The Pat Wong Diaries:

Harry was stunned when I told him that the girls had agreed in principle to Kang's proposal. He opened his mouth and then gave a long whistle. "She is way out of our league," he said and sat down to think.

"It is in her blood," he said, "the sex and the drive to lead people."

"Yes," I said, "she is one of a kind."

"Are you going to join her group?" he asked without looking at me, almost absent-mindedly.

"I am not sure, but I probably will," I whispered.

Harry nodded and looked at his feet blankly.

"I think it is important that we went through with it," I continued, speaking softly and trying to think for him. "It is important that we do this for the girls."

He continued nodding, then he took off his thick glasses and ran the palm of his right hand across his face. He always looked young without his glasses, and now he looked young and innocent.

"I think there is no way for us to back away from all of this," he frowned and put his glasses back on.

I shook my head and said, "No, you are right."

"Well," he slapped his knees and got up, "I'm sure he will be happy to learn that he is now going to feast on a smorgasbord of old Chinese cheeby!"

I winced at him: "cheeby" was an angry curse word, the equivalent of "twat" or "cunt," and I did not like the sound of it or the fact that he had used it.

"Please watch your words," I flashed an angry glare at him. "These are my sisters and you can't talk about them like that."

Harry was startled. He blushed and tried to smile.

"These are women who deserve every bit of respect that you can give to anyone on this earth," I hissed at him, "and if they want for once in their lives to go wild, you have no right to judge them."

Harry blinked and bent his head a little. "But, but, I didn't mean anything by it...."

"I am sure you didn't think it, but you felt it -- your contempt."

I was angry and was now determined to be part of Kang's enterprise. If Harry was going to react like that, I could easily imagine how the other husbands were going to take it.

I called Kang and expressed my concern to her. The plan was for each girl to tell her husband individually and to report back to Kang on how the husbands had taken the proposal. Kang would then intervene personally, as needed, and convince any of the recalcitrant husbands to acquiesce.

"I think it's best to bring all the men under one roof and explain to them as a group what this is all about," I proposed to Kang. "I don't think it's reasonable to expect the girls to do it on their own, one-on-one. It's just too much pressure and even dangerous."

Kang agreed and so we set up a general gathering in Kang's house for the Sunday two weeks hence, inviting all seven couples to attend. And since the invitation was from Kang and was formal (she sent out Hallmark cards, inviting them to "Celebrate our long, deep friendship"), all seven couples immediately agreed to attend.

Stephen welcomed the guests with an ironic smile and twinkling eyes. Harry stood back and nodded from afar, his hands crossed behind his back, forcing himself to smile and bow his head.

We were all dressed in our Sunday best -- you didn't attend one of Kang's parties in anything less than formal attire: the men in suits and the women in their finest dresses and most expensive jewelry. The girls put on extra make up and we all agreed to wear the same perfume, White Diamonds from Elizabeth Taylor.

Mozart's Divertimento no. 1 was playing and the smell of roasted duck wafted through the air. The men, sweating in their suits and smiling, shook Stephen's hands and then went up to Kang and bowed to her with a smile. She bowed back with a slight nod and showed them to an empty seat and chatted with them for a few seconds, beckoning the maid to bring over two glasses of wine for the husband and wife.

By seven thirty, all the guests had arrived and a steady, gentle hubbub of conversation and laughter filled the room. Harry was nervous all along, unable to take his mind off from what was about to happen next. We all sat down at Kang's dining table and ate slowly, laughing and exchanging stories and jokes.

Gao, as usual, was funny and made everyone laugh. He told us about the new Indian young man they had just hired -- twenty two years old and fresh out of college -- who behaved as if he were a high-flying executive with dozens of years of experience and an endless record of achievement and accomplishments.

"He makes forceful demands and indignantly insists that he is right, and is not afraid to publicly ridicule even the CEO," he said, smiling. Everyone laughed out loud, and some clapped their hands. "And everyone just humors him," Gao continued, "amused by his endless self confidence and afraid to burst his bubble."

Loud laughter followed.

"He says, and shakes a finger at us, 'We must systematically measure the parameters of our business or risk facing the wrathful consequences of our ignorance!"

They all laughed again.

The dinner lasted an hour and a half, but the time passed very quickly. It was a little past nine o'clock when Kang got up and asked everyone to quiet down.

"I need you all to join me in the basement where coffee and tea will be served," she said.

Harry blushed and frowned and nervously took off his glasses and cleaned them.

Downstairs, four rows of four chairs each were lined up. Facing them stood an oak lectern, on which was a tall glass of water. A laptop was set up and on the wall flashed the first slide of a PowerPoint presentation. The title was, "The Kang Project."

We all sat down quietly, each one of us holding a warm cup of tea or coffee.

Kang waited for everyone to settle in. Then she began with a strong, steady voice.

"My dear guests. First, I would like to thank you so much for accepting to join Stephen and me tonight. We are glad and honored that you made the time to be with us in our home. This is an unusual occasion -- to be sure, a special one to say the least, and one that you will no doubt remember for the rest of your days." She paused, cleared her throat and took a sip of water.

"First, I need the ladies to get up and stand behind me here. Ladies?" she nodded to us. "My address is to the men in this room and I will be speaking on behalf of my sisters."

