2

I have arranged to meet Drama at NAIA Terminal #3. It is the place from which Cebu Pacific flies. If you haven't heard of that airline, then you simply haven't spent any time in the Philippines. It is something of an overgrown commuter airline. It is not possible to book one of their flights through Orbitz or Expedia. No US carrier has a code sharing agreement with Cebu Pacific. [Editor's note: At that time, their website could not process US credit cards. That has subsequently been resolved.]

The airline has an odd sales technique. The closer to the flight you book the more the ticket costs. This first flight costs me a lot because of that, but in future flights until they do away with the practice a couple of years later, I always manage to purchase my tickets early.

When I get to NAIA #3, I go immediately to the ticket booth – not a counter – and purchase two round trips to Boracay for Drama and me. I have booked lodging at the Microtel, not because I like it, but because it has a website and lists Internet Access in the rooms as a feature. For the entire length of my stay, I need access to work. Not knowing the lay of the land, I probably make some goofy choices, but it all works out.

Drama does not live on the island of Luzon, which is where Manila is located. Nor can she fly directly from her island to Boracay. She has to fly to Manila (or Cebu) first. I have sent her money to fly to Manila. I meet her as her plane arrives (a bit late, but that is part of what you learn is standard for Cebu Pacific).

I mentioned before that she is the youngest, at 25, and smallest of the women I will meet. Her five-year-old daughter is at home with her mother, with whom Drama also lives. How do I describe Drama? She has a huge smile. It engulfs her face and the face is both youthful and darling. Not pretty in a fashion model sense, but pretty in an angelic beauty. As with just about all Filipinas, her hair is straight and black. Her black eyes are both big and expressive. Physically, she is a little slip of a thing

She had told me before I travelled to the Philippines that she was afraid I would not be there to meet her at the airport. She is happy to see me and, as soon as she clears the rope barrier, she is on my arm, much as Ganda had been.

As reserved as Ganda was, Drama is the opposite, constantly talking, asking, and commenting. She is most interested in my impression of Ganda, whom she knew I had just met. I am unwilling to go that way and resist her at every turn, frustrating the hell out of the girl.

The plane ride takes us to an island adjacent to Boracay called Caticlan. Boracay has no airport of its own. You take a motor boat with outriggers to get across the water. We get there at low tide and cannot get to a pier or jetty. Being just an old westerner, what I am wearing are western (Nocona) boots (you might call them cowboy boots) and 501 Levis. One of the boat's employees carries my bag ashore. I take off my boots and socks, roll up the Levis and get wet up to my ass. Such is life. I get ashore and am taken to the hotel by the hotel van. The roads in Boracay are not one lane roads, they are ¾ lane roads and the van is a scaled down thing that I swear looks like something shrunk down in a Disney movie like, 'Honey, I shrunk the kids.'

The back end of the van is simply open and there is a bench on each side. You just climb in the back and sit on a bench. The driver in the cab in front could neither hear, nor see, you. Such as it is, we come to an unimproved gravel driveway at what looks like a service entrance to the hotel on one side and on the other side, clearly someone else's property, a native nippa hut. Out we climb and walk into the hotel. As soon as we walk through the door, we are at the front desk. So ... no accounting for entrances.

Drama and I are booked there for four days. While the hotel poses some difficulties, my time with Drama is something of a wet dream. She is physically agile. She can assume just about any position and it is literally impossible to wear her out in bed. As she weighs so little, I tried to keep her on top, or take her from the side, or from the edge of the bed, with me standing. In truth, we use so many non-missionary positions that I can only recollect them as a blur. She is sensitive about her ass and I never get more than a knuckle into her there, but she makes up for it in many ways.

The first thing she wants to do, after we get to the room and shower from our walk through the ocean, is to fuck until supper. I am surprised that her breasts are a bit bigger than were Ganda's. They are sensitive and she loves my sucking on them. She also refuses condoms. She says she has not been with a man for five years and is disease free. While I have no way to prove it, she has also asked me about my sexual contact. She wants to know about Ganda, is she going to get anything from her? But she really does not want the condoms. She says, Get me pregnant Jake, then I will at least be your mistress.

