by Tom Wilson
"We are the honored ones."
"She said you fly airplanes?"
"Yes, sir."
"That you both escaped the enemy after being shot down?"
"Yes."
"American pilots were shot down during our war. They were butchered by the Japanese when they were caught. The Japanese used swords. They would have the pilots face the east and make our people watch as they forced them to bow down. Then they would cut off their heads. Our people tried to rescue American pilots before they were caught by the Japanese."
Everyone was quiet. Benny wore a troubled expression as he watched the old man, but offered no words. The Bear broke the silence. "Esther said you were a soldier."
The old man was happy to talk of his military service. "I saw General Wainwright once," he said proudly, "when the Japanese marched the American officers through Tarlac."
"He was a great hero," said the Bear, trying to remember who Wainwright was.
"Yes," said the old soldier, "but he should not have told us to quit fighting when we still had guns and bullets. We could have fought longer, perhaps even until help arrived."
"Oh?" replied the Bear. He knew little about the war in the Philippines twenty-five years earlier.
"When the message arrived from Corregidor to stop fighting, many of us did not agree, but our officer said the order must be obeyed. We gave up our guns and bullets to the Japanese. We were taken to Tarlac in boxcars, marched to Capas, then on to the prison at Camp O'Donnel—the same place the Americans had trained us to march and fight. I spent ten terrible months there. Many died of starvation and sickness, both Americans and Filipino."
The Bear nodded. He had never in his life heard of Camp O'Donnel.
"I escaped. Not many did. I met with others in the hills and we wished we had the guns and bullets we had given the Japanese." He nodded gravely. "Some of us had to fight with only the cane knives we were given by field-workers."
The old man grew increasingly pale around his mouth and eyes.
"Rest now, Father," said a new feminine voice. The speaker, more girl than woman, came out from the kitchen. She glanced shyly at Benny and the Bear. Obviously this was the sister, quite similar in appearance except her figure was fuller at the breast and hips than Esther's. She wore a dark dress, cut severely and covering to her calf.
In mourning. Ought to fit right in with Benny, thought the Bear.
"This is Angela," said Esther. She introduced both men. A glance at Benny showed no emotion registering on his face as Angela warily greeted them.
"You have a fine family," the Bear said to the old man, who looked at his brood and considered. He nodded finally, as if agreeable but not really convinced.
After a few more minutes of small talk and presenting gifts to the women, the Bear brought out the briar pipe and tin of tobacco. He presented them to the old guerrilla fighter who took them with trembling hands and examined them closely.
"Thank you again for inviting us into your home," said the Bear.
The old man handled the pipe carefully, turning it over in his hands, then motioned abruptly as if having made up his mind. "My home is yours," he pronounced.
As the men spoke for a while longer, the mother pulled her daughters into the kitchen. Probably telling them to keep their legs crossed, the Bear thought.
When the girls emerged, everyone was smiling. After bows and handshakes, and a final nod to the old man, the four made their exit.
"Nice folks," commented the Bear as they walked up the dark side street toward the main thoroughfare. Esther stopped him and pecked him on the cheek. "The gift for Father was perfect," she said. "He will treasure it until he dies."
Angela walked quietly beside Benny, more careful to maintain her distance. "Thank you both," she said in English more halting than Esther's.
When they reached the corner, Esther giggled and clapped her hands. "Our parents are ashamed that neither of their daughters is happily married," she exclaimed. "They wish we would settle down and raise many babies."
"Esther!" exclaimed her sister.
"I was married for a while, to a Chinaman in Manila," said Esther.
"Divorced?" asked the Bear.
She shrugged noncommittally. "It is not so easy for us in the Philippines, you know."
"I see."
"Angela was engaged to a pilot," she said in a confidential tone. "They were to be married this month."
Benny was looking at Angela again. From the way he acted, he could be examining a turkey.
Angela interrupted the Bear's thoughts. "He was killed. . . ." She searched for the words. "In airplane crash."
