most happy at the idea. Kelly and I both suspected that she didn't get much in the way of treats in the orphanage.
Refreshed from the ice cream, we all again piled into the van – Marilyn still careful to keep her distance from me, though not quite as shy.
Marlyn directed Bhoy to a medium-sized shopping mall toward the center of town; across the street from it was a chain restaurant where Bhoy and I could sit outside and drink. Bhoy parked the van so that the shoppers could find it easily, and we all headed to our self-assigned duties.
Bhoy and I spent the next four hours sitting on the patio of the restaurant, drinking beer under the shade of a large patio umbrella.
Between the shade and the light breeze, it was a pleasant way to spend the afternoon. Neither of us felt any obligation to say anything except to order another round from our exceptionally cute waitress – both of us were content to simply sit there and watch the world go by.
We were interrupted only once, when Marlyn came over to complain to me 'Kelly is spending too much! She is buying clothes for everybody at the orphanage!'
My only response was a calm 'Okay'. She looked at me closely, to see if I was drunk; seeing that I wasn't, she realized that I really didn't care how much money Kelly was spending, and gave up – to go shopping some more.
By the time the three of them came to get us, I was giving some thought to supper; when Bhoy and I got to the van, we saw that they'd obviously had a real good time shopping: there was barely enough room for all of us in the van.
At my suggestion – and with Marlyn's agreement – our first stop on the way back to the hotel was at the orphanage. There, we unloaded about 95 percent of the stuff from the van – and becoming instant celebrities while the people that ran it repeatedly assured us that they would be praying for us. Marlyn told me that the rest would go back with Marilyn.
With a little more room for people, the ride back to the hotel was a bit more comfortable. I saw Marilyn watching us as Kelly quietly hugged my arm as thanks for letting her help the kids in the orphanage.
Back at the hotel, we all paused in the lobby as I told Marlyn 'You and Marilyn are welcome to join us for supper, if you want. But Kelly and I will both understand if you want to have some time for just yourselves, too.'
Marlyn nodded her understanding, and thanks, and I went on to tell her 'We'll be leaving here for a restaurant about 6:30?' – the last a question to Kelly, who agreed – 'If you want to go with us, we'll meet you here then. If you're not here, that's fine, and we'll see you in the morning.'
When I was done, Bhoy said something to Marlyn, who told us 'Bhoy says that there are several nice places to eat about two blocks from here, to the west. This is a quiet area, so you don't have to worry about any trouble. If you want to go someplace else, he will be happy to drive you.'
Kelly and I shared a look, and I said 'No, that will be okay. We can walk a couple of blocks. He can go ahead and take the evening off and have fun.'
She relayed the message to him, and he left us with a smile.
Kelly and I started to head for our room when Marlyn reached out a hand to touch my arm. When I stopped, Kelly did too, and the two of us turned to face her again. Hesitantly, she told us 'I… I wanted to thank you.
Not just for helping me, but the orphanage, too. You have been very kind to me, and Marilyn. I think maybe too kind' – that with a reproachful look at Kelly, who ignored it – 'It isn't often that I get to meet Americans that are as kind and generous as you are. And I understand, now, what you meant when you told me in Manila that you are not the kind of people that take advantage of others, or hurt people. So I want to apologize again for my suspicions that night – now I know how wrong they were.'
Kelly responded by telling her 'its okay, Marlyn. All that matters to us is that we're able to help.'
Marlyn looked at both of us carefully for a few moments, then gave a small nod of her head before we all headed to our respective rooms.
Back up in our room, Kelly quickly moved to hug me after we'd closed the door behind us.
'That was so happy to see them together!' she exclaimed as she started to cry.
'Yeah, it WAS nice', I answered.
'Marilyn is so cute! You can look at Marlyn and just know what she's going to look like when she gets older. But that place, that orphanage! I don't know how they manage to keep it going!'
'I know. But we'll be sending them money – and more than just fifty bucks a month! All the stuff we – you! – bought will help a lot, too.
We're going to find out what else they could use right away before we leave, and see that they get it. After we get back, there are some other things I plan to send them, too.'
'Marlyn tried to tell me that I was buying too much' – 'She tried to tell me the same thing; I just ignored it.' I told her – 'but I could tell that she was still having fun. Did you see that dress Marilyn was wearing when we were done?'
'Yeah, I saw it. She seems pretty shy, so I didn't think I'd better say anything about it.'
'Oh, she's shy all right – but just around you. She was SO happy while we were shopping – talking to Marlyn and me, both. I was surprised at how good her English is; we didn't have any trouble understanding each other. She didn't ask for anything, but I could always tell when there was something she really liked. Marlyn stopped me most of the time, but I still managed to get her a couple of special things, just for her.
Marlyn told me that Marilyn thinks you're handsome – guapo, right?'
I nodded, and she went on 'She wants to thank you for helping her, but she's not sure how. I told her that she didn't have to, but she *really* wants to. Is it okay if I tell her it's okay to kiss you? At least on the cheek?'
I grinned, and told Kelly 'You know I'm always willing to accept a kiss from a pretty girl. Yeah, I think a kiss on the cheek would be okay here – she's still young enough that nobody would think anything about it.
You should probably check with Marlyn, though, just to make sure.'
'I will.'
Both of us got undressed and went in to take a shower. As I'd predicted in Manila, we'd had far more showers in tepid water than hot – and a couple of them were outright cold. So we'd gotten into the habit of showering together so that we could eliminate the risk of one of us freezing when even the tepid water ran out.
We'd also learned not to dawdle in the shower – there was never any telling just how much water there was.
The net effect was that we had plenty of time to clean up and change clothes before heading for the lobby area. We got there about twenty after six, and gave Marlyn ten minutes past the agreed-on deadline before going out to eat. As Bhoy had said, there were a number of places to eat just a couple blocks from the hotel. We talked it over, and decided that the fast food from lunch had hit a pleasant spot, so we settled on Kentucky Fried Chicken. It was most definitely a change of pace from the fresh-cooked, low-fat Filipino food we'd had the last few weeks. Not necessarily a good change, though – just a change.
There were a few stores nearby, and the two of us did a little shopping.
I settled on a couple of nice Barong Tagalog shirts (similar to the Latin guayabera, a loose outside-the-pants shirt with embroidered designs) and a few carved wooden figurines. Kelly chose some pretty seashell jewelry that was surprisingly inexpensive.
By the time we'd finished our shopping, it was still relatively early, but we headed back toward the hotel anyway. Along the way, we stopped at a sari-sari store to re-hydrate with a Coke. I'd explained to Kelly on the flight over that a sari-sari store is essentially a small booth where the owner sold small quantities of a relatively few popular items at mildly inflated prices – think of an entire convenience store scaled down to half the size of a one- car garage. The owner never got rich, but seldom went broke, either; you could buy anything from a single cigarette to a kilo of rice, which made them fairly popular.
Once we were back in the hotel room, and had our purchases tucked away, we got undressed to enjoy the relative coolness of the room as we watched some TV. When it came time for the news, we shut the set off and snuggled up to each other. I didn't mind in the slightest when I felt Kelly reach down to take my penis in hand, since I already had a hand cupped around one of her breasts.
I kissed her softly on the cheek as I ran my thumb across her nipple, feeling it growing slightly under my attentions. Kelly responded by giving my penis a few gentle squeezes, then stroking it a bit as I began to grow in