That is exactly what she wants. She does not want to marry. She is in the second year of college for a four year degree. What she wants is a man who will take her on as a mistress and pay for her schooling. Before I came to the Philippines, I had told her I wasn't interested in that. Yes I would prefer a mistress, but there is no way to do it, as far as I can see and just being her educational financial program is not what I think I am looking for.

On the webcam she had said, OK, I agree to marry if you want.

But once I get to Boracay the old mistress stuff comes out again. It is clear from day one at the hotel that she will not be the one, but she sure is fun to be with for those few days anyway.

That night, we have dinner at the hotel. We are served by a very pretty waitress, who cannot be older than 17. Her name is Jun. The dinner is OK but not great. Later that night, my mind gets to thinking about Jun as I am fucking Drama for all she is worth. Lying in bed after giving Drama another deposit of cum, I tell her that I want to fuck both Jun and her together.

Drama looks at me and says, I think you are a sex guy ... that is what you like. You want me and her in the bed with you?

I smile, as there is no reason to deny it. I simply indicate that I do. Drama agrees to assist me the following day to see if we can make that happen. In the meantime, the sexy little Filipina already in my bed is enough for me to cum deep in her once more that night before sleep comes to us in that air-conditioned room.

The morning finds us out on the beach, which the hotel sits upon, or is adjacent to. Hell ... There is the hotel. You step off the terrace on to sand. You walk fifty yards through the sand and you are in the ocean. Is that upon or is it adjacent to?

We negotiate for a snorkeling adventure later that day; then we take a quick breakfast and a trip into town to see if we can find me some flip-flops. We also need, much to my surprise, a bikini for Drama. She has no swimwear. I buy her two string bikinis. They almost aren't there at all; just three triangles with cords. Drama likes them and I never have reason to complain.

I don't have a big foot, but it is wide, and finding flip-flops that fit is a real hassle. Filipinos are mostly small, slender, and with narrower feet. I am a triple E. In the end, we find a pair and head back for a light lunch and sex before the snorkeling.

The sex is brief but I am having a hard time keeping my hands off Drama. She is not complaining. She is begging me to get her pregnant. As luck had it, she doesn't get pregnant. I dodge a bullet.

The snorkeling is great. I know there are such things in the Caribbean and many other places, but the Philippines is not known for this and to this day I really don't have a clue as to why. I have a blast checking out the fish as they play around us. It turns out that Drama is a fish too and she is swimming circles around me, having a ball.

Once back at the hotel, it is time for another shower, a sweet fuck and off to dinner at the hotel. As luck would have it, we have Jun as our server again.

Up to now, Drama has avoided using her Tagalog while around me. Everything is done in English. But now, tonight at the table, there is a discussion between Drama and Jun that most clearly is not in English. It ends and Jun departs with our order. I ask Drama what has transpired, and she just smiles and says that I will find out later.

Dinner is another ho-hum affair. We will go out the next night to somewhere else. The problem is that they are trying to make dishes for Americans and Europeans and they just are not getting it right. Later when I learn to eat and really like Filipino food, I find that I can avoid those traps by asking for foods they really know how to cook. It turns out that Filipino food is really good.

When we get back to our room, Drama proceeds to police the premises, and cleans up the place. She just about shoves me into the shower and then she follows. I have a guess as to why, and a knock on the door about 30 minutes later confirms my guess. We have a guest named Jun joining us.

Jun is a little unsure as she joins us. I assume that she knows the ropes, and that guess is very wrong. (Later, Drama tells me that she had informed Jun that I think she is remarkably beautiful and wondered if she would honor us by coming to our room that night.)

Jun is a good three inches taller than Drama, a full cup size larger, has longer legs, and more rounded hips. She is also barely seventeen. I thank her for joining us and tell her how lovely I find her. She blushes and says she isn't pretty. I ask her if she thinks Drama is pretty and she readily says yes. I then ask Drama, if she thinks Jun is pretty. Drama is laughing and says that Jun must be loco to say that Drama is pretty and Jun isn't.

