The Ark

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

What was and what will be...24

I do spend the night with Jessa and Dessa. But while I’m in the room, it’s a discussion between the two of them. As they are both Visayan speakers, they could have carried it out in their tongue, but they use English, I assume for my benefit.

I want you to know, just like CiCi say, I failed you. Ira knows I love him truly, but I not show you that love. I make the mistake because I not trust you will love him. I was wrong. I am sorry.

Ate, maybe the others, they have the same reason?

I not know. I only know my heart. Ira say you are truly his. I know now I am wrong. I also know I am wrong because you go to CiCi and tell her we do you wrong. You have my respect for this act. I will always remember it.

And then they kiss. It’s as simple as that. The kiss is a real one and lasts a while. I must admit it makes me happy. Jessa is the gatekeeper of my life. She has just shown me that she has accepted Dessa as deserving of access.

The rest of the evening is predictable. I’m inside both of them. We each take care of the others. It’s much like what I have on any given day at any time when I’m with two of them. And in the end Jessa gets what cum I still have to offer this evening.

Once the cum has been spent and the lovemaking has concluded, Dessa snuggles into my left side, looks across me and says, This morning CiCi say you are most important. Tonight it is you and me. What do I not understand?

Jessa is tongue-tied and unable to answer. I understand. It’s a difficult issue for her.

Dessa, maybe I can explain, because I don’t think Jessa is comfortable doing so. I think all in this house know that the best brains are CiCi and Ann. Different brains but both are very smart. Smarter than me too. CiCi is also the oldest. In some ways, that makes her senior of all the gals. CiCi had gone the furthest in school until Eva and Reyna graduated. They all have bachelor degrees now. … But Jessa is the person I depend on the most. She runs the house and seems to be able to read my mind. I love every gal here. That love for each is true and deep. I’ll never turn away from a single one of my wives. I love Jessa no more or less than the others. … I trust all of my gals. So it’s not a matter of trust … or of love. … But there’s something between Jessa and me that I cannot explain. She is the glue in my world. … And Dessa, make no mistake, Jessa knows it. She just doesn’t want to talk about it.

Dessa looks good and hard at Jessa and says, Oh.

Like every New Year here, the firework displays that are created impromptu are magnificent. I know now why the gals wanted me back for the New Year back for 2005. I missed that one but I haven’t missed one since.

No matter where you are standing, the fireworks are in a three hundred and sixty degree spray around you and they go on and on for the better part of an hour in heavy display. Some before that and some afterwards, but the intensity of it for that hour is something I don’t think you will see in another country.

The first two weeks of January pass pretty quietly. We know Tom and Elena are coming, but it has no impact on our daily activities.

There are no issues at the high school. Dessa is careful to refer to me as Uncle as does Ana. Debbie has broken her code of ignoring Dessa and does engage with her. Dessa is less interested in Debbie’s approval than she had been before.

Ana tells me that she heard Debbie ask Dessa if there was any sex activities she engaged in at the house. Dessa, according to Ana, said, ‘Not with me. I’m so horny I dream of you eating my pussy. Will you do it now?’ Ana says Debbie just about ran out of the room.

I never told the gals what I would have told Debbie if she tried to make another placement, so I’m surprised as hell that Dessa pretty much read my mind. That was pretty much the idea.

There has been news that is not related to us, but I suspect may be in a way. The NPA has been reported to have killed three politicians in the region. Ann says she doesn’t have anything to do with it, but they were the big players in the China land deal that is now dead as well. Somehow, I suspect that there’s some connection to my gals, but there are times it’s probably best not to ask too much.

Anyway, the year is 2011, and January seventeenth is tomorrow. Tom and Elena are on the morning flight from Manila.

What will unfold from this is more than a mystery.

I see Tom as he exits the building. I’m not sure I would have recognized Elena. Maybe I just had not spent enough time around her.

The guy looks a bit bewildered. Traveling as far as they have will surely do that to you. But he really looks confused. I have Cincer with me as I greet them.

Hi Tom, Elena, good to see the both of you.

And who be this lovely lady?

Tom, this is CiCi. We have been together for over six years. Come. We will take you to your hotel.

We grab their bags and guide them to our SUV. The hotel is the same one I stayed in when we first arrived here. They, being just a couple, don’t need the villa we rented, but their room will be nice.

Would you like to just relax and rest a bit? We can come back and pick you up whenever you want. If you are hungry we can bring you to a nice restaurant or the local MickeyD’s if that is what you crave.

They have a McDonald’s here?

Sure do.

I’ll be damned.

And a KFC. It’s a bit better than the ones in the States.

Really?

Yeh, it honestly is, Tom. Of course we do a damned good spread at the house, too. I bet Elena would enjoy that.

Ha! Lots of rice, right?

Sure. This is a rice culture. All of Asia is a rice culture.

