Warning to reader: All my stories, regardless of whether they reference "Jake," exist within the world of one or two possible Threads. A few stories reference a specific Jake and those really need to be read as corollaries, being grounded in a specific Jake world. Fully, to understand any of my Philippine stories, it is best to have already read either Jake-Joyfully or Jake with Ganda. All stories even though not directly tied to any Jake, just don’t include background, language explanations and such that is covered in the longer Jake stories. For that reason, having read either, the story with Joy or Ganda, is very helpful. Failure to do that will make the other stories both confusing and less enjoyable.
Prologue
The distance between harmless fantasy and reality
is measured by the willingness of the dreamer
to act upon the dream.
(Jake's "Observations on life... spent.")
Joshua had long dreamed. Now he would have a plan.
The number of older men, who in the deepest reaches of their desires, would like to have as brides, what our society calls children, cannot be counted. They are essentially the male population less a small few.
We are talking about those females who have reached puberty, or are bumping up against puberty, but are not of legal age. This concept of legal age is a slippery thing. Just what is legal age has been a moving target and it has gotten increasingly older ever since women gained suffrage.
When Teddy Roosevelt was president, there were plenty of places where a fourteen-year-old might marry, and some, where a twelve-year-old might marry. Going back further in history, we find females of ten years marrying. Those days are gone. But the reason they are gone has nothing to do with biology and everything to do with political power.
The biological imperative remains, as it always has ... and it burned within Joshua.
But, Joshua didn’t have an easy answer. He didn’t want a child prostitute. He wanted a very young wife. Well, almost. What Joshua really wanted, in the deepest recesses of his heart, was, very young wives.
Joshua was not a Muslim. Joshua was not a Mormon. Joshua was not a member of any organized religion. He could not claim divine guidance. If he believed in God, only he knew for sure, for he uttered no such words. For Joshua it was a simple matter. He didn’t see how it was a matter for God or anyone else. He got horny over young girls, he dreamt of young girls, he desired only young girls and he didn’t desire any other female.
Now… it helps to know this about Joshua: He was fifty-five years old. He was divorced. He had a twenty-year Navy career behind him. He had fifteen years in with his current employer, where, due to a downturn in the economy, he was being offered early retirement. Joshua would never be rich by standards in the USA but, he was never going to go hungry either.
He had family but, they weren’t particularly close. His kids were grown, with kids of their own, and he didn’t see them often. He certainly did have friends but, none who were so important to him that their loss would cause a problem. Essentially Joshua was without an anchor, without a prevailing wind and without a home port of significance. Joshua was adrift, as he dreamt of his fantasy.
§ § §