Drama suggests Jun try on one of the bikinis, as it is true that the hotel staff uniform is not flattering. Jun blushes again, but agrees, and both girls move into the bathroom. When they finally emerge there is no doubt about it; Jun is a stunner in a big way. I walk up to her, wrap an arm around her and kiss her. I gather she isn't expecting that, but she does kiss back. We keep kissing. My hands roam around what is mostly flesh, the bikini not having any meaningful coverage. The triangles might cover the nipples from sight, but not from touch.

We kiss and arouse each other – mostly it is me arousing her – for close to ten minutes before the bikini falls to the ground and I lift her onto the bed where Drama is waiting for her.

Drama – now also naked – starts kissing and fondling Jun, right along with me; we work the young girl into a frenzy of previously unexplored passion. Jun is gulping air and grabbing us and imploring us to hold her, kiss her, love her.

I think I detect a hymen still in this girl and I whisper in her ear, Are you a virgin?

To which she whispers back, Yes!

Drama hears this and whispers in my other ear, Take her, fuck her, give us a baby.

As Drama whispers, she is pulling my Levis off and playing with my cock. I don't need Drama's help to get hard. I am hard. I roll Jun under me and spread her legs. Gently, and with Drama's assistance, I place my cock against Jun's labia. I enter slowly, expecting to find some resistance from her hymen. I immediately hit it and stop for a second. I ask Jun if she is ready to be filled with my love. She just looks at me and quietly nods.

The hymen gives way rather easily. I push all the way in and hit bottom. If Jun is experiencing any major pain she neither shows it nor gives any indication. She starts pistoning her hips against me in a serious and insistent manner and mumbling some Tagalog that has no meaning to me.

Then, following a hesitation in that motion, she slams her hips into me, grabs me with her arms, arches her back and screams for all she is worth, while her whole body shakes. That evidently is my cue to cum. I let loose, deep as I am, inside her. That causes a shocked pause in the scream followed by more pleading and screaming for half a minute. Slowly she calms down and starts to breathe in ragged but deep breaths.

In very hesitant English, she says, I am yours now.

It is not a question; it is a statement of fact. She is mine as far as her world is concerned. The rest is for me to figure out.

Drama and I have one more day on the Island before we fly off, her to NAIA and then home, me to NAIA and then to Cebu to meet Joy.

There is the complication of Jun and while she is a very lovely complication, it is still complicating things. Jun has another month of work at the hotel. We swap contact information and, apart from one more very happy night of love making, we will not see each other for a prolonged period of time.

Drama and I spend the last day exploring the Island; Drama in a dress without panties as I have requested, (actually, required). We go out to dine at a nice place in town and on the beach (all at the same time). Arriving back at the hotel, we meet up with Jun and, on this night, I teach Jun to eat pussy, suck tits, lick asses and give head. You might call it school! At least, Drama gets something out of it.

I also have Drama eat her out while I, in lazy fashion, kiss Jun for a good half an hour. In the process, I am explaining to Jun – at times with Drama's Tagalog – that, if she is mine, she needs to understand that means being with other women while with me.

She just nods her head, so I ask her directly, Will you obey me in this?

This time I get a clear, Yes Jake, I obey you always.

With that clear, I turn to Drama and ask, Will you obey and do as I ask from now on?

Drama smiles and says, I do not obey! You obey me!

And that, Drama, is why you will never be mine and Jun will be.

Drama looks stunned but, in truth, she has meant what she has just said. There are some tears but, she never is really ready to accept that I am not going to do things her way.

I have no idea why I get the idea about requiring her to obey, other than that she had been so willful and obstinate, but it is my way of pointing out to her, and to Jun, why I am going to accept Jun and leave Drama.

I have never asked for a submissive before and do not see myself as a Master. But, at that moment, it is the right thing to do. Looking back, I am glad I did it.

The next morning, Drama and I both fly to NAIA together. As we are about to separate, she has an honest-to-God tantrum right there in the airport. She wants to go with me to the next girl. I quite literally have had enough of Drama. How to get rid of her in the airport proves to be a bit of a pain. We are still arguing and she is wailing when my flight is called and I board the plane. All the while, one moment she claims she will do things my way and the next saying she cannot. We have long passed the point where I will have her.

