No character in this story was under 18 when they had sex.
I will leave it to the reader to decide what is true and what is fiction. I have been around long enough to know that each person decides what is true or not based on their own experiences, and NOT based on what is actually true.
Chapter 21 -- Kathy
Her name was Kathryn, but she went by Kathy. I have always been partial to petite Filipinas. There is something special about these little women that pulls me toward them. I love the way they look, the way they smell, the way they taste, and the way they treat a man. Even then, Kathy was a very special Filipina. I met her in Angeles City, but not under the same circumstances that I had met so many others. I was transiting back to the US from Southeast Asia when I arrived at Clark for my normal layover.
I first met Kathy at the checkout counter in a local grocery store. OK, there isn't much special about that except that unlike many other Filipinas I had met, Kathy already had a real job (as a cashier). That meant that she already had some stability in her life. Most Filipinas I met around Angeles City had absolutely no stability in their lives. Filipinas coming to Angeles City seemed to mostly have no assets and were living on the edge of chaos.
There weren't many people in the grocery store at the time, so I got to chat with Kathy for quite a while. In fact, I went through her checkout stand several times as other customers passed through. It got to the point where she asked me if I needed some help remembering what I had come into the store for in the first place.
I smiled and told her that I knew what I was looking for, and that I had found it, but I just wasn't sure how to get the object of my desires out of the store. That confused her, so I just told her that she was the object of my desires. I asked if she had a boyfriend or a husband before I did anything stupid. She told me, "No. I have never had a boyfriend."
I think by now she was intrigued by this young American man who was paying so much attention to her, and when I asked her if she would go to dinner with me, she replied, "Let me think about it." A few minutes later (and another trip through her counter), she said, "Yes. I will go to dinner with you, but no funny business."
I asked what time she got off, and where she wanted me to pick her up. She told me that she was off at six, and asked if I would pick her up at the store and take her home so she could change before we went to dinner. She said that it would also give her mother a chance to meet me. I agreed to her terms, and I was back at the grocery store at six that evening. We took a trike to her house, and she introduced me to her mother. I talked with her mother while Kathy went to her room to get changed.
I guess I passed her mother's criteria for a prospective husband because when Kathy returned from her room, her mother smiled and told Kathy, "You have found a good man. Treat him right." Like the mother and daughter that I had met at church, I got the impression that Kathy's mother wanted Kathy to get married and give her grandbabies, but she wasn't nearly as pushy (at least not in front of me).
We caught a trike and went to my favorite Italian restaurant for dinner. I ordered a sweet wine with dinner, and Kathy liked the choice. I kept her glass topped off all through dinner and the conversation. Unlike many girls I had met, Kathy had grown up and graduated from high school in Angeles City. She had no formal education other than that.
Kathy's position at the grocery store was proof positive that connections were more important than knowledge or education in the Philippines because she had gotten a job as a cashier at the grocery store right out of high school. Although that wouldn't be unusual in most countries, jobs are notoriously hard to get in the Philippines, and successful applicants are often vastly overqualified for the position they seek. I have met many girls with accounting degrees working as cashiers in stores and restaurants.
She got her job because a friend of her mother owned the store. Kathy was, however, much more interesting than that little bit of information. Kathy was very smart and had learned her job as cashier very quickly. Connections had gotten her the job, but her brains let her stay on beyond her initial six-month contract (normal in the Philippines).
Kathy confirmed my suspicions about her mother's desires. She told me that her mom thought that Kathy needed to find a good husband and start having babies with him as soon as possible. Kathy said that she wasn't opposed to the idea, though, and she said that when she found the right man, she would freely give herself to him.
I took a chance and asked, "Do you think that I might be the right man?"
She looked at me and then replied, "Maybe. You are smart, you are confident, you are a gentleman, and my mother likes you. Those are some of the biggest hurdles in my list."
I ordered gelato for our dessert, something that I seldom did. Kathy loved it. When we were done with dinner, I asked Kathy if there was something she wanted to do next. She replied, "I should ask you to take me to my home, but I would rather stay with you and talk awhile. Who knows where that might lead?"
We decided to take a walk in the evening air (which isn't all that clean in the Philippines), and our walk just happened to take us by my hotel. I asked Kathy if she would like to come up and see my room. I fully expected her to say 'No', but she said, "Yes, I would love to see your room." This was not usual for a conservative Filipina, and there were many Filipinas whose stories never graced the pages of this story because they said, 'No.'
So, we went up to my room to continue our conversation. I asked her what her dreams were, and Kathy said her dreams were fairly simple. She basically wanted what her mother wanted for her. She wanted a good, stable husband and several well-behaved children. Most importantly, she wanted to be the best wife and mother that she could possibly be.
When we were sitting on my bed, I asked how she would know when she met the right man to become your husband, and she surprised me when she said, "What makes you think I haven't already found him?"
I was puzzled and said, "But you said you didn't have a boyfriend."