The Ark

What was and what will be...25

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

What was and what will be...26

Difficult Day?

Oh, Ira, you have no idea.

Really? Do you have your phone with you?

Yes. Why?

Look at the call log for a little less than two hours ago.

Elena is confused, but does look. And then she looks back up, a question framed on her face.

Yes, he called here using your phone while, he said, you were in the bathroom.

What did he say?

Oh, he gave me good cause to tell him to go back to the US and never come here again.

He tell you about the karabao?

Yes, though he called it an ox. And while he was telling me, he still thought he was justified in his behavior. I was very clear with him that he wasn’t. I’m sorry, Elena. I tried to be nice and helpful to him, but there’s a limit.

For me too. Yes, there is a limit I think. He is so stupid. Why he like that? Other men not like that. You not like that. You respect the Filipino.

Oh, now, don’t hold me up as an example of good, with eight wives.

You mean ten.

Eight.

Don’t lie to me, Ira. Not after this. I not care if Dessa calls you Uncle. I meet Ana. She is a sweet girl. Sweet and she loves her Uncle. It’s ten. I know it.

Elena, it isn’t ten, but if it were, holding me up as an example of respecting the Filipino makes no sense. Anyway, this isn’t about me. It’s about Tom. Speaking of the guy, where is he?

I leave him in the room. I tell him I will be back to get my stuff later. I just need to be alone to think.

OK, so why are you here? This does not constitute ‘alone.’

I want to talk to CiCi and Ann. … How you know to have them here?

Maybe it’s just a good guess, but I really think you should include Jessa.

I get a look from Elena I can’t decipher, and then, a nod of the head. I leave her with my three gals. I can’t conceive of a better team.

I haven’t heard from Tom or Elena since they left for the States two months ago. Ana has turned thirteen. Holy week is close upon us and, as is no secret in the house, Ana wants to be a wife to me.

I have already been with Dessa many times, and you would think that being with Ana would be no big thing now, and you would be wrong. I have been part of her life since she was six. I have a real emotional connection to her as a daughter, regardless that she’s not, and she calls me Uncle.

Still, I’m here with her in my bedroom. She has been with everyone, and I’m told that includes Bim. I just didn’t want to see it. Am I a chicken? Maybe. I didn’t want to see Lorie and Lillian, but I was angry enough to participate then. I have no anger now. Sadness, but no anger. I’m losing my daughter.

I have read news reports of sexual manipulation of minors by adults. There are all the stories of the priests, though those appear to be homosexual activities. I have read about girls gone missing, raped and killed, or held hostage, sometimes for years, for sex. I have read all of it and it feels dirty… dirty and wrong.

I have shared it with Ana. I wanted her to rethink this. You know what she said? She said those things were against the desire of the girl and for the desire of the man, the abuser. Then she asks if she is the abuser? … Because it’s she who wants this, not me. How is it, she asks, the same thing?

Damned if I know.

She promises me that we will stop if it ever feels wrong to her. And I wonder, how can it ever feel right?

She is in front of me … naked. A nude reclining. No Rueben’s, this one. There’s no extra flesh anywhere on her. Her nails are painted deep red. Her lips are covered with deep red lipstick. Her eyelids have liner and subtle colors. Her lashes have been filled with mascara. I think her nipples have had some color added, but I’m not sure. Her pussy is clean-shaven, and glistening with lotion.

It’s uncanny. She looks like a woman and a girl, all at the same time. If she was a photo, you would swear it had been photoshopped.

I’m naked too. But no beauty, I. That alone should set off alarm bells of the imbalance in the activities that will soon commence. The alarm bells are ringing in my head. It seems that Ana does not hear them. I so wish she would.

One knee up on the mattress, and then the other, my body comes to rest parallel to hers. We are face to face. Hers is jubilant. There’s not a scintilla of concern in evidence.

It OK, Uncle. You love me. I know it. Do not be afraid, please. This will be good. You will see.

And with that, she leans in and kisses me in a way she has never kissed me before. Her lips are tender on mine. Tender but not tentative. She is sure of herself; sure in every move of her body.

Her hand strokes my cheek as the kiss continues. The kiss is about love and not sex. She is telling me that sex is not the reason for this, and I’m reluctantly hearing her. She is telling me that she is becoming a woman. Granted, a small and young one, but the change from child to woman has already truly occurred.

Some people stay childlike all their lives. Ana is telling me with her voice, her lips, her hands, that the life in her has transformed her into a woman with love, desire, assurance and confidence.

Until this moment, I had no idea. Was I blind, or is it hard to see through the filter of our own prejudices?

