Home and homecoming
Jomar is at the gate. His expression is stern, of no nonsense. The gate isn’t locked but I arise and open the latch for him. Vieve sticks her head out the door. Sir Jomar, a glass of water?
He gives her eyebrows. She retreats to fetch the cool drink.
In his hand he carries a manila envelope.
Roland, this Charline is nothing but trouble. The mother, Merly, the same. Both are bad. Ping come to me the day after what happen and say to me. ‘My wife, she making trouble with Charline. I tell Charline, do this or we dead. My wife call her and say, “Do not do this! It a lie, no one kill us. It only threat. Not real. Do not give up what we win now.” She say, “Roland, he give up and leave. Then the house ours to have!” I tell my wife, I will kill you now. Better I kill you than I die. Yes I tell that to her.’ Then Ping ask me, kill her please. Roland that a bad family.
So I am learning. What happened?
I tell him where he ‘find’ a gun and he go. Next day he find me again. He say, ‘I hold the gun to her and tell her, “You call your daughter and say to her that I have a gun. If our daughter not do as I want, I kill you!” She do it. Then she ask me, “What if Charline not do this?” I tell her, “Then you dead. This your fault. All of it.” ’
Jesus, Jomar.
Vieve has been standing by us with the water for Jomar. She asks him, Is Merly dead now?
He looks at her, sips the water, sets the glass down, pinches his lips tightly, shakes his head, and then tells her, No, but maybe it better if she dead, I think. She evil, that one. She call that Santos after Ping hire him! I think Ping not cause this. But he a weak man, a fool. Yes, better if he kill her. … Miss Vieve, sorry to ask you a rude question, but, do you miss it?
Sir?
Your past life. You miss it, maybe?
I have no idea how Vieve will respond. Will she be angry, insulted, defensive?
She smiles, sits, down on the long bamboo bench, takes a deep breath, hands on her knees, before beginning her answer. Sir Jomar, before I come here, I think men are fools. Sex all they want. I make them do anything I want. I think I am better than them and it unfair in the world they have power, and I not. And before, I always worrying. Always I think, where the rice? No, I not miss it. You know what I learn from Rolie? I learn how to be happy. I learn men want more, not just sex. Yes they like sex. But Rolie, and I think you too, want good heart, honest life, peace, family, and I think, love. I think love must be very important. Sir Jomar, I am happy now. Never like this before. I not miss it.
My niece say you happy, but I not understand it. I think maybe prostitutes, they always need it. You teach me a good lesson.
Sir, that envelope… it for Rolie?
Jomar gives her the eyebrows again before turning to me. Ping brought this to me this morning. See what there, I not know. He ask if it enough. He not want to die. I tell him, it for you to decide.
He hands it to me. It is sealed. I will not open it with my knife, Paper dulls blades. There is room to insert my finger inside the flap at the sealed part. I split the paper back at the seam. Inside there must be forty or so pieces of paper. I remove them all as they are, keeping the order of how I found them, assuming that there may be some reason for how they were assembled.
The top sheet is a notarized Power of Attorney by Charline for Merly. But it is not a US notary, which would not be legal here. It is a Philippines notary. I would have expected a seal and ribbon from a Philippines consulate in the US to make it official. Everything else might be deemed a fake if this is a fake. But then I look at the date on the PoA. She executed it a week before she left me to go to the States. Son of a bitch!
The next in order are a series of papers regarding the transfer of the car to my name. I think I will have to take it to some government offices to get it finalized, but this may well be what she needed to do.
Below that is paperwork regarding the ownership of our house. Once again, I may need to complete things, but it may be OK. Attached to this paperwork is a letter from Charline, with her signature, followed by Merly’s signature, and notarized by a Philippines notary, that all the money used to build the house, all fees and taxes paid for the house as it is at transfer came from me. The transfer is only to recognize true ownership. I don’t know if this will help, but it might.
There is a bundle of papers below this that have a staple through them. On the top is the deed to the property. I read through it and there is paperwork creating an irrevocable trust for my natural born Filipino children. Of course, there are none now, but that is what I asked for. Jomar is named as the executor of the trust. But he is barred from any use of the land, or profit from it. I’ll be damned. OK, I guess I may be prohibited from that role. I can check. Still, it gets it out of Charline’s name.
There is one more thing at the bottom. This does have the ribbon of a Philippine Consulate General on it. It is a confession stating that Charline had been carrying on an illicit affair with a guy in the States since the very first year we got to the States, years ago. She admits she entered into the marriage under false premises to gain permanent access to the USA.
Jomar and Vieve are looking at me and waiting. I slide the paperwork back into the envelope.
Jomar asks, Is it OK?
It looks promising, but I have to process some paperwork to really know. But yes, it looks like it might be enough. I have to consult my attorney to know any more.
I decide to keep the details of the executorship to myself for now.
Vieve asks, Rolie, this everything? The house, the land, the car, and maybe enough for a separation?