There we are, this truly lovely young twenty-five-year-old and this old man. And the old man is saying go away, go away. Nothing more strange in my life could have been imagined by me before I made the trip. I have a twenty-eight-year-old waiting for me in Manila if I want her, a seventeen-year-old who is mine waiting for me to get her on Boracay, and I am flying to meet thirty-two-year-old Joy in Cebu.

Joy sent me a text two days ago. She needs extra airfare for her daughter. I send the extra three thousand Philippine Pesos. At the conversion rate on that day, it is just under $64.00. Joy doesn't live in Cebu. She lives in northern Mindanao where the Islamic terrorist forces hold sway. The US State Department has a travel advisory against going there and that is enough for me. I arrange for Joy to fly to Cebu to meet me. The Island of Cebu is centrally located in the archipelago and it is a hub for Cebu Pacific, Duh!

The flight to Cebu is only an hour. The airport is very much not the new, modern architecture of NAIA #3. It is an old building, serviceable and quaint. Many places in the Philippines have roofs but no walls and that is very much the nature of the baggage claim area at the Cebu airport. I had one bag to claim and it is there that I am going to meet Joy.

She and her daughter must have arrived minutes before me as they are there in the baggage claim, still looking for their bag, when they notice me. We wave to each other, collect our bags, and join up to get the cab to the Marriott Hotel. I have booked two rooms (when I learned the daughter was coming) for four days.

Joy is oldest and, in all honesty, it shows on her face. She has none of the flush of youth about her. She is no longer close to her childhood, but she is lovely. Her face is graceful, and her beauty-parlor styled hair adds to her appearance. There is an absence of any fat anywhere. She is a very attractive woman and she is twenty-six years younger than I! Her smile is warm and relaxed.

But she has a very serious question to ask me even before we leave the airport.

Jake, you still really interested in me? You already see two others. You not already make up your mind?

Now, that is a far more complicated question than it might have been if I had been asked seventy-two hours earlier. Certainly, I am not committed to either of the two girls I had intentionally come to see, but there is the matter of Jun. How I am to resolve that remains unclear. How I am to resolve any of it, is unclear. I give Joy my best smile and tell her that, quite honestly, nothing is resolved other than that the second girl is not under consideration.

She looks quite hard at me and asks, You don't like her? She do something bad?

I guess there are times when the best advice is to withhold information and this is one of those times.

I tell Joy, I will not talk bad about any woman I meet. Do not ask me such a question again. What a woman says to me and does with me is private and not for the rest to know.

Joy looked at me and smiled: You are not tsismoso. That is good.

Later I look it up, and find that she is glad that I do not engage in gossip. At the time, that conversation ends the matter.

We climb ino a cab. The cabby - driving a metered cab - initially refuses to take us to the Marriott as it is too far away, traffic is too heavy, and the meter will not give him enough. He wants an extra ₱200. I relent and off we go.

The Marriot in Cebu is as nice as the Marriott City Center in Denver. It is more than I am expecting and the adjoining rooms we have are more than great. I put both girls in one room for the beginning and I take the second. I am really unsure what is going on with Joy and her daughter Abbey. Abbey is barely thirteen; she had her birthday only a month earlier. What she is doing with us is something for Joy to explain. But... that is not how it works out.

After the boat trip on Boracay to the cab, which took me to the first airport, the two plane rides and the cab ride to the hotel, I am dirty and sweaty. The shower works well and the hot water is great. I am just dressed after all that when the adjoining door opens and in walks... Abbey.

The girl has a short skirt and simple blouse on, no different from any young Filipina on the street. Her hair is black and straight, her eyes are black, her complexion without blemish. She has small breasts, but so do most Filipinas. If you see a full blood Filipina with large breasts, it's a good bet they are silicone implants or she is of mixed blood, a mestizo. Abbey has all the hips any Filipina would ever develop. But there is no question she is very young.

I greet her with a 'Hi' and some general comment like it is nice to get to meet her. She just looks at me, smiles and takes off all her clothes. I just stand there, not moving a muscle.

She comes to me, and takes my hand and – I swear – leads me to the bed. I have never, in my life, been with a juvenile before. I have never thought about it, never dreamt about it, never planned to do such a thing, or had reason to believe that I wanted such a thing.