The kisses continue, but she swings a leg over mine. I feel all of her. She gently grinds her female parts against my thigh, and my thigh is anointed with her essence.

The kisses become more sexually charged. Her hands grip harder, search more intensely. I feel her heart pumping against my chest. Her breasts are pushed hard against me. I roll her onto her back, break the kiss and ask, Are you sure?

The answer, Yes, is without hesitation.

My cock, hard as it has ever been, pushes resolutely into Ana without waiting for further comment or concern. She says she will stop me if needed. She is tight, but not as tight as Dessa. I’m all the way in her. It’s crazy, but being in her feels like I’m in her mother. That’s not a bad thing. It’s just strange.

Ana is not complaining. She is joyously accepting all I deliver, as my cock repeatedly plumbs her depths, pulls back and plunges in again. She is looking right at me. Right into my eyes, as I look into hers. Fucking as we go, she is smiling. She isn’t saying Uncle. She is saying, Ira, Ira, Ira. Smiling as she does, and looking right at me.

Something has been triggered inside her. She gasps. Her eyes widen. OK, Ira, I am ready now. You will be mine. Give it me.

I feel her urgency. I feel like I’m being bathed in hot liquid. Hot liquid making for a warm welcoming for seed that I sincerely hope does not find a home tonight. And yet I do, as my body betrays my brain and sends her cunt that most elemental fluid.

It is done. Truly and completely done.

I roll off her and onto my back. She remains where she is, a goofy smile across her face.

Ira?

Hmmm?

Maybe, I have a new nickname?

Oh?

Uh-huh.

What is it?

Ten.

You’re kidding?

No. Ten.

It’s June now, the beginning of the school year. We have two of our kids starting in Kinder 2, with four more in Kinder 1. By next year all will be in school.

It’s a big deal getting each fitted out in a uniform and school shoes, plus book bags, paper, pencils, etc. We take a group photo of all of them on their first day this year. We have decided to do this every year from now on, and will mount the photos on a wall. I’m proud of my kids.

We have heard nothing from Tom and Elena. Whatever has transpired, I suspect we will never hear of it.

The farm is productive and the income is good. It isn’t making us wealthy, but it alone pays all the bills, plus far more. I’m banking my retirement pay. We don’t need it for living expenses.

The tools I received from the US are outperforming the locally purchased ones, but the batteries run down far sooner on them.

There’s a pregnancy. It’s Lorie. She is two months along now, and so we will have a newborn in the first month of the New Year. As Lorie was the last to catch last time, this is welcome news for her.

Between abundant harvest and Lorie, this month is a celebration of fecundity in all its manifestations. We are filled with joy.

Elena is here in Tacloban. Tom is not.

I haven’t seen her. CiCi and Ann met with her at her hotel in Tacloban. They report that she received a divorce from Tom in Washington State. That divorce is not recognized here, and so, divorce or not there, she’s still married to Tom here.

On the good side, for her and not for Tom, with the community property, she’s sitting pretty, financially. At least as it works here. Tom must be hurting, as he lost his house in the divorce. Elena has the money to buy some land to work, and build a house. Technically, Tom’s name should be on the deed as husband. Putting the land in her maiden name keeps his name off, but it really isn’t legal.

Ann says Elena needs an attorney. That makes sense to me.

What Elena wants to do is create a stable source of income for herself and own her own home, paid for, free and clear. Ann says she will find land for the woman and, Ann tells me that, if Elena is careful with her money, she can do what she sets out to do. All of it based on what she got out of Tom and the six or seven years of marriage.

I’m deeply ambivalent on the matter. Tom acted badly. There’s no denying that, but to lose half of all he had for being a stupid, ill-informed, jingoistic asshole seems a bit too much. Elena had to know she wasn’t getting the pick of the litter when she married him. And she got US citizenship out of the marriage. How do you add that to the equity settlement? But I’m not the judge, nor the legislature that passed the laws. Tom had to know what the law is when you marry. This is what you risk.

So like I said, I’m ambivalent on the whole deal. Since I have no role in Elena’s undertaking, I have no ethical dilemma to resolve.

There has been no email from Tom, and I had no advance knowledge that Elena would appear, until she texted Ann from Tacloban.

Initially, Ann told her that she was done with them, after Elena’s first attempt at contact. It was then that we learned Tom is history.

Ann’s role is limited to helping the woman purchase land. Then she is done. CiCi’s role hasn’t started, but I gather it may involve assistance in setting up the business.