I guess. … Jesus! That guy just came out of nowhere and from your blind side.

Driving here is definitely different from the States. No question about it.

You goina report that fella?

Nothing to report.

They let that shit happen?

They do.

Damn. How can you live in a place like this?

Quite easily. Maybe you’ll see why, maybe not. So what is it? Rest or food?

How about McDonald’s and then rest for a bit?

OK. And I point the vehicle to MickeyD’s.

It’s clearly a McDonald’s, but inside, there’s lots of signage that says McDo. That is confusing Tom. He thinks it’s a rip off and not the real deal. He sees offerings of chicken and rice and is convinced this isn’t a real McDonald’s. He orders a quarter pounder and fries ready to be irate at how it isn’t right… but it is right. Now he’s really confused. Elena orders a one piece chicken and rice. It’s not what I order, but it’s what my gals order when they come here, so it’s no big surprise to me. Tom is going crazy about how it’s just so wrong.

CiCi and Elena are talking to each other in Tagalog. Tom is getting pissed off. I tell the guy to cool it. This is their country and Tagalog is the national language. They have every right to use it.

But it means you don’t know what she is saying.

So? If you aren’t in the house and Elena picks up the phone you don’t know what she is saying either. If you have a good woman, you need to trust her.

When we get up, Tom is looking for the trash containers. There are none in sight. He is furious as I tell him to leave everything on the table. He says that is just wrong and he is about to go on a rant as a young man in a MickeyD’s uniform busses our table. We drop them off at the hotel and tell them we will be back at 5PM to bring them out to the house to meet the family. That gets Tom a little confused and a look of excitement from Elena.

Back in the vehicle CiCi unloads. This Tom is a friend?

Oh, not much really. I knew him and when he heard I had been to the Philippines he wanted to get together. But, no, he’s not a close friend.

He rude. He rude to his wife.

Yes, I noticed that too.

Why you want to help him?

I don’t. If we are helping anyone, it’ll be Elena.

OK, I agree. She smart and I like her.

You like her because you don’t like the way Tom is behaving towards her.

True.

Rested and ready to meet the family?

Sure. Look, Ira, Elena tells me I am acting pretty rude. I guess I am sorry. This is just a lot to deal with all at once.

Yes, well, Tom, this isn’t the USA, and the first thing to remember is that you’re a guest in their country.

Elena just about told me the exact same thing. I hear you. It’s just so similar and so different at the same time.

The drive to the house takes about thirty-five minutes. Tom is in the front passenger seat. CiCi and Elena are in the bench behind us. As we approach my place, Tom let’s out, What the fuck is that?

That is our home.

How much did that set you back?

About the cost of my house in Kennewick.

No! That has to be far more expensive!

Construction costs here are a lot lower.

As I’ll be taking them back to the hotel later, I don’t park in the carpark but, rather, below on the concrete pad. The elevator can handle four adults, and so we take the lift up to the sala/kitchen/dining room floor, passing the carpark and the storage area for the lithium batteries.

What’s with all those batteries?

We are off-grid. We use solar and wind. We store excess power in the batteries.

Why so high up?

There are flooding issues here.

The lift stops and we exit. Here in the sala are all of my gals. My 'nieces' Ana and Dessa are in the nursery.

What do we have here?

Tom, allow me to introduce you to Bim, Eva, Nelia, Ri, Reyna, Jessa, Ann, and you know CiCi.

Are they friends of your wife? And if CiCi is your wife, why ain’t she wearing that Muslim stuff?

I’m not married to a Muslim. These are essentially all my wives. There’s another one in the nursery along with two nieces.

You have how many wives?

Eight.

And now Tom turns to Elena. You knew this! Right from the start, you knew this!

Yes. I knew.

Why did you lie to me?

Because I not want to cause Ira any problems.

What the fuck are you talking about!

Tom, please, watch your language. … See all these women. They have all been with him from the beginning, right Ira?

Pretty much.

When you were visiting us it was six years ago?

Six years, one month.

Tom, ask them how old they are now?

Why would I want to do that?

Please, Tom, just ask.

OK, from my left, how old are you.

Thirty-four.

OK, Tom subtract six.

Yeh, yeh, she was twenty-eight.

Ask the next.

OK, you, how old?

Thirty-two.

Big deal, she was twenty-six.

Ask the next?

Really, Elena? OK, how old are you?

Twenty-five.

Huh? You were nineteen?

Yes, Po.

Po?

Sorry, Sir. Po like Sir.

OK and you?

Twenty-four.

Eighteen? Wow.

No, Sir. I meet Ira when I am seventeen.

O… K… that’s a bit young. … And you?

Twenty-one, Sir.

No, you didn’t meet him six years ago. You would have been fifteen.

Yes, Sir. I fifteen when I marry Ira.

Tom turns to me and then to Elena. You knew this?

No, but I guess. My guess right.