Yes, if it is accepted, it is enough for separation, but not for an annulment. Jomar, please tell Ping it will require time to process the papers, but so long as he remedies any defects that are contained in what he has handed you, all is OK.
He signals his understanding, and ponders, maybe to himself, That man has a problem with his wife. Maybe…
No, Jomar. She has Charline’s PoA. Without her, none of this is legal. Anything that needs to be fixed will likely need her as well.
Well, I must go.
Come by later for some brandy?
The good one?
Yes, of course.
He smiles, shakes my hand, bids Vieve a goodbye, and leaves.
I pick up my phone and text my attorney. I need to see her when she is available. Her secretary texts back that she is in Tacloban today but will be back tomorrow. She suggests a meeting after lunch. I text back an acceptance.
Vieve is back inside the house. I pick up the wood. My blade makes a smooth slice through an edge, and I wonder. Did I just have a hand at saving one or two lives?
I am sure I affected many lives as an accountant. People got hired, or laid off, by my work. If I made a mistake, might I have hurt someone? Did I cause them to lose a house for lack of mortgage money, or lose health insurance coverage? Did they have to move away? How many lives did I disrupt? Sure, most of them were disrupted because of a reality that was only reflected by the numbers. In that, I was only the messenger, not the cause. But what if I made a mistake, or could have found more in the numbers to change a process and save someone in some meaningful way?
We go through life, not even giving a second thought to what happens to others, as we worry about what happens to us.
Today, I did not have that luxury. That I have screwed up Charline’s, and evidently Merly’s, plans is not a matter of concern. But lives were in the balance. I could have told Jomar, it wasn’t enough. How would he know differently?
And Charline’s sworn statement of fraud…. should I send that to the US authorities? Might they strip her of her US citizenship?
The supper table is noisy. The gals want to know what is in the envelope that is currently resting in my safe. They want to see it. I simply tell them, No. There is nothing to see. It is only forms and documents that need to be processed.
That sort of works. I get an OK, and a, ‘tell us what is in there!’
I explain most of it. Once again, I don’t mention the matter of the executor, but they know there is a trust for any kids they give me.
Myra asks, Rolie, why you not have children with Charline?
She said she didn’t want children. So she got an IUD.
Why that?
At this point, I suspect, it was part of her plan to leave me.
You able?
I think so.
That gets Myra talking about pills they can take that makes them more fertile.
I think you need a doctor’s script to get them. Here, if you are not of legal age and married, that just isn’t going to happen. There is little separating the Doc’s from the ‘morality police.’ I say as much to all of them.
In many ways, the Philippines is a very conservative place, at least when it comes to marriage and sexual practices deemed proper by the State. That does not mean that all sorts of shit doesn’t happen. It does. But you do run into barriers on occasion. This is one of them.
But Myra, smiles, … no, … she giggles, and announces that the pills require refrigeration, and, by some accident next week, the fridge is going to fail at her pharmacy and a bunch of pills will be considered no good anymore and removed from inventory. And she giggles again.
OK, so much for the barrier.
Now the discussion is, who gets the pills first!
Myra wants all to get them right away. I have any number of problems with that. But Jelou is ahead of me.
No! If you get with child, how I get the pills when I ready to turn 16?
Yeh. That was one of the things I was thinking about. It screws things up for Jelou. Myra is making a face. So I jump in.
Myra, sweetie, you need to go last. What if you get pregnant right away but two or three of the others don’t and then need more meds?
What if I get pregnant without the pills? Same difference?
OK, so you need an IUD for now.
What?
Just until we get the others pregnant or decide they can’t carry.
Myra is anything but happy. She understands the logic, but she is pissed. And then she seems to have a plan.
If I get another at the pharmacy to help, or a doctor to write prescriptions, then I get pregnant sooner! I think I do this. No problem.
OK, see what you can do. In the meantime, you need an IUD.
No… wait a bit, I make a call.
Not wanting to wait a minute, she gets up from the table and grabs her cellphone.
Jecim thinks it is pretty funny. Jelou looks at Jecim, smiles and turns to me. You know why, Rolie?
I shrug my shoulders. I really don’t have a clue.
We a family. But families need children. We not have them. OK the land in trust for the children. Even if one of us get pregnant, then we OK with the trust! So that not a problem. You own the house! That not a problem. You get the separation from Charline! That not a problem. Really, no more problem. But we all want a child. Your child. This real. We yours, but no marriage. So how we do this? A child. That how. Then it forever we connected. Charline not want because she not love you. We love you.
There it is again. But maybe I need to think about that. Jelou is right. So long as one of them has a kid by me and they all are in the inheritance of the house, they are all safe. So why would they want a child from me? All along I was ignoring the reason for why they wanted a kid. I thought maybe it was so I didn’t kick them out.
Now they no longer fear that. I am not going to kick them out. And I am refusing to add others. So why are they all clamoring for my kids? It is not just Myra, and Jelou. It’s all of them.
Myra returns to the table with what can only be described as a shit eating grin.
OK, no problem now. We get all we need. I get pregnant whenever.
Are you sure? I sure as hell do not want a problem for Jelou!
