Logistics
Getting a visa for more than a 21-day stay in the Philippines requires submitting an application and a valid US passport to the Philippines Embassy or Consulate. But to do that Joshua needed to know where he was staying. Joshua purchased round trip tickets to Cebu. As for lodging, a quick check on the Internet produced a number of options. The one he selected and secured was a 3-bedroom unit as described in this ad, which he found:
APARTMENT FOR RENT ACCEPT MONTHLY AND YEARLY RENTAL
LOCATION : BANILAD, CEBU CITY
MONTHLY RENTAL OF THE FOLLOWING:
1. 3 Bedrooms at ₱30K
2. 2 Bedrooms at ₱25K
3. 1 Bedroom at ₱15K,18K & 20K
(depend upon the size of floor area)
FREE OF THE FOLLOWING:
1. Change of Towel & Bed sheets once a week
2. Cleaning once a week
3. One car parking
4. Billiard and Table tennis
5. Wi-Fi ( 24/7 internet Access )
6. Cable TV
7. Furnished
With Land Line Telephone every unit @ ₱150
per month ( Optional )
EXCLUSIVE OF THE FOLLOWING :
1.LPG gas for cooking @ ₱750/month (optional)
2.Water & Electricity Consumption ( with own
individual meter per unit )
NOTE :No Condo or Apartment association Dues.
ACCEPT MONTHLY & YEARLY CONTRACT
ONE (1) MONTH DEPOSIT & ONE(1) ADVANCE
UPON MOVING-OUT, DEPOSIT WILL BE GIVEN RIGHT AWAY,
AFTER READING & PAYMENT OF BILLS.
FOR APARTMENT VIEWING/MORE INFORMATION & PICTURES:
Please Text or Call : Joe
mobile phone number : +6332-528-5557
smart cell number : +63929-497-6488
globe cell number : +63906-444-6439
sun cell number; : +63923-528-5177
E mail ad : [email protected]
Website: http://propertyincebu.bahay.ph
Joshua got the unit for the thirty days he would be in Cebu, with an option to extend on a month-to-month basis. Travel dates and residence address in hand, he would work with Visa Pro in San Francisco to acquire the extended stay visa. He printed and filled out the application. On Monday, he would send it to the company by Federal Express, along with his passport and a money order. Visa Pro would expedite the application with the Consulate. By the end of the day, that Saturday, he had the dates and the address locked down and was ready for Janna when she came on-line Saturday evening (her Sunday morning).
There she was, but there was no mic or speaker on the PC she was using. Janna started to type.
Hi BF!
BF?
hehehe! Boyfriend!
Ah! Hi GF!
: - ) good! When you coming
I will arrive in Cebu on October 11th.
So long from now?
This September 25. Two weeks from today is October 9th. It takes about a day to fly there and I cross the international dateline and lose a day. The result is the 11th.
Ok. Where you staying?
In Banilad.
That far from us.
I will pay for taxis back and forth. OK?
Really?
Really.
We going to stay with you?
I hope you do.
Good. Oh I forget. Mom says to do everything you want we need too much money.
How much Janna?
I embarrassed to say! The beauty parlor cost ₱1000 each! Mom says too much for all four. You not need all four done.
How much for the rest?
Sir Joshua. I do not want to say. It is more than we ever have.
How much?
Mom says it maybe ₱15,000. Too much.
Tell your Mom I will send her ₱25,000 today. And tell her to use it all on the four of you, not your uncle’s family.
The IM continued for the rest of the hour. It was playful, fun, happy, sexy and easy. Every day thereafter, Joshua would IM with either Janna alone or along with one of her sisters. Ana Fe was nowhere to be seen. Ricca was a fast typist, faster than her sisters and far faster than was Joshua. Mary's spelling was so good that she never spelled a single word incorrectly, but like the rest she often failed to use any verbs of being. She was also the most reserved and guarded.
Janna was his enthusiastic partner in crime. She asked about his town. She quizzed him on the contents of the photos he had sent. It was Janna who explained to her mother that there was a built in microwave and oven in the kitchen. It was she who learned that he had a dishwasher. It was she who asked him to take a photo of the cooktop surface so that her mother could see why there was no hot plate. Janna carried the news that, as opposed to the Philippines, there were two more grades of school in the USA before they could graduate from high school. She would go from H.S. Junior to being a Freshman again! That really caused her considerable distress. And it was Janna who verified that he both owned his home and lived in it alone. She was dubious that they could really trust the water out of the tap in the USA enough to drink it. When he explained that he had a clothes washer and drier, she was both happy and confused. Why was there a drier? Surely the sun would dry everything. Joshua tried to explain seasons and climate to her without success.