Ira, that’s stat rape.

Not exactly, not here. Once again, Tom, this isn’t the USA.

Elena pushes on. Tom ask her?

OK, how old are you?

Twenty-one.

When did you meet Ira?

Six years ago, Sir.

And you?

Twenty-one, Sir.

Also six years ago?

A little more, Sir. I was fourteen. Ira fly back for my fifteenth birthday.

Tom just looks at me. I don’t think he has words to express what he feels and, from the look of it, it’s revulsion.

Before I can say anything CiCi speaks up.

Sir Tom, if you think this wrong, you should know that Ira think it very wrong. He say no to Ri when she was seventeen. He not know she seventeen in the beginning because her mother lie for her and say she nineteen. When he find the true age he tell her to go. Her mother Lillian plead for Ira to accept her. He still not want to. Bim, Nelia and me convince him to accept her. … Sir, then we fly to Tacloban. … Before he come here, he agree to meet two women here. Both say they are over twenty. But when we get here, the first one we meet is Ann. Ira is very angry. He say she should go. But we hear her story. It a true story and we tell Ira, Ann must stay. So blame us, not Ira. … Ira say OK but he will not even meet the next, He is done. No more! So we find a house and we move in. … Next door to us is the girl he said he not meet. It is Reyna. She fourteen. She live with her sister and the partner of her sister. Ira not know Reyna the girl but we learn it. We invite her over when we have parties. Ira meet her, but he still not know. He meet her sister. All the neighbors know, but Ira not know. All us, even the neighbors we decide to have a party for Reyna’s joining us and Ira, he caught in the wedding we make for him and Reyna. All in the little village, we all agree. Reyna for Ira. That why they here.

Tom looks at me again and asks, Is that really true? It really happened that way?

Yes, it pretty much happened that way. But they didn’t explain Eva, who was literally placed here by her high school teacher. And you don’t know that Reyna’s older sister is here, too. That’s Jessa here.

Sisters? Two of your wives are sisters?

Yes.

Holy shit, Ira. And he turns to his wife. This is what you were guessing?

Yes. I not sure, but I get Ira to give me cell number for CiCi. I text her while Ira still in Kennewick. By the end, I know most of it. If people there learned it, Ira in trouble. No? So I hid it for him.

How can it be? I mean, sure, I guess the old Mormons did it. But not like this and not now. I never heard of anything like this about the Philippines.

The people you talk to are ones who stay in Manila, Angeles City or maybe Cebu. It not like this in those places. But when I hear Ira in the provinces and how he is moving there instead of bringing a wife to the States, I think, why that? I think she already married, very young or there many.

Is it common here, like this?

I think it’s my turn to answer. No, Tom, it isn’t. What happened to me was an odd set of mistakes and odd luck. While it is possible, it is far from normal.

Well, you are all legal age now. I guess that is good.

I see a look in Elena’s eyes. Oh shit, no!

I’m not so sure, Tom. Ira, you say you have two nieces. But you not. You not married, not legally so no nieces. Right?

Friend, Bim engages Elena, Ira means my daughter. She is twelve, now. Ira has helped raise her with me for more than six years. She is not a wife to him, truly.

There’s a softness in Elena’s eyes. Thank you for explaining that. You Bim, right?

Yes.

Has Ira been good to your daughter?

Yes, friend. Ira treat her like his own daughters. I sure of this because Ira and me have our own two daughters. He is good to all three girls.

The other niece, who she?

None, friend. She is an orphan and a friend of my daughter. They go to the same school. Ira allow her to stay. She have nowhere else to go.

You say you have a daughter with Ira. How many children does this man have?

There are twelve, friend. Each of us give one. Nelia, Eva, Ann and I give Ira two.

Tom looks a bit wobbly and Elena grabs hold of him, as he turns to me. Ira, I think I just need to sit down. You got something non-alcoholic to drink?

Jessa runs to the ref and grabs the pitcher of buko juice. She pours out a fair amount in a tall glass. Here, Sir Tom. This is best for you.

What is it?

Buko, Sir. … You know, the juice of the coconut. It from our trees.

Tom looks at me and asks, You drink this stuff?

Yes. All the time. It tastes great and it’s healthy.

He takes a small sip as if to determine if it’ll kill him. His fear of the new and unknown is palpable. Elena is bracing for a negative reaction. I gather such trials have happened before. So I say, a bit louder than needed, Jessa, please pour a glass for me, too.

She goes to get it and, though Tom has screwed up his face, there will be no explosion. Finally he comments, Pretty different. Not very sweet. Maybe a little. Not a strong flavor, but it’s there. Huh. I guess it’s OK. And he takes another sip of it.

I have mine in hand now, and raise my glass to him, To your health, my friend, and I take a goodly swig of the liquid. Tom follows suit. Crisis averted.

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What was and what will be...25