. If she is to do it now, she will make one million seven hundred thousand.
I hear tapping of keys, then more tapping and then a gasp. It is quiet now. There is background noise of her office, so I know she hasn’t hung up, but I hear nothing else for a good two minutes. And then… Sir, I need to put you on hold. Before I do, in case we get disconnected, what is your phone number?
I give her my number and then I get to wait more than ten minutes. I am serenaded by innocuous music which is interrupted by voice messages, every thirty seconds, about how great this brokerage is. Though I am not tempted to hang up, I am getting a bit irritated by the time I hear a voice.
This is a guy. Have I been passed to someone else?
Mr. Byrne, did you instruct Ms. Hernandez to sell all your Apple and Cisco shares?
And you are, Sir?
Sorry. I am Jules Benedict, Ms. Hernandez’ account services supervisor. Ms. Hernandez brought this to me as it exceeds the limits she can place a sell order on without authorization and additional documentation.
I see. How do we move forward? I don’t want to see the stocks fall greatly in value while you do your due diligence.
I can certainly understand your position; however, our position is that we need more proof that you really are Craig Byrne. I’m sure you can see why we have this concern.
Mr. Benedict, I have already provided my account number, my birthdate, my social security number, my passphrase, my place of birth, my mother’s maiden name, and my mailing address. What more do you need?
We need you to sign a new affidavit and have it notarized by a US notary.
Well, if you send it as a PDF I can go to Cebu tomorrow.
That will not be possible. We will need to send it to you via courier, Fed Ex, with the requirement that it is you who signs for it. No other signature will be acceptable. We will get this out to you tomorrow.
So that is your Friday and we have New Years. The earliest it will get here is probably the following Friday, and the earliest I can get to the consulate in Cebu is the following Monday, the 8th. And only then can I send the document back to you, so you will not get it until maybe the 11th. How long then until you actually act?
If we get it on the 11th, we will be able to make the trades on the 12th.
A whole hell of a lot can change for a stock in two weeks.
Yes, Mr. Byrne, that is true, but you really do not want to sell right after the New Year. People sell off on the last day, taking profits and the stocks will be off for a few days. So, waiting until the 12th is probably a smart move anyway.
OK, get it out to me right away.
Just to be clear, your mailing address is your physical address?
Yes.
OK I will rush this out to you.
We exchange pleasantries, though I really don’t want to, and the call ends.
Lyn, I do not want to fuck our daughter.
Why, she not ugly? And, I kid you not, Lyn giggles.
Dammit, Lyn, this is not funny. I never said she was anything but pretty. That’s not the issue and you know it.
I want you to do it. My mother had me that way. You have Nita.
Your father was an ass and a creep.
Yes! You are not. So it is better. Craig, we are yours. In all ways, this true. Do this.
Lyn, it isn’t just Nita. It’s Sisa, Mi2x, Mia and Lou. Five of them this coming year alone. And then later, more. It’s crazy.
So? We have enough money now. And she laughs. You and me … we made us very rich. The business can support all we add.
My sweet love. Of all the things I am worried about, money is not one of them.
Why you say that? You always saying, ‘We must be more liquid!’ I think I hear it in my sleep.
I am right. The business must stay liquid to prepare for bad times. Bad times always come and you never know when it will happen. But I have other money.
Yes, it is in the banks here, but most is spent, di ba?
Yes, what we put in has been spent.
See! I know, you looking at the business to take over that. We can do it, Craig. Jana and me talk. It OK, we ready.
I think you need to see some things. Come up to the study.
As we climb the stairs, Lyn is silent. I gather she is confused, and well she might well be. I have not shared with anyone that I have investments. I suspect she thinks I cashed everything in when I sold the fifty thousand Cisco shares a decade ago. I have not added anything to my bank accounts here since then other than the twice a year deposits I set up with my bank to make before returning here in May 2003. That was just the interest from a couple of IRAs I have and small pension I have from a company I left a couple of decades ago.
I sit down in front of my laptop, asking Lyn to grab a chair and sit next to me as I log into my account at the brokerage.
It takes a few minutes for Lyn to see everything and have it sink in.
This true?
Yes. It is what I would have, if I sold today.
So it can change?
Yes, and I will have to pay taxes on it in the US.
But this real, this amount… my love… how much this in pesos please?
Four billion, two hundred and ninety-eight million, six hundred and twenty-three thousand pesos.
No!
Yes, but that’s before taxes, and we are talking about a twenty percent tax rate.
So how much after?
Three billion, four hundred and thirty-eight million, eight hundred and ninety-eight thousand and four hundred pesos.
That’s still so much!
Yes. So, Lyn, I am not worried about if I can afford more children. It is because Nita should find her own guy.
No! Now more ‘no’ than before! No!
Why?
Why you want someone to find their way into this fortune? No! It for you and your children! We make sure of this. No one else. No one from outside.
