The Ark

Copyright © 2020 by VeryWellAged

What was and what will be...21

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

What was and what will be...22

Really? Did you talk to Dessa this morning about how it went with her?

I tell Ana, Ira. She know what I do with your wives.

Does she know how it felt to you, how you feel about the experience?

Oo. I tell her I scared I not good enough to be accepted. She tell me I am stupid. It not a test, except to make sure I happy with our life together. She say, so long as I happy then I pass. I say, how you know? You not do this. She say she know because it the way it works in the house. I just not know the house good. Is she correct?

Yes, she is correct.

Then I worry for nothing?

I guess you did, yes.

OK, I not need until Holy Week! I decide.

Dessa, make sure. Spend a few more days with Reyna and Eva. Then you need to spend time with all the others. I recommend the next two you spend time with be Ri and Nelia. From each, you will learn and become one of us. Ana, when Dessa moves on to Ri and Nelia, you have my permission to join Eva and Reyna. But sweetheart, will you please wait until you turn thirteen before you join with me?

Ana is laughing. OK, Uncle.

So my next question is, what are we going to do about Debbie? I do not want her knowing what is happening in our home.

Dessa is silent, but Ana suggests, We both call you Uncle from now on. That way Miss Debbie not know we wives. She think Dessa like me… not me like Dessa! OK, Dessa?

Good idea. OK with you, Po?

Yes. It’s perfect for me.

Ann, remember when I said in the text that you were right that there were no ‘underage’ lovers? Well, you were right then, and you will be right for a few more weeks, but Dessa has decided she wants to be a wife. Ana has too, but I asked her to please wait until her thirteenth birthday.

Ana?

Yes.

And Bim?

Ask her. But I guess she is OK with it. Maybe it’s the result of almost having Lillian and Ri.

Huh, OK, I guess. Weird though.

It is that.

Who else knows?

Everyone but Ri and Nelia. I will tell them next.

OK. It’s going to be really weird when Elena and her husband visit.

Yeh.

The ‘who’ is Ana.

What! No!

Yes.

You sure?

No, as she has not been with anyone yet and maybe it won’t work out, but she has made the request and Bim has said OK.

When she ask?

This morning.

Who she with tonight?

No one. She will be with Eva and Rena after Dessa moves on to you and Ri.

Why?

Why what?

Send Ana to us! No need for the other two with Ana.

Nelia, she can’t enter my bed until March. There’s no rush.

Why that?

Because she isn’t even thirteen yet. That why.

Ambót!¹ She is ours! Send her! Ha! We have a pair!

We will see. Until they enter my bed and stay, it’s only a possible pair. We might have had three in Iloilo if Lillian had stayed with us. Nothing is certain right now. But, OK, go get her and tell her I said OK, but it’s up to her if she wants to wait for Eva and Reyna.

I get a kiss, a squeeze and a giggle before they are gone.

I grab a beer and sit down, only to be joined by Bim. I guess I’m sad for her. I feel like I have betrayed my first wife.

I’m sorry, my love. If I had known this day might ever occur, I would never have suggested you bring your daughter here. It’s my fault.

Why your fault? It what my daughter want.

It can’t be what you want.

I want my daughter to be happy, healthy, safe, educated, and to live a long life. You cannot give her long life. But you do the rest. It is OK. Yes, it surprise me. But it OK.

Do you know she may be with Ri and Nelia tonight?

Ha! No. Truly?

I guess so. Unless Ana says no, it will happen.

She not tell me. I just talk to her. She happy and she ask you take her to school in the morning. … So Nelia is happy? A pair again?

Seems so.

You think Ri will make any comments about age? Remember how you were with her?

I don’t know if she will, but I clearly am not the same man I was back then. I’m not sure I was wrong then. I’m not sure I’m right now. But I’m clearly different. Ann, Reyna, and Eva were responsible for that in large measure.

Who you with tonight?

Jessa.

Me tomorrow?

Yes. Good.

My beer bottle is empty. It’s time for bed… and Jessa, my erstwhile neighbor.

Jessa, another gal I sort of inherited rather than pursued. She glommed on to me and I accepted her because I knew her, liked her and loved her sister.

I meet her in the hallway and we enter the bedroom together. It seems fitting. She is never ‘waiting on me’ but rather is there with me often, enough just when her presence is needed or desired… or as with the unscripted appearance just when reading an email, it was an opportune moment for her presence. Seeming frequently, to be at the right place and the right moment, her ever-presence in my life is something I now have come to depend upon.

