Fifteen

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

What it all entails...2

Distributing the keys actually takes a fair amount of time. The most important keys, the ones each of the girls need, are the two to the front door, the two to the back door and the one to the manhole. Inside the house, if you are in a bedroom or bathroom, you do not need a key to lock from the inside. And so, for now, one set of those keys is mine to protect, but not always carry. Lyn has the other set. A key to the big gate (the lock is only accessible from the inside of the gate) is placed inside the house near the front door and I have a key for it on my ring.

Once that hoo-hah is complete, I get a chance to get my coffee maker ready, which requires vinegar. The girls bought vinegar today, but as with a number of things they bought, it was a small size. That both caused a small problem and a revelation, as they had just used all of it for the supper they were making. ... And, it identified the reason why there was so much money left over from the shopping today.

We talk about buying larger sizes of things they will use all the time: vinegar, soy sauce, white sugar, brown sugar, salt, laurel leaves, cooking oil, Tide bars, dish soap, etc... And then there were things of which they just needed to buy more quantities: canned tuna, canned beef loaf, evap milk, condensed milk, Eden cheese, noodles (bihon, pancit, misua, spaghetti, macaroni), lumpia wrappers, and the list goes on and on.

They are resistant to buying so much. I ask, Do you think canned milk, canned fish or noodles goes bad?

I get blank looks.

OK, here is the rule. I really don't care that you do not want to do it. I require that we never have to say we don't have something and need to make a special trip to get it. Always have enough here. If it does not go bad, purchase more than you think we need. Clear?

They are not particularly happy but agree. They just don't see the sense of it.

As to all the things on the list... I actually don't know exactly what some of these things are, but as we work through each thing they purchased, for each thing that is not perishable, I ask, how many times will you use this before you need to replace? Any time the answer is two or three, I tell them that they need to increase the purchase by doubling it. Many times their answer is 'one' and there I tell them to increase the number purchased by three, for a total of four.

I understand why they were doing that limited purchase crap, but it is a habit that needs to be changed. I hope that, as we go along, they begin to realize it, too.

I make a suggestion. For everything that doesn't spoil, (I don't think non-perishable is a term that will resonate with them,) we should not have to replace with a new purchase more than once every two weeks. So if we find that, no matter how much of something we purchased, if we need more within two weeks, we need to purchase a larger amount the next time. I am getting stares of incredulity ... we will just have to see how that goes.

Sure, for the fresh fruits and vegetables, we have to shop every couple of days at what they call the palengke. But supermarket shopping doesn't need to be more frequent.

The concept that they only need to go once every fourteen days is causing real discomfort. They can't fathom how that can be.

Oddly, there was one thing that I thought they had purchased an over-abundance of: eggs. There are three flats of extra-large eggs totaling 60 eggs. Just what we are going to do with that many is a mystery to me.

This is just the first of discussions that represent the divide between the world they have come from and the world they now inhabit with me.

Each of these four girls was poor. No, not poor in the sense that we think of it in the USA, where you might be eligible for food stamps. Poor in the sense that what and when your next meal would be was always unknown. That type of poor.

Not a one of them had ever purchased a new piece of clothing in her life. If I was a little freaked out by what they told me was in the sisig, after I ate it, to them it was wonderful and what part of the pig it came from was immaterial; it was from a pig.

If ugly me is a prize, then consider the why of it. I am a prize for a damned good reason. I know it. I want to believe they know it. I want to believe we know each other knows it. Surely, there is no lying about it. No one is hiding. It is in the open. But each tells me I am 'gwapo' (handsome) and swears she is speaking the truth. And that, I am having a hard time accepting.

When it comes to the change in economic circumstances, consider ... how radically the mindsets of these girls, require readjustment, in a matter of hours, going from what their life was to a life with me. Their entire life assumptions and expectations are being so dramatically realigned.

Economics, baby, economics. Just pour yourself a drink of anything you like: Tea, coffee, beer, whiskey, rum, brandy... it doesn't matter, just get it. Stop reading this for a good ten minutes and think. Really think about what happens when you have nothing. I mean that, nothing, and anyone you might even consider as a mate also has nothing, and everyone around you either has nothing or would just as soon use you and spit you out, and then, in the matter of hours, your life changes and you are essentially the equivalent of landed gentry. Just stop reading and think about it. I'm not going anywhere.

Do it.

Are you back? Do you maybe have a glimmer now? Do you, maybe for the first time, understand why even Lexi is happy to take my seed?

So this discussion about shopping for food is less about food than it is about who they are now. That is why there was discomfort. No one had been scolded. They were, each of them, realizing that a glass slipper fit their foot, along with the implications of all that.

As that discussion ends, supper is served. This is my very first 'home cooked' meal. It looks humble but tastes better than fine. I am really enjoying it.