Each day Janna would report back to the family. Roberto and Analen knew something was afoot but didn’t know what it was. Ana Fe wasn’t talking. Janna had asked what type of dresses and shoes. All Joshua had told her was that they should be sexy.
Among the four females, there was a brief discussion as to what were sexy shoes. The answer from Ana Fe was definite. Very high heels. Ricca looked panicked. She had never worn high heels. Mary, laughing, told her there were obviously many things in the coming month that were going to be new to her. This was just the first one and the easiest to handle.
For two weeks, the tension built in so many ways. They were spending more time out of the apartment. Janna was out every night for a little more than an hour. Sometimes one or the other girl would join her. Two Saturdays before Joshua's arrival all four went shopping, together, for clothing and shoes. Mary stuffed the family's new things in her locker at work. On the Saturday before he arrived, the four of them went to the beauty parlor. There was no hiding these results. Still not a word was said in the apartment.
Finally, the day arrived. The plane had landed that morning. By agreement and using money Joshua had sent, after work and school, all four females, carrying enough for an overnight visit and wearing some of their new things, hailed a taxi, the first one they had ever been in, and traveled to Joshua’s apartment.
As they left their apartment, Analen looked at Ana Fe and with a silent, and slightly frightened, look that essentially asked Ana Fe what was happening. Ana Fe sighed and apologized, saying that she would explain all when she returned the next day. And then they were down the stairs and gone.
§ § §
Joshua had decided to make the flight more endurable by flying out to San Francisco for a few days to see some old Navy buddies before flying to Cebu. He had booked a flight via Philippines Airlines that took three hops. The first was to Hawaii. That was PA flight 105. It sat on the ground for 50 minutes and continued on to Manila, a ten-hour flight. From there, three hours later (after immigration and customs) he transferred to PA 853, which landed in Cebu just before 10:30am on the 11th. In all, from San Francisco to Cebu, he spent twenty hours in transit. That was brutal. The seats were not really large enough for a man his size. But Philippine Airlines flew the Boeing 747 and there is room to get up and walk around in them. Joshua was out of his seat often.
He had arranged for the realty agent to meet him at the airport in Cebu. On deplaning in Cebu he was met by a woman, of indeterminate age and middling looks, who was holding a sign with his name on it. She had come with a car and driver. The woman, it turned out, was the agent. Before he could do anything else, such as pay for the apartment, he needed to exchange US dollars for Philippine Peso. So the first necessary stop was a bank. The agent suggested he use her bank, where the service charge was waived for her as an account holder. The bank also offered a very favorable exchange rate. Five thousand dollars Joshua had brought quickly became ₱212,500. After signing some forms at the agency, and paying the fees plus the ₱30,000 for the month, he was driven to the apartment.
By 1pm Joshua was in the apartment. It was as promised. The apartment was new, spotless and nicely furnished. The room might be spotless, but it was hot as hell. He turned on the air conditioner and set the cooling level to max.
He was hungry, but too tired to do anything about it. He checked the email on his laptop (the apartment came with DSL Internet). There was no message from Ana Fe or Janna.
Next, he took a shower. It only had one tap and that was cold. A four-hour nap was next, an essential for getting through the rest of the day. Getting up at 5pm in a now far too cold room, he adjusted the AC settings and found he had time to shower again before the girls arrived. He would have to get used to cold showers. Navy men normally had hot showers when in the service. But this was not the time to dwell on that, now was the time to get ready for company.
By now, Joshua really was hungry. He decided to risk not being at the apartment when they arrived and ran down to a ‘2 for 1’ burger stand. He bought two and got four burgers. On the way back to the apartment, he ate them all.
Joshua waited and waited. Every time he thought of what he hoped was in store for him, he got hard as a rock, but was afraid to answer the need. He feared that it would diminish his ability to perform later. He had abstained for days now.
He watched the clock. He was willing to swear that it ticked in slow motion. Would they appear? Was it a scam? There had been no email before he took his nap. Was there now? He rechecked. No. Nothing.
Finally — after so long — there was a knock at the door. On the other side of the door stood all Joshua’s long held fantasies and dreams. Just inches away. As he turned the knob, he was so excited that he felt like a child. And then the door swung open and there they were.
§ § §