For a while Lorie, was my shadow, but Jessa is hardly that. She is more the concierge to my life. Lorie has become the ever-present tita, and now a mother, sole she relishes. It’s Lorie who takes the two oldest of the four-year-olds to Kinder 1² every day. Jessa is the mother of my three-year-old, Victor. It isn’t that she neglects him. She doesn’t, but her compass is set to my north. In that, there’s harmony. If she was this way with the guy she was with six years ago, all I can say is that he blew the best thing he could ever find.

Jessa is not a sex bomb. She doesn’t do a lot of coy things. We take clothing off, shower and get into bed. Cell phones are plugged in for the night, hers with an alarm set in case she might oversleep a bit.

She rolls onto my side and runs a hand down my chest. It’s not the sexiest of moves, but it feels good. She snuggles her cheek into the hollow below mine, as she rests her head on my shoulder and against my neck, her hand still stroking my chest.

I kiss her forehead and run a hand through her thick black hair. She sighs. She swings a leg over my legs and, ever so slowly, rubs her pudendum against my thigh. Her hand glides down from my chest as she strokes my cock, bringing the old boy back to life.

My hand finds a tit and starts desultory play with the nipple. I’m in no rush. This gentle sexual stimulation is welcome. Just being with Jessa is welcome. I have no desire to ‘bring us home,’ as it were. Let us dally a while. With all the craziness of life, this safe harbor is welcome.

Jessa actually likes me and I like her. Yes, sure, there’s love. But like… now that is, it seems to me, to be the harder thing. It’s possible to fall in love with someone you actually don’t like. But to intensely like someone as well as love them, well now, that is a sweet thing. I love Nelia, but her Jesus thing drives me a little crazy. Lorie is maniacal about some aspects of the sex life in the family. I love both of them and like both, but not the intense like I have for Jessa.

I know it’s hard to explain, but there it is.

We pleasure each other for the better part of an hour, but there does come a time when my cock needs to be taken out for a ride. And ride we do, as I mount my friend, her body giving itself to mine, in harmony, in sync, as we rut, grunt, sweat, … my cock slamming repeatedly into her cunt. Her body grasping onto mine. The aroma of her body increasing my desire. My sweat dripping onto her body, onto the sheets. And then, the moment of exquisite pleasure and loss. Cum exits one body to enter another. A task completed, a love restated, a potential promise that may yet be delivered. And to that last, only time will tell.

You are a wonder my love.

No, Ira, it is you who are that. I am lucky.

We are both lucky.

Tulug na, mahal ko³.

This is the last time I’m going to take you two to school. If I do it any more, Debbie will know you two are more than my nieces. Do you understand?

I hear amongst the giggles, Yes, Uncle, twice.

OK so why did you want me to drive you this morning?

They are nudging each other. Who is to speak? OK, it’s decided. It’s Ana.

Uncle, can we choose who we are with at night?

Really? … OK, yes.

Anyone?

Yes.

Even you?

No. Ana, I asked you to wait until you are thirteen.

But Dessa can?

With birth control, yes. But only after she has been with everyone else. No getting pregnant, yet.

So Dessa should be with my mother?

Yes.

And I should be with my mother?

Yes, and that is one of the reasons why you should really rethink your decision, Ana. Don’t you think it’s too weird to be with your own mother?

It is weird, but I will do it. Ri did it. We talked about that last night. You made your wives vote. Mom voted it OK for mother and daughter to be together and she be with them. So we will be OK with it.

My sweet child, there are times that logic has no seat at the table. That was then. That was not her own daughter. None of my wives back then had any emotional connection to Ri or Lillian.

Ri say they had to be with you together. True? So… we need to do the same thing!

Ana, not until your birthday in March. Don’t push this.

OK, Uncle. Sorry.

Dessa, is there anything you want to ask.

No. I am good, Uncle. … Oh! Yes, one thing. What we do if Debbie wants you to take another?

I thought she isn’t talking to you.

True, but if she does, what do I say?

I laugh. I know what I want them to tell the woman, but it can’t be done. I don’t know. I will think about it.

Why you laugh?

Oh, I was just thinking of what I would like you to tell her, but it would be a bad idea.

It evil?

Yes, Dessa, very evil.

The conversation ends as we pull up at the school. The windows on the SUV are tinted and so exactly who is driving cannot be seen easily. But there must be no kisses. The girls get out without a fuss and I drive off. In the future, it needs to be Bim, and not me, behind the wheel.

Bim, I think I need to warn you. Both Dessa and Ana will ask to be with you. I don’t think you will have a problem with Dessa, but Ana is a different matter. If you reject her request I will understand. I love you and nothing changes that.

It’s the Ri and Lillian thing?