Mel tells me it is chicken pochero. Lyn says, This not the pochero, she knows. That gets us into a discussion of the differences between Ilonggo cooking and Visayan cooking.

Evidently, the Visayan version uses a tomato sauce base. This Ilonggo is a cabbage broth thickened with what is called Saba banana, which I gather is their version of plantain.

I like it and will be happy to have it again, but tell Lyn I will be happy to try her version as well.

It doesn't seem any feelings are hurt and I dig back in to the pochero, as Lyn mentions the bike being so big. Lyn told me before she thought it is really big, and while I don't, I also didn't think the size was something that warranted much further discussion.

The other three girls have not seen the motorcycle yet and want to know if I think I can take them all on it at once. If, for the past couple of days, I hadn't been seeing entire families on a single motorcycle, I would have thought they were kidding. Now, I am not sure they are.

It would not be legal even to carry two passengers behind the rider on a bike in the USA. Here it is commonplace. I have seen three adults and two children on a bike, as well as five kids plus the rider.

The girls tell me that they have seen a wooden board across the seat with four on each side of the board plus the rider and another passenger going down the road. I really never want to see that, but I do believe them.

As a matter of physics, I don't think all five of us on the bike is possible, but it might be possible to take three of them. I don't want to find out, but suspect they do.

Maybe I would have tried it as a teenager, but I am far from that these days.

Thinking about my teenage days gets me thinking about high school again, which gets me thinking about Lexi and Jana.

Lexi, how far did you get in school?

In school now.

Isn't today a school day?

Yes, but I am here.

You need to go back tomorrow. Does your sister need to go back with you and explain your absence?

No, it be OK. I go tomorrow.

And you, Jana. Are you still in school too?

Ha! No. I graduate last year.

How?

School end. I complete all ten grades.

Really, school ends at tenth grade?

Of course.

I see. In the USA it goes to grade twelve.

Oh! OK, not here.

So, Lexi, you are in grade ten?

Yes, that is correct, Sir.

When does your school year end?

This year it ends April 8^th, Sir.

So, this is January 28. You have a little more than two months to go. Right?

Yes. True.

This year is the last? What do you want to do after you graduate?

Sir?

Do you have any plans? And Jana, what about you. You said you graduated last year, correct? Do you have any plans?

I am getting panicky looks. I decide that I need to also ask the other two.

Mel, did you graduate?

No, I stop at grade six. We need the money.

And you, Lyn. Did you graduate?

Yes, Craig. ... Sir, what you mean, plans?

College, trade school. Some plan to further your education.

Sir Craig, how we do that? We not have the money to do such a thing.

OK, are any of you poor now?

Sir?

Lyn, use your brain. Are you poor now?

You mean because we live here?

Yes, that is what I mean.

We not know, Sir. Maybe we are still poor. Yes, you have money. Yes, you give us money for food for the house, loads for phones... but, Sir, you not give us an allowance. We have no money. So we still poor I think.

I see the others agreeing with her, and I see her point. This concept of an allowance is something that is not part of my world, but they see themselves as needing a specific remittance of funds as supplicants of my largess.

I was just expecting to establish a household budget and we as a family would work from that, but that is not their world.

OK, I will establish allowances for each of you. But aside from the allowance, how much does college or a trade school cost?

Sir, maybe ten thousand pesos a semester. Maybe more.

Well, Mel can't go to college, but three of you can. If I pay the tuition, do any of you want to continue with your education?

It takes a bit. There are glances between the girls. They seem almost embarrassed, but finally Lexi speaks up. Yes, she would like to pursue a course of study to teach English. Jana volunteers she might be interested in business accounting.

I look at Lyn. She has not said a word. Lyn? What are you interested in learning?

I am embarrassed, Sir. I not want to say.

For a girl who I have fucked in front of her own friend, I fail to see why this should be embarrassing. What are you interested in?

Engineering, Sir. I always dream I can be a Civil Engineer.

Do they teach that here in GenSan?

Yes, Sir. They do. But I think it a five year degree and will cost a lot of money to complete. Even if I graduate, if I not pass the licensure exam, I cannot have a job as an engineer. It is said only one out of four pass the exam! The test, it difficult.

Can you retake the exam if you do not pass it the first time?

Yes, but this costs more money!

When does the next semester start for college here?

June, Sir.

So enrollment is in, what, April? May?

Yes, May, Sir. That is correct.

OK, Lyn, tomorrow you check on enrollment requirements for you, Jana and Lexi. I want you to learn, what are the costs, and requirements for each of you.

Mel, are you still employed at the Sydney Hotel?

No, Sir. I call them. I tell them I quit. That OK?