"I'm sorry," he said.
"They were very much in love," said Esther with a dreamy expression.
The Bear placed his arm around Esther's shoulder. Angela looked around and glared at him. "We are not like the girls in bars," she said sharply.
Which translates, the Bear judged, to no nooky for Benny. He wondered about the Spanish influence injected during their several hundred years of rule. He'd been to Spain and seen how their religion restrained relations between guys and nice Spanish girls. He supposed the same traditions were impressed upon nice Filipinas.
"Your friend is good-looking," said Esther in a low tone, looking toward Benny. "He is troubled?"
"Yes, he is."
"How old are you?" they heard Benny ask Angela. "Eighteen," she answered. "I'll be nineteen soon," she added. "That's very young," he said, and the two grew quiet again.
"How old are you, Captain Benny?" Esther asked.
"Twenty-eight, almost twenty-nine." He looked at Angela. "Does that seem old?"
"No," she decided. "Twenty-eight is a young man's age."
Esther broke in again. "But twenty-nine is very old, isn't it Angela." They all laughed.
After walking two blocks they located a jeepney that took them across town to a stuccoed, two-story building Esther claimed was the best restaurant in Angeles City. There they ate lush salads, tender steaks, a tasty pancit dish, and capped it off with desserts of sherbet and wafers that melted in their mouths. They drank a bottle of wine with the meal. Following the meal they had coffee liqueur served in tiny porcelain cups, allowing them to relax and talk over flickering candlelight.
They left the restaurant and walked, careful to stay clear of the rowdiest bars from which loud music and lusty shouts emanated. They window-shopped and talked for a while, then the Bear slowed down, allowing the two couples to separate. He drew Esther into a storefront alcove where they shared a warm, wet kiss. The way she clung to him, his hope for the evening was revived.
When they emerged, Benny and Angela had stopped a short distance farther down the street. "You're a nice girl," Benny was saying as they approached, "and it really has been a nice evening."
"Do you want to kiss me?" she asked suddenly.
Benny hesitated, and the Bear was embarrassed for him. Suddenly he turned and staggered. The Bear hurried up and steadied him with a hand on his arm. "You okay?"
"Yeah. Too much to drink."
"Let's go to a nice bar and sit for a while. Esther knows one close by."
"I'm really bushed, Bear."
The Bear looked over at the two girls. "I gotta admit it doesn't look promising."
"I'm going back to the base. It's just too soon."
The Bear nodded. "Maybe so."
Benny motioned toward a parked jeepney. "See you tomorrow, okay?"
The Bear looked at him hesitantly, then glanced at the girls.
Benny gave him a wry look. "Remember what your buddy the nurse said about being back at the hospital by midnight," he said, "but have fun."
"Thanks for reminding me, asshole," the Bear said. It was past nine.
The girls were waiting. The Bear explained that Benny was going back to base.
Esther seemed upset. "Are you sure?" she asked Benny.
"I'm afraid so."
The girls were both curt as Benny said his good-byes. He f
inally broke away and walked toward the jeepney. The Bear watched him, then replaced his arm around Esther. "Let's find that bar you were telling me about."
They walked, the Bear's arm around Esther's waist.
"You think I am ugly?" Angela asked from the other side of Esther. She was frowning.
"You are very pretty," he said, steering them around a group of civvie-clothed airmen standing outside D' Big Bopper bar, from which loud rock music swelled. One of the group whistled.
A calesa with jingle-bells on the harness clopped down the street. "Let's take that," Esther said, waving to the driver.
"Is it that far to the bar?" asked the Bear.
When they crawled into the buggy, he ended up squeezed into the seat beside Angela, with Esther sitting knee to knee on a smaller seat opposite them. The driver flicked his reins, and the Bear watched the busy city pass by. Esther seemed oblivious of Angela and his closeness, pointing and chattering. As they drew into the darker back streets, he recognized some of the large residences. The girls were on their way home. What the hell? he thought.
"No drinks at a bar?" he asked.