Yes. They were willing. Lillian was the one to propose it. This is different in that way. You are clearly not Lillian.

You said that if they not OK together, then only one could be a wife to you. I remember. I remember what happen. All of it. What you want me to do?

I want you to be honest with your heart. You and I’ll be together for years to come. I do not want anything to come between us. Do what you feel is right. It’ll be OK with me, so long as we are still together and OK together.

I get a kiss and a thank you. It’s all I want.

There are no more emails waiting for me. This checking every day is a pain. I was quite happy to look once a month or so, but this thing with Tom and Elena has me changing my habits.

Jessa and CiCi tell me there have been no more texts from Elena.

I warn all the gals that our two aspirants will be asking for time in their beds and, as they choose to schedule it, I have given my approval.

For the next few days, everything settles out a bit. Oh, there’s teasing between the gals about Ana and Dessa, but no issues, no problems. Even the cold shoulder that Debbie has been giving Dessa is discussed. I ask Dessa if it’s still a problem. She tells me that Debbie is still behaving coldly toward her, but she just doesn’t care anymore. Dessa has decided; it’s Debbie’s problem, not hers.

None of us have heard anything more from Elena or Tom.

Life returns into its normal routine. Issues of our farm take on primary focus. Ann has been able to get back to her primary job as the wheeler/dealer.

A box containing a cordless five inch angle grinder, a cordless rivet tool and a cordless cut-off saw arrives. They use the same batteries as the ones we bought here, but, man alive, these things feel heavier. Maybe they do sell better quality tools in the USA. We will put them to use. Time will tell if they really last longer.

The little ones, those not yet in school, live lives unaffected by the activities of the rest of us, but I have a bit more time for them these days. I enjoy my children. It’s a part of my life here that I, most assuredly, had never even considered as occurring, when I decided to come to the Philippines.

Christmas break arrives and, with it, Dessa and Ana are home when not at the mall in Tacloban watching a movie. Both are pushing for a new iPhone. I’m holding back so far, but the campaign to get the phones continues.

On the Dessa front, I have not been with the girl. I guess she has yet to be with Ann. However, once that is dealt with, I’m expecting a request.

There have been numerous trips to the stores as we get ready for Christmas. This time of year, text messages fly around… please pick up x at the store… when will you be back… where can we find… who do you want to invite… we have been invited to…

It seems I have not noticed a text message, buried below so many others, from Debbie.

Why Dessa call you Uncle? Weird name for a bedmate.

It’s a couple of weeks, old but I decide to answer.

That’s because she is to be treated like I treat Ana. No different. Another niece.

Later in the day I get a reply from Debbie.

I do not believe you.

I really don’t care what you believe. I have not been with the girl. I treat her like I treat Ana.

Well, I told the truth, as it exists today. But that gets me thinking. When did I last check my email? I had been careful to check it every day for a while, but nothing was happening with it, so it fell off the list again.

It arrived four days ago. At least it’s not a month old like the first one of Tom’s that I opened.

Hi Ira,

Elena and I will arrive in Tacloban on January 17^th. She tells me that our visa will be good for a year! The last time I was given a twenty-one day visa. Things must have changed quite a lot in the past few years!

All the best and Merry Christmas,
Tom

The guy is sort of clueless. Either Elena didn’t explain the visa thing, or he isn’t listening. And I don’t know if he needs help with a hotel reservation. So I reply, with a BCC to Elena.

Hi Tom,

We are looking forward to seeing you on the seventeenth. As I asked before, do you need help with a hotel reservation? If so, for how many days do you want to stay?

As to the visa, last time you had a tourist visa. This time you will receive a ‘balikbayan’ visa. That’s because you are coming with your Filipina wife who has been out of the country for years. If you were coming alone, you would still get the twenty-one day visa.

Merry Christmas to you and Elena,
Ira

The mail is sent, and so that I don’t forget, I send out a group text to my gals.

Tom and Elena arrive January 17^th.

I have taken care of all the loose threads and am sitting down to lunch, when Lorie sits down next to me.

My nanay want to come for Christmas. OK, I get a ticket for her?

Get a round trip ticket for her. Warn the others. Ana and Dessa are not to be in anyone’s bed while Lillian is here. We are to call them nieces. Clear?

Oo. Thank you. I promise, she will not make trouble. She just want to see her granddaughter.

How soon does she want to come?

In two days. I will get a ticket for the twentieth through the twenty-sixth.

OK.

Ann is busy out of town until the twenty-second, so that keeps Dessa out of my bed until after Christmas. It’s a Christmas miracle!

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What was and what will be...23