Control

Have I been too hard on Jelou? Clearly Ermei is one fucked up girl. But fucked up or not, if Jelou had not sexually inserted herself into the family, it probably would have chugged along. Sure Ermei is far from an enlightened female, but that is exactly in some ways the point. She didn’t have the resources to handle what Jelou did to her and her guy.

So, no, I don’t think I am too hard on her.

Rolie?

Huh? I was in my own little world. Myra may have been waiting for quite a while and I never looked up. What?

You think she come back again?

You mean for sex?

Yes. Jecim say she will be back.

I have no idea. What do you think?

She get very excited. I think we do things she not do with Jelou. She like it. She never do three-way before. She like that. She not have any other girl and she not allowed to see Jelou. What she do?

I don’t have a clue. What do you think she will do about her husband?

I think she will get pregnant! Jecim say she not that stupid. I think, yes, she stupid. She believe the priest. That stupid. What a priest know about sex. It like asking a blind man, how high that tree! How he know?

Make no mistake about it, Myra is Catholic. So it isn’t that all Catholics toe the line. In her own way, Myra has two buckets, smart Catholics and stupid ones. Ermei falls into the stupid bucket.

I suspect Jecim’s buckets are labeled ‘sweet’ and ‘savvy.’ She puts Ermei in the sweet bucket. Jecim may see herself as having been in the sweet bucket until very recently.

Rolie, you really going to send my sister to the husband of Ermei?

No, though the thought did clearly cross my mind. But it would not work anyway.

Why that?

I think, after having Jelou, he might see your niece as his next plaything.

Oh!

As much as Ermei is confused, she has no interest in allowing her husband to roam more than he has already.

But she deny him sex.

She sure has. It’s a very stupid thing to do. But as you say, she seems pretty stupid.

What my sister do?

I’m not sure there is any good answer. But the simple truth is that it isn’t your responsibility to resolve this for her.

Rolie, she is very sad. She say you make her happy when she with you that night.

Ask her if she wants to try again where we left off last time.

I get a look that tells me all I need to know. Myra understands why Alida is not here. So why is she bugging me about it?

Supper has been a good Filipino recipe called Tambo. It’s got shrimp, bamboo shoots, kernels of corn, okra, and coconut milk in it. Served over rice, it’s a damned good meal.

In the middle of it, Jelou asks if she might come to my bed tonight. I am just about to answer, but Jecim breaks in and announces that Jelou is to stay out of my bed until she gets some birth control. Myra starts to laugh and Jezryl just looks perplexed.

Myra, our resident pharmacist’s assistant, tells all that Jelou is simply too young to get pregnant. She must wait until she turns at least sixteen before she can have a child. She turns directly to Jelou. Lou you too young now, OK? Enjoy your youth. There time later for children. You safe here. We will protect you. Nothing bad happens.

Jezryl says nothing but seems satisfied. The fact that I have already cum in Jelou without protection is conveniently ignored. And so, it seems we have a new rule. There was no basis for it, other than I had just this afternoon called a decree of the Church, pure bunk. That has been transmuted into a rule about a fourteen-year-old becoming pregnant.

I don’t disagree with the rule. In fact, it makes perfectly good sense and of course it begs the question of why I fucked, and will again fuck a fourteen-year-old.

The bit about her being safe here is, in a way, an alternate yang to the yin about her flirting with going to jail. Jelou’s yang, was get pregnant, have my child and she will be safe. This yang, is ‘you are safe here, just by being here.’ I am not sure Jelou will buy that concept.

I will enjoy my brandy, jazz and a good book for a couple of hours. What Jelou will be doing, I do not know and maybe in some ways I don’t care. I am not mooning over her or any female in this house. Yes, tonight, I will spend the night with Myra. She knows it and I am sure I will enjoy it. But three of them are here, pretty much because I can’t trust one of them, any one of them, to be a good woman, if they ‘have me’ as their own, alone.

There is something that, in my admittedly limited experience, changes within women when they think they have captured their man.

Maybe that is complete bullshit, but it has been my experience, and as that is the only experience I can trust, it is the motivating principle at work here.

I didn’t need or want Jelou. I don’t need or want Alida.

There is, admittedly, a bond that forms between older and younger sisters here that is strong, and has created a problem for me. Jecim’s sisters are all married with husbands of their own. So I am spared that, though her sisters do come by and she visits them, too. Some live very close to us.

I rarely see any of their husbands. The men work hard, and at long hours. If they socialize, it is with other Filipino men, with whom they will finish off a bottle or two of rhum on any given night. I am not someone with whom they feel comfortable socializing. And so, though there are other men on the periphery, I am mostly surrounded by women and girls. They are not all mine, but they inhabit my world.