Both of my gals think Tom got what he deserves. They have no conflict to deal with. That has led to the request I have just received from CiCi and Jessa. Currently, Elena is staying in a hotel. That needs to end. The request is that we let her stay here in a spare bedroom, until she can secure a place to live near the land she will eventually acquire.

That is pretty open ended. She hasn’t found the land she wants to acquire. She hasn’t met with an attorney to learn how she is to do it legally. And there’s also the question of, do I want her here in any case?

I don’t.

But my three gals are pushing the request.

How long do you think it’ll take for the land to be acquired and a residence established? And, Ann, be realistic, not optimistic.

I know some places. If she wants one of them, maybe two weeks plus finding a place to stay. She say she willing to stay in bahay kubo. So not long I think.

So you are telling me that, if she can’t find a place to rent close to the property, that she will put a hut on the property and live there?

Yes, she say that.

Do you understand that she already thinks I may be bedding Dessa and Ten? I don’t want to give her any proof, and even calling Ana Ten is a problem!

Why? It not a problem.

The hell it’s not.

Ira, she will not hurt you. We sure of it.

Well, I’m not so sure, Ann. Not at all. CiCi, are you as sure as Ann? And you, Jessa, are you so sure?

Ann’s a broker, a wheeler-dealer, but CiCi is a bean counter by trade. She is not natively optimistic. And Jessa has my back in all ways. I need to hear why they think it’s really no problem.

CiCi?

I don’t know.

Jessa?

No way to know. She smart, but she not loyal to you. No reason to be loyal. … I will talk to all. We will be OK. She will not know. Allow it.

Three weeks and no more. She can’t stay more than that. You OK with that Ann?

OK.

She is to be out of the house no later than September 30^th. Not a day later.

Thank you for allowing me to stay here.

You are welcome. I am sure this must be a period of difficulty for you. No home and an uncertain future.

It is better than a bad future. It is good that is over. … Ann said I need to find a place to live before October. Is this because you don’t want me staying a long time?

I find it’s best to have limits. There’s an old saying, though maybe you have heard it. I think it comes from Europe, but I really don’t know. It is, ‘after three days, fish and visitors begin to stink.’

That’s funny. No, I not hear that before. You sure you not worried I will learn about Dessa and Ana? Or maybe you not want me to be number eleven?

There’s nothing to learn about my nieces. And you would not want to be one of my gals.

I am not here to be one of your ‘gals.’ But why you think I would not want it?

You just got free from a bad marriage, there’s no reason why you want to commit to a complicated relationship here. There are other reasons but those may be TMI.

Like I said, I am not here for that, but there is nothing complicated about being number eleven. And, Ira, if you are going to insist that there is nothing happening with your nieces, you need to tell one of them to not change her nickname on Facebook to Ten.

I guess I look as stunned as I feel.

You haven’t looked at her Facebook page?

I didn’t know she had one.

She does and so does Dessa, Ann and a few others. The only ones who don’t are CiCi, Jessa and you I guess. At least I couldn’t find ones for the three of you. Ten is your niece Ana? Bim’s daughter?

Yes, Ana is Bim’s daughter.

Relax, Ira, it’s OK. Ten loves you and you told her every way you could to not want what she wanted. But with Dessa becoming a lover, you really were stuck. I know.

Who told you all this?

So you shoot her? Won’t work. It was Ten. I friended her on Facebook.

What do you want, Elena?

I want exactly what you have been told. Nothing more. Now, Ira, will you lift the three week rule so I don’t feel pushed to buy something that isn’t just right?

You are a dangerous woman, but, OK, the limit is removed.

I am not a danger to you. You kept my secret when I needed it. Even when it probably would not have mattered, you kept the secret from Tom. You have nothing to fear from me. You are a friend. I don’t have many.

Fair enough. … Jessa have you heard all that? She was standing just out of sight, but I knew she was there. There was a second when a shadow betrayed her. I’m sure Elena was not aware of her presence.

Yes, I hear. What we do with Ten and the Facebook?

I have no idea. Ask the others, but let Ten know I’m not happy.

OK.

Anything else?

I will speak with Elena when you done. If she a true friend for you, she need to be my friend.

Go deal with Ten first. I’ll be done in a few minutes.

And with that, Jessa is gone.

Does she always eavesdrop like that?

Only when she needs to. She needed to this time. Nothing gets past her, when it comes to me, if she can help it.

I thought that was CiCi’s role.

Funny, so did Dessa in the beginning. And in truth, before Jessa joined us, it was CiCi in that role. CiCi is still very important to me, but it’s more on the business side of the ledger these days.

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What was and what will be...27