He heard a snort from Angela.
"You have been a gentleman," murmured Esther. "Perhaps," she added with a smile, "you will be rewarded. Would you like to hear more about Filipinos?"
"Sure," he said. Some reward, he thought.
"Filipinas are surely the most superstitious people in the world. Our family is from Tarlac province, where people may be the most superstitious of all."
Angela's hand was warm on his leg.
"The people from the various parts of the islands believe in different things, but they are all frightened of the dead and of ghosts." Her voice dropped. "Some think the dead return to their loved ones five days after they die."
He laughed, but the girls did not join in.
"Angela and I are modern and intelligent women, don't you believe?"
"Certainly."
She smiled vaguely, then her face was lost to him as they passed into deep shadows. "These silly women believe that the ghost will stay until a very strong person enters their life. Then the ghost feels angry, and must depart."
"But you don't think so."
"Our mother believes, but she is from another generation. For instance, she believes that if a woman goes to bed with wet hair, she will go crazy. She also believes that Angela's dead fiance has returned. She hoped that Captain Benny might be Angela's strong man."
"Benny's having trouble with his own ghosts," he said. "No reflection on Angela."
Esther directed the driver to stop at their lane.
"Do you have a dollar?" she asked him.
"I'll pay him when I get to the base," he said.
She looked exasperated. "Please?"
Bear started to argue, then gave her a dollar bill before dismounting.
Esther chatted with the driver in Tagalog, slipping him the dollar. When all were down the Bear bowed elegantly. "Thank you, ladies, for a fantastic evening." He didn't show the sarcasm he felt.
"Walk us home, please," said Esther primly. Reluctantly, he agreed. They'd gone less half the distance to the dark house when he heard the calesa pony clop away.
"Damn," he muttered.
As they grew close to her home, Esther pulled him closer. "Be very quiet."
Angela fumbled with the lock, then pushed slowly. The door creaked. Esther released him and slipped past, disappearing into the room.
"Thanks," he whispered in disgust. Turning to leave he felt Angela's hand on his arm.
"Please," she said in a low voice, tugging.
"Inside?"
"Shhh," she said, closing the door behind them. The Bear felt awkward and wondered about her parents as she led the way. He bumped against something, the old man's chair he thought. From one of the back rooms he heard a stirring.
"Come," Angela whispered impatiently. Faint light from a window outlined the room, and he could barely make out a bed and a dresser. Angela closed the door.
"What are you doing," he whispered harshly. She came to him, gently drawing his head down so they could kiss. As her tongue explored, her breath quickened.
"Oooh," she moaned in the low voice, kissing him again. "You are so strong. There is no other but you."
The Bear was puzzled at first, then found himself grinning in the darkness. She was speaking for the benefit of the ghost! He thought fleetingly of Benny and how this should have been for him. He felt her hand grasping at his trousers, and all thought of Benny disappeared.
"Fuck off, ghost," he growled and let her pull him toward the bed. She was already moaning with false passion.
When they were done, he rose back, still in her, silently panting. The proximity of her parents bothered him. She hadn't been quiet about it, moaning and talking aloud the entire time. When he'd pushed to enter her, she'd bucked and convulsed wildly, almost throwing him off. The bed had creaked so noisily in an unmistakable tempo that he'd been amazed it hadn't collapsed. During her two orgasms, she had cried "Oh, oh, oh," in ever louder yelps.
Remembering the noise he whispered, "Your parents?"
"What about them," she said in an impatient voice. "Father is old, and doesn't hear anything once he's asleep." She stroked his back with her light touch, ready again.
"And your mother?"
"She won' complain." She pulled him closer to whisper. "The ghos' of my fiancé, remember?"
Angela held him captive between her legs and after a few more quiet moments began to slowly rotate her hips and move beneath him. "Oh, you are so strong, Cap'n Mal."
She was moving her hips in a sensuous circle, pulling and manipulating him with her vaginal muscles. Look ma, no hands, he thought crazily just before he forgot about jokes and noise and began to get serious about things again.