If I was in the US at this moment, I would have run as fast as my legs would have taken me. But I am not in the US and this place runs on a completely different set of tracks. I, sure as hell, have not asked to engage in sex with a juvenile on this trip. But here I am and this is happening. It seems that I do not want it to stop.

I let her undress me and then we lie down on the bed.

At that moment she asks, Will you be kind and gentle? I am a virgin.

I am both not surprised and incredibly surprised at the same time. How can she not be a virgin? How can a mother send her virgin thirteen-year-old into my room? Are they pro's at this? How can they be pro's if she really is a virgin? Just what the fuck is going on?

Yes, Abbey, I will be gentle and kind, but before we start you must answer a few questions I have.

I pause and she nods.

Why did your mother send you in here?

Her answer is one of those 'oh shit' moments that comes along every once in a rare while and provides a clarity that could not have been expected. Abbey, a child essentially without guile, just sits there and tells me the unvarnished truth.

Mama is old and she knows your other girls, they are young. Maybe they are virgins. Mama say to me that I will be our virgin for you. If you will have her, you will also have me. Maybe I will make you want us more than you want the others.

That takes more than a moment to process. Since we are not in a race, I take my time gathering my thoughts.

My first level of amazement is that Joy found her age of thirty-two makes her old, even when dealing with an old man like me. That set off a series of thought processes it would take weeks, if not months, with which to fully come to terms. Second is that the mother and daughter were offering me a package deal. That's a concept I had never considered. Third is that such a thing might - even if illegal - fly under the wire in the Philippines, but I doubted it would continue to fly in the US. Last, it is becoming clear that I am a commodity. And there is a bidding war for me going on. As an afterthought, there is the realization that, in some cases, once the bidder wins, the rules might very well change.

At that moment, my view of what I am doing and what I want from it changes. I have come to find a wife to bring to the US. But I have never really wanted a wife. I can still marry Joy in the US and such a deal might well hold for the girl once she got to the US. But there are many other options and none can be carried out in the USA. Maybe the best option is to not marry, stay in the Philippines and have a number of Mistresses. So long as the 'bidding war' is never officially over, I remain in the catbird seat. Yes, I could have done the same with Drama, but Drama is a problem in and of herself. Will Joy be a problem? That is something I need to discover.

I clearly have another decision to make. I know I really I do not want a wife. My dream had been for a mistress or mistresses. But given who is now sitting on my bed, do I want some of them to be underage?

I turn to Abbey and tell her to relax, we will take it really slow. And, as I say that, my hands start to explore her body. My hands and lips touch every part of her. I am in no rush. At one point, I open the door to the room where Joy is waiting. I stick my head in and tell her she can either stay there or come in, but that I will be with Abbey for a few more hours. Joy stays in the other room.

I make love to Abbey. I roll her little nipples between my lips; I lick her hairless pussy. I play with her asshole, gently, and she relaxes, enjoying it. My fingers play with her pussy. I teach her to give me head the way I like it. She is more than willing to learn. She wants to know if I will learn to love her. She wants me to also take her mother. I tell her I will take her mother later.

We get playful and smiles emerge, turning this serious business into a happy time.

I have brought some KY oils with me and I carefully anoint Abbey's pussy before entering the child for the first time. She is aware that when I break through the hymen that it will hurt, and hurt it does. But half a minute later the pain is forgotten and the two of us are fucking with real pleasure.

I ask her, Are you afraid to get pregnant?

Her response is that I should please give her a baby. Yes, we are talking about a thirteen-year-old.

She wants my cum inside her and we are fucking bareback. Because of the Viagra, it takes many hours before my cum hits the back wall of her pussy. By that time, her pussy is sore and her legs more than tired. She will not be able to walk right for two days, but she is happy and proud.

By the end of it all, I carry her back to her room and lay her out on her bed. She won't be ready for anything for at least a day. Now it is time for Joy. Except I need a shower, sleep and food, in that order, before I am ready for anything else.

I don't get it in that order because Joy is unwilling to go down to the dining room alone. A shower does get first billing and then a trip to the dining room for sustenance. The buffet is magnificent. A surfeit of food for any palette awaits us. Joy and I both fill our plates twice and enjoy the meal. Following which, with ₱4000 ($95US) provided by me in hand, Joy visits the attached shopping mall (bigger than most malls in the US) and I go to bed.

