The Price of Pleasure

They first met in a restaurant in Singapore. Po and Alex quickly became lovers and before long Po was pregnant. Po wanted to get married. Alex told her that he was already married and that he loved Leah, his wife. Po then wanted him to come to stay with her for a year on Sumatra, where she lived. Alex told Po that he could not go to Sumatra right then, but he would meet her in Manila before she gave birth. His life was beginning to get complicated. It would get more complicated! Tsing, their daughter, was born in Manila a few months later. Alex got mother and daughter settled in an apartment in a small city north of Manila. He hired a nanny to help Po care for Tsing. Then he went back to Hawaii to be with Leah. Po was not happy. She complained about the nanny. She complained about the medical care. She complained about the apartment. She demanded that Alex come back to the Philippines to help her care for Tsing. Alex told her that he could not do that; his wife would divorce him if he returned to the Philippines just then. But he would get a friend to help her and Tsing move back to Manila. The new apartment in Manila was conveniently located next to a shopping mall, but it was tiny. Po hired another nanny, but she had to live with Po and Tsing in the small apartment. This arrangement lasted for few months, and then Po went back to Sumatra with Tsing. On their arrival, Po’s parents told her that she and Tsing could not live with them. What would the neighbors think? She had to get married before they would even consider her request! Po wanted Alex come to Sumatra to marry her in a Buddhist ceremony. He repeated that he was already married and that he would not divorce Leah. One of his friends suggested that a Buddhist wedding ceremony might not be a valid marriage. After Alex determined that it would not be a legal marriage, he told Po that he would do what she had asked him to do. Then Po told Alex that they needed to have a wedding reception. She estimated that about 300 people would attend. He agreed. Later he said that he wanted to “make things right” for Po and her family. He took his obligation to support his daughter very seriously. Beyond this, Alex wanted to help raise his daughter and that would be much easier if he could maintain good relations with Po and her family. Alex asked a friend, Jim, to go with him to Sumatra and be his best man. They made their travel reservations; they would be on Sumatra for a June weddings. They began to pack. Alex bought lots of gifts for Po, her family, Tsing and his friends in the Philippines. A few days before their departure, they heard news reports that U.S. Special Forces had killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. Leah wanted them to cancel the Sumatra trip, because Indonesia is a Muslim country. No, they would go as planned. They promised Leah that they would be careful.