Yes, I sure.
OK, but we need to wait on this mad rush until I make sure all the paperwork is correct.
Jecim thinks otherwise. No need. We do this anyway.
The others are in agreement.
By the time I am ready for bed, every one of them, but Myra, has come up to me as I sit in my easy chair, sipping my brandy and listening to the jazz. Each tells me we need to start thinking about baby names. Jecim is no different from the others, other than she tells me if it is a boy we should consider naming him Jomar.
If each only has one kid, that means five of them! I am 67, for the love of Pete. Oh well, what the fuck. I may just need to start carving toys for the little ones.
I gather Myra has waited to say something else until later. She knows she is with me tonight. As we climb the stairs, she has a firm grip on my arm. Whether she is wanting to make sure I don’t fall and kill myself, or she doesn’t want to lose her place in my life, I have no idea. But neither will happen.
She is humming. I don’t know the tune.
Myra is, as I have said before, remarkably good looking, and, while she is the oldest of my girls, at twenty-two, if we were in the USA, she is barely old enough to get a drink at a bar. There is no doubt she would get carded.
If I was not already married, she is the only one here old enough. Does that ever cross her mind? Does she wonder about being the wife and not a mistress?
There is not a day that goes by when I wish I knew what was really going on in their heads. I am triply denied any hint as I cannot understand what they say to each other in Cebuano, nor do they express themselves well in English, and I frankly don’t believe they tell me the truth as much as they tell me what they think it is best to tell me on occasion. It is not mean lies. Yes, Charline was a mean liar, but all Filipinos see telling ‘small’ lies as essential for a smooth life.
If they were to rationalize it for you, my best guess is that they would say, ‘Why does it matter? You get what you want and I get what I need or want. If you do not know all the reasons, who is really hurt?’ In a way, that is right and logical. In another way, it makes life more challenging for me, as I cannot predict what changes in my actions will produce in their responses, or what other choices would have been better for both of us. But perfect is the enemy of good, and they want good.
With the wood, I know what my actions produce, with these Filipinos I really have no clue. I could never have guessed that blowing off a lawyer and hanging up on him would end up in two dead at my gate. Nor would I have ever guessed that Jomar might suggest that a man kill his troublesome wife.
Tonight, the inability to read minds is less fraught with peril. Still, I have no idea what might come out of her mouth. But, even giving that, I am not expecting this.
Rolie, why you not take vitamins for your health? You live longer if you do this.
Yeh, I didn’t have a clue that was coming.
Myra, companies have been selling vitamin tablets in the USA for decades. I know about them. But there is no evidence that they actually help you very much, and they can actually hurt you!
Why you say that? These pills approved by the government.
Yeh, well, who got paid off? Look, there is plenty of research that the common multi-vitamin isn’t going to help you. Now, there is some research to suggest that folks with LDL cholesterol problems can benefit from anti-oxidant tablets. But that should be monitored by a physician.1
You a kwak-kwak2! Ha! Yes. OK, if you not want. I want you to live long. That all.
I see. Thank you for caring about me.
It important you live a long time!
Isn’t that up to God?
Maybe. It hard to argue with you. Why you always right? Maybe you really wrong. Yes, I think you wrong and stubborn!
There is nothing to do but smile. Even if she is ticked off, smiling, grabbing on to her, peppering her with kisses, and being a bit silly is all that is needed to get past the moment’s pique.
Once again, that method works. She pulls back, laughs and tells me I am crazy.
I don’t need to tell her we will shower, take our clothing off and get into bed. For Christ’s sake, we live together. It is no big deal. OK, maybe it is a big deal as I am forty-five years older than is she, but there really is nothing special about it.
We get into bed and I roll over toward the lamp on the night stand to turn off the light. My back is to her, and she gooses me. I jump a little. She giggles.
Myra!
What? I not do anything.
You pinched me.
No, I not. Maybe the espiritu!3
Liar!
She giggles. I put my arms around her and she shrieks. Do not tickle me!
I hadn’t thought of it, but, as she brought it up, well now…
Rolie! Stop! She is laughing. I am laughing.
I’m not tickling you! Maybe the espiritu!
We laugh a bit more before I give her a good kiss. She responds. Our hands move, seeking the other in decidedly non-tickling mode.
I feel the rising of her breasts as my hand caresses her. I hear the sound of her moan as my fingers spread her labia in search of moisture and clitoris.
She reaches out to me and finds my dick. Damn, that’s nice. Her hands feel good as they play with my equipment.
This is no seduction. This is an act of mutual caring. There is nothing to prove, and much to relish, as we both get ready for the main event.
I’m firm now and wanting inside her. She’s wet and ready for me.
I’m ready to mount her when she pulls me onto her and gets ready to accept my intrusion.
She has already cum a few times as I slide in to the place that seems to always be ready for me. Honey, I’m home!
1 - See Annals of Internal Medicine
2 - “Quack,” or fake, doctor, not a duck!
3 - Ghost [Cebuano] (Mumo or Mumu in Tagalog)