Yes, it is fine. Are you OK being our cook? Everyone will help with the housekeeping, and Lyn will organize that, but we need a person who is here to cook the meals. Are you willing?

Yes. That is good. Sir, you help Lexi get this college education! I do anything you ask. I not care what it is. I do it.

Lyn, let me ask you again, what I asked you before. Are you poor now?

No, Sir. We four not poor. Maybe it take time to understand what it mean to us. Maybe we need to think about it. But, no. We not poor now. You make us not poor. It like you snap your finger and, the world, it different now. Sir, I always hope I find a foreigner to love me because I be safe, I think. I not think I not be poor. Maybe there will be more food to eat. But I not think this will happen. I agree with Mel. I not care what you ask. I think we all do it.

There are three of them and, if I understand correctly, a year's college tuition for each will be between $500 and $750. Assuming each of them needs $750, my yearly spend is $2250 a year, or under $200 a month. And, in the end, all three will have something to do for the rest of their working lives.

If you think about it, I don't need the four of them just hanging around the house all day every day. That just isn't going to work. So even if one of them flunks out, or burns out, at least two of them are busy, and getting a degree, and the third might just need a different course of study.

Having a career gives meaning to a life... at least that is the way I see it. And if at some point they decide to move on... so be it. I never needed four girls. But in the meantime, I get to enjoy them and I am not complaining.

It seems to me that being college students will keep them so involved in their studies that it will help them reorient their minds to see themselves as not poor any more. Just hanging out here, all four of them, creates a harem of concubines with little to do other than keep the house clean.

I do need the house clean, but I don't think being students will prohibit that. If I am wrong, I will deal with that later. In any case, the next semester is three months away. That's plenty of time to get a handle on what it takes to keep this house in order.

Mel, how much load do you have in your phone?

Nothing, Sir. I run out.

Lexi, do you have a phone?

No, Sir.

Lyn, where did you get your load last night?

No need, I can send Mel some load from my phone. We get her more load tomorrow at the mall. And we get Lexi a phone there too.

Right. Oh! That reminds me. Jana, we got you a phone today. Lyn, will you give it to her. I am told that a 300 peso load will give you thirty days of texts and calls so long as you all use the same cell service. Is that right?

I see agreement via raised eyebrows.

So make sure that all the SIMs are the same company and all get a new 300 peso load every thirty days. While I am gone, I want all of you to have a 500 peso load, since international texts will cost extra pesos. Right?

There are giggles. They know I am telling the truth, and the fact that they are going to be texting internationally has them giddy.

I leave them to their excitement, sharing Jana's new cellphone number and transferring loads.

I pour myself a beer, a benefit of their shopping but, as I do that, Mel sees me and walks over to speak with me privately. Sir, I not buy the Jack Daniel's today. It is expensive. Maybe you will try rum or brandy. It what we Filipinos drink and not expensive, I think.

How much is the Jack?

I see it for ₱1,600 for a liter.

How much for rum?

Tanduay Dark is very good, I think. A liter is ₱93.

Ha! I see. OK, I might as well try the rum.

Yes, Sir. I am glad you say this, because I think I am in trouble, but I buy a bottle today. You want to try now, maybe?

Sure.

OK, I put some on ice for you.

The girls see Mel getting me the rum and giggles ensue.

I guess the cellphones can wait. Getting me some rum is more important. I look at the girls and I wonder. Is anyone else wanting some rum?

There are more giggles, but no takers in this group.

What Mel actually does is pour about a double in a glass with ice and put the bottle down by me with a bowl of extra ice. I guess I look at her confused.

Sir, I know, foreigners not do it like this. I see that at the Sydney bar, but this the way Filipino men drink. Maybe you will be more like Filipino now?

Maybe. We will see. But, whether I do or not, thank you, Mel. This is very nice.

Yes, Sir. Sir, I think it true, we all confused why you so nice. We know you not have to be so nice to have us. Yes, we know this.

Mel, I am not a nice man. Never think I am. I can be rude. I can get angry. I can be difficult. But you four are mine. I expect you to care and protect me. I will care and protect you. We will do this for each other. Do you see now?

Sir, that like marriage. That what Filipino marriage require. But we not your wives.

In a way, Mel, you four are my wives. And that is how I expect we will treat each other. It is for the best.

She doesn't say a damned word. She can't. She is crying.

I have been sitting, sipping my rum. But now I get up, take Mel in my arms and kiss her on the cheek. Her arms encircle me and in no time my shirt is damp with her tears.

You know, I told her the truth. I am not a nice man. No one who has ever known me would call me nice. Honest? Yes. But not nice. I am not being nice now. In a way, I am buying allegiance.

Anyone want to raise their hand and tell me I am an S.O.B?

Maybe I am. ... Maybe I am.

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What it all entails...3