Tonight there are nine females here in the house. There are two tables of card games. At one table they are playing piat-piat¹. At the other they are playing tong-its². Two gals hang back and gossip. No one is paying any attention to me. That’s just fine. I don’t need attention all the time.

Each day there is a clean house, good food, laughter, and a loving warm body in bed. Exactly which warm body isn’t a matter of concern to me. That isn’t to say I don’t care for each of them. I do. I care for Myra, Jecim, and Jezryl. I want not a one of them to leave, but I can’t say that I care for Jelou. There’s just no reason to care. I don’t need her here. Maybe that will change in the future. I’ve no way to know, but as of now, she can disappear for all I care. It is Jezryl who will care. It’s for that reason, and that reason alone, I allow the girl to live here.

I am aware that having a fourteen-year-old sex partner is thrilling for some men. I see nothing wrong with it on one level, but on a multiple of other levels there are all sorts of things wrong. When it comes to this one, well, I don’t trust her, and so even if I thought it was OK in general, Jelou is a problem. Maybe she will be OK, but I am not sure I will ever be able to trust her. The only reason she might not cause a problem is that she doesn’t want to go to jail and she seems to be without another option.

At the moment, she seems to be a nice kid, standing behind and leaning on her older sister’s shoulder as her sibling is gambling in the game of piat-piat. Such a sight is fairly normal. Strategy in the game is somewhat obtuse to my eyes and you often see on-lookers, checking things out, as the players figure out how to organize the thirteen cards in their hand.

The game is three dimensional draw poker. Each hand is actually three hands that are laid down at the same time in three layers. The bottom layer of five is evaluated, and then the next level of five, followed by a top layer of three.

I have been taught how to play the game, but a winning hand often seems hard to determine to my eyes. There are no jokers, and so a royal straight flush is the top winning hand. You might assume that four of a kind would come next, but it is a full house, they simply call it full, that comes next. How they evaluate a full house is also a bit off to my eyes, but I’m not a poker player, so maybe it’s perfectly normal.

A poker player may at this point roll his or her eyes, but to me the fact that an A-A-A-2-2 hand beats KKK-QQ is sort of nuts. The full house is only evaluated on the three of a kind. The value of the pair means nothing. But maybe that’s normal. I don’t play poker. It is the same with two pair. Once again KK-33 beats QQ-JJ.

If you have a full house, it must be on the lowest level, unless you have two of them. But what if you think you can beat all with a flush on the bottom? If doing so allows you to move more pairs to the second level, well that might make your hand stronger on the second level. So a push on the lowest level might allow you to win on the second. It’s an odd game and each hand is quick, as there is a pot buy-in and no second round of betting before the laydown. There is no bluffing. It’s a game of strategy. A strategy I can’t fathom.

In this game, one player is the house and that hand gets evaluated against each player separately, much like is done when playing 21. Pushes go to the house, but how you can evaluate a push is one of the things that leaves me scratching my head.

My girls think it’s an easier game than tong-its, because in the three player tong-its, there is bluffing, which they call lying. A player can declare they are the winner, mid game, and say, Draw! If no one challenges, they win. If there is a challenge, and the challenger has the better hand, they lose. But if the challenger does not have a better hand, the challenger pays double. To my girls, that makes tong-its a game for liars.

These games can, and do, go on for many hours. They will be playing long after I have gone to bed.

The gals at the table are drinking some sweet red Carlo Rossi. It is a common wine here and available at many stores. The gals often prefer it to beer or hard liquor.

The table is littered with snack foods, fried grasshoppers, (yes real fried grasshoppers) and popcorn.

In many ways, my presence is the background to the lives these gals lead. I provide the walls, the comfort, the food, and world within which they operate. But their world is separate from mine.

Yes, they see to my needs. But with three, and now maybe four, they aren’t obligated to me every minute of the day, as they might otherwise be. They can operate more independently, and they do.

It is nine now and I put my book down. The brandy is long gone. I turn off the jazz and arise from my easy chair, to climb the stairs toward my bedroom.

I see Myra hand her cards to one of Jecim’s sisters and remove her funds from the table. She forfeits what is in the pot to her replacement and follows me upstairs. No one remarks on it. There is not a single comment related to the event. All their concern remains on the hands and the money on the table.

We enter the bedroom together. This is certainly not the first time I have been with Myra alone. It is not a signal moment. We might not fuck tonight.

In fact with all that has transpired today, I don’t feel particularly horny and Myra had sex with Ermei this afternoon.

She takes a shower, and then I take mine. There is no seduction scene here. We are a couple getting ready for bed. When I leave the shower and climb into bed, Myra is talking on her cellphone. From the nature of the conversation I gather it is Alida on the other end.