I sleep a good six hours and rouse to find Joy in bed with me. As with every Filipina I have ever been with intimately, Joy's pussy is shaven clean. One of my girls at some point tells me it is a health issue.

Joy is snuggled against me. She looks so happy. It is hard to imagine what she is feeling. I have done everything I could to get her child pregnant just hours earlier. And then, my mind engages. This is a very nice mattress in a cool, quiet and private room. There are fine linen sheets under her and on her as she sleeps naked with me. Her belly is full and her body had the luxury of a first rate shower just before sleep.

Of course she is happy. Those things you and I take for granted, she cannot. I might not be the wealthiest guy in the world. I sure as hell am not a young, virile stud. I am, as I said: fat, old, essentially toothless and I snore. But I am stable. I have a decent income. I am never going to hurt her. If she gives me what she thinks I want, she hopes, she and her daughter have found a safe harbor. She is no one's fool. She isn't selling her child, she and her child are using the assets they have in a quid pro quo for a lifetime of safety, calm and opportunity.

To those who put their nose up in the air, I am reminded of the old joke about the man who offers a million dollars to a woman to go to bed with him. When she says, if you pay me the million up front, sure! Then he asks, 'How about fifty dollars?' She, as the joke goes, complains that she is not a prostitute. He says something like, 'but we have already established that you are my dear! All we are doing now is haggling over the price!'

In life, it is frequently a matter of how you perceive the benefit. The more the values are high, the less it is seen as a crime when it comes to morals, and the more it is seen as an arrangement; and that depends on the financial position of the arbiter. Seen from the position of a poor, and at times desperate, Filipina, she is the one who will benefit the most. There are many of her and very few of me. There is more there than that simple arithmetic. In the cui bono of the transaction over time, there is a larger fabric of those who benefit than just the participants in the room at the time.

I enjoy the feel of Joy's body and run my hands over her, gently taking in the feel of her. It is another hour before she wakens with a smile on her face. She says nothing other than 'wait' as she leaves the bed for the bathroom, (or what she would call the CR, an abbreviation for comfort room). Quickly she is back in bed with me and her hands immediately find my cock. At that moment, it is soft and a little shrunken. I have left the Viagra and a glass of water on my nightstand. I down one and enjoy Joy's playful attempt at rousing my member from its sleep.

At the same time, I start playing with her breasts. Her nipples are little hard rocks and, after rolling them between fingers, I start sucking on them with some heavy suction. She seems to enjoy that, and my hands are now free to play with her pussy and her ass. I assign her ass to my left hand and her pussy to my right as I hold her in my arms; she continues to play with my cock.

I have two fingers up her cunt, a thumb playing with her clit while on the other hand I have one finger, two knuckles deep, up her ass. I lift my head from her breasts and gave her a long, deep kiss. She responds to the kiss with enthusiasm. She has one free hand and it goes behind my head, holding me to the kiss for a long time. There is a sense of connectedness but not one of urgency in me.

Joy, on the other hand, is being stimulated in ways that are having a definite effect. She just about bites my lip off as she hits her orgasm for the first time. I continue the hand-work right through the orgasm, and kiss her neck as she works through the second orgasm only moments later. Still, I give her no relief as I persist and she explodes on number three, squirting the sheets with an ejaculation that is quite impressive.

By now, I am hard enough to slide into her and she is definitely well lubricated. We fuck as she chews on my face holding my head between both of her hands. Mahal Kita Jake ... Mahal Kita Jake ... Mahal Kita Jake... she speaks in my ear as I build up the passion and pressure in my loins. Mahal Kita is Tagalog for 'I love you' and it is the first time I have heard that while making love to any of the Filipinas. I do not take it for more than it is. Obviously, I have my cock in her at this moment. But I know what is meant and it does help bring me off. I come deep inside her.

We stay entangled and go back to sleep for a bit.

Later that morning we finally rouse, shower, and get Abbey on her feet. We three troop down to the breakfast buffet. We look like a couple and their daughter. In one sense, we are. In another sense it is certainly not.

Both of them eat well, but there is a limit to what their bellies can contain. Still, they both announce that they are stuffed.