We got up, as we had rehearsed with Kang, and walked silently and filed behind her.

Kang waited for all seven of us to stand behind her, some of us with hands clasped in front of us, some of us with our hands behind our back.

Then Kang turned to the PowerPoint presentation and flipped to the first slide.

The men gasped loudly. The slide showed Paul naked, with a full, enormous erection, smiling broadly, his white teeth shining.

"This is Paul," Kang pointed casually to the image, giving it a quick glance and then looking back at her audience. "He is a neighbor of Pat and Harry Wong and a recent acquaintance of mine."

"What is this?" Mei's husband, Kevin, the tallest among the husbands, said in a low voice, getting up.

"Please sit down, Kevin," Kang frowned at him. "All will be explained shortly."

Kevin sat down, glaring at Kang and Mei.

"This is Paul," she repeated, "a man I have recently met and with whom -- as you may guess -- I have gone to bed with several times already."

"Húli jing," came from Xun, Bao's husband, and he stood up and shook a finger at her. "You are a fox spirit," he yelled at her with a trembling finger, "a devil!"

"I have gone to bed with this man several times and have enjoyed it, and I want my girls to experience the same," she shot back with fiery eyes.

"What in the hell is going on?" the men stood up and started looking at one another.

Xun turned to Harry and looked at him with narrow eyes.

"Harry, what is happening?"

"The women have decided to rebel," Harry shrugged his shoulders, "and I don't think we can do anything about it."

"I want the girls to have free access to this one-of-a-kind cock," Kang spoke on top of the men, but without shouting. "I want them to enjoy this cock and these balls as much and as long as they wish, and I want you to be fully supportive of them -- morally, legally, physically and in any other way that is necessary."

"Saohuò," exclaimed Garry, Li's usually quiet husband. "This is lewd and immoral!" He was smiling and seemed to be amused.

"What is lewd and immoral," Kang's voice came through the hubbub, strong and unafraid, "is how you have treated your wives all these years. You have taken them for granted and have behaved towards them as if you were doing them a favor by just being alive and letting them take care of you and your children.

"These ladies here," she turned and pointed to us, her voice steely with determination, "are the reason most of you are still alive today. And I do not exaggerate. Most of you would be dead, overworked and undernourished, consumed by your mindless quest to prove something to someone and to yourselves. You would be dead if they had not been looking out for you. They were there for you through it all, when you were healthy and arrogant, and then now that you are weak and needy and cranky, and still arrogant."

"In any case," she continued, shrugging her shoulders, her voice suddenly calming down, "we are not here to ask for your permission. We are here to make sure you fully understand the terms of the deal we are putting in front of you so that none of you can ever one day accuse us of having acted behind your backs."

The men frowned and shook their heads in disbelief. They sat down, one by one, looking at one another and wincing.

"First," Kang continued, "as I said, the ladies must have unfettered access to this man. He will be available, as he has generously agreed, to be accessible to them any time they want him. (Gao slapped his lap and exclaimed out loud, laughing and shaking his head, "generously!" He seemed to be delighted by what he was watching and smiled broadly.)

"They will let you know," Kang continued, "that they are going to spend some time with him and you will never, ever come in the way."

"Second, while your woman is out of the house that day, you promise to take over any house chores that need to be taken care in her absence. Third, whenever asked, you will help in any way you are asked to and you will ensure that your wife draws maximum joy from her experience, including but not limited to transporting her, buying her any supplies she may need, and listening to her if she wants to talk about her thoughts and feelings. At no time shall you refer to your wife's activities in any derogatory terms, not even in jest.

"And last, I need you gentlemen to sign this contract," Kang flipped the slide and pointed the screen. "It is a simple one-pager that says that you are fully aware that your wife is engaged in fornication with Paul Shapin, that you have no objections to the activities that she may engage in with him, and that you shall bring no action against anyone engaged in this enterprise."

"And what if we don't cooperate?" Xun stood up again. "What if we say 'no'?"

"That is of course perfectly within you right," Kung nodded, looking straight at Xun. "But know full well what that means. It means that your wife will immediately cease acting as your wife. She will treat you as a tenant in the house, and no more. You will have to cook for yourself, clean for yourself, do your own laundry, keep track of your health, and refrain from doing a million other little things you are not even aware that she does to keep the household going. In other words, you have no choice but to accept this bargain."

"Why are you doing this?" asked Wen, Yun's husband. He had not said a word all along and only watched with alarm from his chair.

"Simple. Because it is time -- it is time that they experienced full, pure freedom. And the only way they can do that is to tear off cleanly and without any ambiguity the numbing shrouds that have turned them into ossified mummies. And those shrouds are the unspoken rules and conventions that make your lives easy and their lives hardly worth living."

"But Why a Měi guó? Why an American? Why humiliate us like this?" It was Xun again.

"Why does everything have to be viewed as someone humiliating someone else," Kang winced with obvious irritation. "This is a matter of pleasuring and liberating ourselves completely and fully, and it just so happens that the man with the large cock and the insatiable sexual appetite is an American. In any case, you have now been told. We will be enjoying this to the fullest extent that we can, and we expect you to fully cooperate with us. We do not expect anything less than that."