And there you have it. Just like I commented on consanguinity issues earlier. This is no different. If you don’t have money, then you are looking for the right bed into which to crawl. Have a lot of money? … then, don’t allow anyone new to crawl in.
I spend a good thirty minutes going over what has transpired with the brokerage and what happens now.
My love, what you do with this money?
I don’t know. Things are crazy in the US right now. The market is good, but I can see a crash coming, just like I see a property bubble here. I need time to think about it. As I can’t even sell these stocks for two weeks, I have some time before I need to have any answer, even a temporary one.
My love, maybe you think this is silly, but this January it is fifteen years since I meet you at the Sydney.
Yes, I know, and…?
I was thinking, maybe, you, me and Jana go back there that day, just to have a meal and look around. But I remember now. It is closed. They fixing it.
Yes, it would have been nice, but that resto-bar we went to, is that still there?
Not sure. I will check. She giggles. That the night you meet Stefan, I think.
Yes, that was it.
We not see him anymore.
True. It has been a while.
He came to the house once. We didn’t see him after that. No more text messages, and no invites. I didn’t mind and I don’t care, but many guys just stopped reaching out. George, and to a large extent Brian, have had the same experience.
If the resto-bar still open, you want to ask him to meet us?
No. I think just Jana, you and me.
Lyn smiles, leans over to hug me, kisses me on the cheek and leaves.
I have nothing fixed as to where I am about my daughters, but none of them reaches her birthday for months yet. In the shorter term, I have the issue of the stocks. As I don’t even have a tracking number, there is nothing I can do with that for the present, as well.
All that is left, is to think about what I want to do with all that cash.
In the coming days, as New Year’s comes and goes, I cannot even imagine what I should do with the money. If not enough money is a curse, it is beginning to dawn on me that too much money is equally so.
But one thing keeps on coming back to me. I know that I cannot just ask the US embassy to give each of my girls a visitor’s visa. But if they have enough property and money in the bank, maybe they will qualify for a tourist visa. I begin to wonder how much money and business ownership that would be. I wouldn’t want to burn off too much to do it… but how much would be enough?
I start looking at flight info. It is a diversion. I am well aware it allows me to think of something where I can actually get an answer, rather than staring into the unknown.
The girls with a profession will not need to own a business. That’s nine of the girls. But I have six who don’t own businesses. Mel, Reina, Jing2x, Si2x, Gladies and Shara. For two of them, I have at least an embryo of an idea. For four of them, I will wait until the stocks are sold and there is real cash, before I talk to the girls about it.
The days pass and, on January 2nd, I finally am given the tracking number. The document is currently in China. By the next day it is in Parañaque, Philippines, which is the FedEx sorting center in Greater Manila. That’s a Wednesday. On Thursday morning I walk down to the guardhouse with a huge sign that reads,
HUWAG mag-sign para sa anumang FedEx o Air21 item. Alert Craig at ipadala agad ang courier sa kanya!1
I make every guard read it out loud and then sign the bottom of the notice.
Two days later, close to lunchtime, the document arrives, and it is I who carefully signs for it in a legible manner. I want no screw-ups. It is Saturday the 6th, and the soonest I can be at the consulate will be Monday the 8th.
I am about to book my flight for Sunday evening, when Lyn asks if she might join me. Two seats are booked for the next evening. I get a room booked for the two of us at the same hotel where the consulate has its presence.
The rest flows through, just as I thought. Even though the dateline works against us, they get it faster going to the USA than it came coming from there. The document arrives on Thursday afternoon, which is my Friday morning, at the brokerage.
The next day turns out to be a holiday! The trades cannot be made. I am less than happy. When trading resumes on the 16th, I get a pleasant surprise. Apple is trading higher. My shares are at 178.5, and my Cisco is also trading a bit higher.
When Ms. Hernandez calls me at close to midnight on the 16th, she is tickled to give me the good news. The fact that she just made one point eight million isn’t mentioned… by her. I do tease her a bit.
We talk about the tax, which they will take care of for me, and then we talk about the remaining amount. I tell her I am sending a PDF with the names of four of my banks here, and with my account name, number and the swift codes for each. I want her to send equal amounts to each bank and send me via email the transaction numbers for each bank and the exact amount to be sent. I also want the tax payment document.
Each of these Philippine bank accounts is a dollar account. Once she sends me the list, which she tells me will be in my inbox when I awaken, I will spend tomorrow going from bank to bank, warning them of what is about to hit them. Hernandez and I agree on what it will be and I have it down to the penny, but the document is what I need.
I wish her the best of luck in her life going forward before hanging up.
And now, for what it is worth, I am done with any and all connections with the USA. There is nothing left there.
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1 - DO NOT sign for any FedEx or Air21 item. Alert Craig and send the courier to him immediately!
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