Right outside the restaurant, on the hotel property is a pool and Abbey moans that she would so much like to swim in it. She wishes she had a bathing suit. Joy giggles. Evidently, Joy noticed the pool last night when we were at dinner. While I went up to sleep, and she was at the mall, she bought bikinis for the two of them. Abbey, upon hearing the news, rather than thank her mother - who she should have been thanking, thanks me for giving them the money with a 'maraming, maraming salamat'¹. When I say she should thank Joy, Joy stops me and says that Abbey is right to thank me. I accept the thanks with the standard response of 'walang anuman.'²

The two of them go to the rooms. They change into the bikinis, grab the short terry robes provided in the rooms and troop back down to the pool area outside where I join them.

Abbey just has a ball in the pool. She is every bit a thirteen-year-old with all the energy and playfulness of youth, jumping in, splashing about, climbing out, and jumping in again. Joy does swim a couple of laps and then comes to sit beside me in the shade.

She looks at me with a serious expression on her face. How you like us?

I smile at her, take her hand and tell her I like them a lot.

Will you choose us?

It is a valid question but I am not sure yet.

Will you obey me? Will your daughter obey me?

And as surprised as I had been with Jun's response, I am blown over now.

We are your slaves. You are our Master. You take care of us and we will always do as you want.

She is serious. But I need to probe further.

What if I marry another and tell you that you and Abbey are mistresses?

You want us to be your Mistress? Yes, very good that is what we are!

No Joy, I was only asking if you would still be mine if I did not marry you.

Of course, if that what you want, we do it.

Are you sure you can speak for Abbey?

You ask her yourself.

When Abbey gets out of the pool, she comes over to us and there is a brief discussion. It is in a dialect that I do not think is Tagalog.

Abbey then turns to me and speaks in English. My mother said you would ask me a question and I should tell the truth.

If I chose you and your mother, will you obey me?

Opo.³ Of course. You tell us and we do. It is simple. We will love you and take care of you.

How can I evaluate such statements made at such an early time in a relationship? If I were in the States, I would call the entire damned thing nuts; this was not the States.

Look girls, you live in a place in which I cannot live. If we are to be together then you have to move to somewhere else. Are you willing to do that?

Joy speaks for the two of them. Where you want we live?

I had been thinking about that very thing this morning. Prior to coming to the Philippines, I had done some reading on the issue of Mindanao as that is where Joy is from. Once I realized yesterday that my plans might need to alter, I had made a decision that, if I chose them, we will just about have to live at the southern end of Mindanao, if we were to stay on that island at all. It seems that the only really safe parts of that island are Davao and General Santos City. Davao is the bigger city, but both seem to be OK.

Another confession is needed here. I am a little bit of a nut for getting a full understanding of laws and customs before I step foot somewhere. That quirk of mine proves useful now.

So it is not completely out of the blue when I ask, How about somewhere in southern Mindanao. That area does not have the problems that exist in the north and you could travel up north on occasion without having to fly.

You will rent a room?

No, I was thinking of leasing some land and building a house.

Joy looks at me with a real stunned silence. She shakes her head. You can't own land, you not Filipino.

I know, but I can lease land.

Ganun?⁴

Talaga.⁵

You will live here with us?

Yes, we can't live like this in the US, so I would have to live here.

Joy looks at me with eyes filled with doubt. You serious?

Are you serious? Will you move in with me and give me both your daughter and yourself for life?

Opo Jake, Opo, of course, talaga. Salamat, maraming salamat po.⁶

Remember, as I told you, when I met you online, never lie to me, never steal from me. Never gossip. OK?

Joy and Abbey both with huge grins, almost shout out, Opo

Abbey kisses me and runs into the pool with a big sound that sounds curiously like yippee!

I turn to this lovely woman and speak in a way she has not heard from me before. We have a lot to do. I need to get you to somewhere around General Santo City or Davao. Do you have a preference? We need to work at finding a nice place and I need to close up my affairs in the US. We need to cut short our time here in Cebu City and fly to Mindanao. Joy ... which do you want, Davao or General Santos City?

Joy looks out at the sky and quietly says, Gensan. That what we call General Santos City. We go to Gensan.

And so, Gensan it is.

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Chapter 3