It is not a serious matter. The conversation seems lighthearted and more a matter of gossip. I ignore it and slide under the sheets. That appears to be a signal to Myra who gently ends the call, puts the phone down, and turns off her bedside light.

She moves close to me and puts her hand on me before giggling and telling me I am cold to the touch. I will warm you up!

She moves her hands over me, briefly touching my limp dick in a playful manner. She returns to it. Oh, it cold and sad. Not hard when cold, I think!

I am not horny as she starts playfully stroking my dick. But sure enough, the attention gets a response and I am becoming more rigid as she goes on and on. She has assumed full control of my dick, not that I mind a bit.

She giggles again, murmuring, Nice. It not cold now. More giggles follow.

To that, I have to agree. My dick is definitely not cold. I take one of her nipples between my fingers and start playing with it gently. She likes it. We are pleasuring each other but have yet to commit to anything more. It is play time. But now she moves my other hand to her cunt. She’s wanting more. I slide a finger over the slit of her cunt and find her more than damp. She’s wet. It takes little effort to run a finger between her cunt lips and find a clit covered with her secretions. She’s hot.

OK, so it’s clear now. We will fuck tonight. I run a finger up her cunt. Some girls really might not have a g-spot, but Myra does, and once she is hot, she likes it better than my playing with her clit. I can be rougher with her now. I am, and send her on to two orgasms.

We are not going to be a porn star’s emulation video tonight. She is horny and I am hard. She pulls me on to her. No nonsense please, is the message, and I plunge in to a completely lubricated welcoming cunt.

It feels good. There is nothing to prove. She’s already cum twice. She’s gotten me hard and now she wants nothing more than for me to cum inside of her.

I have no need to cum quickly, but Myra does not want me to drag it out. Still being inside of her is its own reward, and I feel like rewarding myself.

This is straight-ahead fucking. I am on top in missionary position. My hands hold the back of her head. Her legs lock around me, as I pound her hot, juicy cunt. She is clearly happy as she sighs, groans, and calls out, yes, yes, yes.

The minutes slip by as we continue to fuck. Myra is a beautiful girl, and I am happy to have her, but I cannot see her now. Well, that’s not entirely true. I can see her face. It is a happy, joyful one. I am looking down on her as I finally cum. I get to see the change in her countenance as she feels my cum hit her. It is something that tells you all you need to know. She wanted it and she is grateful to receive it. That’s what I see. I am happy I get to see it. Happy, indeed.

I have yet to roll off her. She pumps her cunt into me, and asks, playfully, Any more?

We both laugh as I roll off to her side. She reaches out to my dick and announces, Good, it not cold now! It happy, not sad I think.

I kiss her and bring her in close to me. It is time to sleep.

But Myra doesn’t want to sleep yet.

Rolie, I miss my sister.

You just spoke with her tonight.

Yes, this true. But all my life I sleep next to her. When I meet you, I still sleep next to her. Now I not. I not like it. I want her come here. There room. No problem with that. Jezryl have Jelou. Why I not have Alida?

Jelou is here because she has no choice. I would be very happy to see her go. Alida has your niece. Your niece doesn’t belong here and I really don’t think that this is a safe place for her. She will see sexual contact that I don’t think Alida will want her to see. Finally, you know damned well Alida isn’t going to be OK with the sexual contact in this house for her own reasons.

We talk about that. She OK now. She want to try. You allow this?

You ask her what she will do the first time Jelou has sex with her girl. If Jelou can extend control by threatening or doing something, she will do it. So unless Alida’s daughter is having sex in the open, Jelou will act out. You know it will happen.

It unfair!

Yes it is and I really did not want Jelou here. But even if Jelou was not here, the sexual activity in this house happens in the open. I am not going to change my life to accommodate your niece.

OK I talk to her about this. We see what she say.

Myra, I simply don’t want your niece here. Sex with young girls is not right and not legal at all.

But if it the only way, maybe we do it, Rolie. I need my sister here.

Let’s hope your sister has more sense than you seem to have. Now it is time to sleep!

OK, OK. Good night, Rolie. I am glad you not cold now!

And sleep we do.

It is late when I awaken at seven thirty. Myra is long gone. The room is darker than normal. Rain is pounding down outside and onto the steel roof. The sky is very dark. The morning sun never had a chance to awaken me.

I am relaxed and a bit embarrassed at sleeping so late. But why I should feel embarrassed is confusing. No one here cares a bit if it should happen. It is just an ingrained holdover from my working life that has no place here, but lives on nevertheless.

So I chastise myself for this silly and meaningless feeling of self-indulgence, as I dress and descend the stairs, only to be greeted by, Good morning, sleeping beauty!

Immediately, the sense of guilt and shame floods back to me and I am fumbling for something to say, as Jecim and Jezryl laugh at my discomfort.

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Chapter 17