"Me on top," she gasped. "Oh, Cap'n Mal, you get me so hot."
He slowly rolled, perching her on top, and she began to lift and grind down on him, working those wonderful muscles. When they finished the second time, he started to relax as he had done before, but she would have none of it.
"I will help you," she said, slithering down in the bed. She helped him with butterfly hands and warm mouth until he was again at the edge, then clambered eagerly back on top, lifted, and wiggled to impale herself. She resumed her rocking and moaning.
He was spent. They lay entwined, panting in rhythm. Three great fucks in record time! he thought.
She kissed his chest and licked his nipples, trying to start again. "Oh, Cap'n Mal," she said. He groaned at the thought of another performance.
"Later," he pleaded.
After several more tries Angela accepted that he was unable to continue. Then, as abruptly as she had turned on her ardor, she rolled onto her side and dropped into peaceful slumber. The Bear blew a ragged breath of relief.
She drew back and he almost dropped off to sleep. The door creaked as Esther's dark shape crept into the room, startling him.
"Turn your head while I change into my nightclothes," she whispered. He closed his eyes, knowing he couldn't have felt lustful if she were Brigitte Bardot. He heard the sounds of a zipper, called himself a liar, and opened his eyes.
"I mus' be here when my parents wake," she whispered in her sleepy voice. He watched her nude shadow stretch and slip a short nightgown over her head. She had a trim gazelle's body. She shook a finger at him in the gloom, letting him know she was aware he'd been looking.
"I'll leave if you wish," he whispered. The bed was not very big.
"Shhh." She circled the small bed like a cat inspecting its nest, then slid in on the side opposite Angela as he raised an arm for her to lie on. She nestled her ass against his side for a moment, then turned and burrowed her face into his shoulder. The Bear cupped one of Angela's breasts in his right hand and one moon of Esther's trim ass in his left. Both women stirred, snuggling to adjust themselves to his grasp. Esther mewed prettily, her fingertips moving on his chest. She was breathing unevenly,
as her finger slid down his belly and found him.
No one, the Bear told himself happily, is going to believe this back at Takhli. Amazingly, he was growing under the ministrations of Esther's fingers. He started to compose the story for Glenn . . . dammit! . . . for Mike Murphy, who was reputedly the foremost cocksman in the wing. Esther moved against his leg, breathing faster and making him forget all about Murphy. He stroked her, his hands and fingers playing across her body.
"So strong," she whispered. He released Angela's breast to pay better attention to her growing need.
At first they were stealthy and almost furtive. After he was in her, she moved her legs together, making herself fist-tight, and proved that Angela's magical manipulations ran in the family by lying very still and just using internal muscles. After several minutes of unhurried pleasure, Esther could not help releasing her first long, low shuddering moan. Not long thereafter he was ready to claw at the walls.
Later, as he lay there sandwiched pleasantly between the two girls, sleep washing over him like the tide moving onto a beach, he caught his breath in a flash of unpleasant remembrance. At first he could not recognize it, then he wished he had not. Glenn Phillips's face hovered, mocked him, opened its mouth, and emitted the shrill, haunting scream.
He had told himself he would cope with it at some distant, later time. Now the terrible noise grew louder. He felt a lump in his chest, making it difficult to catch his breath. He lay there, sweating profusely, his mind in turmoil, then carefully, methodically, he pushed the images and the sounds away until the memory clouded and was gone.
At six, Esther shook him awake, motioning urgently. She was clothed, her face serious. "You must go."
The Bear groaned. His head was pounding, his throat was sore, and his penis felt like raw meat. He had difficulty swallowing and tried to speak, but only incomprehensible sounds emerged.
"Mother says please to hurry. My father will be waking up."
He crawled out from the covers and sat on the bedside for a moment, scratching his head and chest, then searched the room for his clothing. When he'd finished gathering it, he was still missing his shirt, shorts, and one sock.