Date: Wed, 2 Oct 2002 15:03:18 +1200 From: Arthur <rochopa@xtra.co.nz> Subject: jomel part 4 adult/youth JOMEL Part Four By Arthur Just before 8.30 I made my way down to the restaurant to await my guest for dinner, at the door to the restaurant was Johnathon, now dressed in the uniform of a waiter, big smile on his face. "Good evening sir, I will be your waiter this evening, may I show you to your table?" "Thank you Johnathon, I have a guest coming soon will you bring him to the table when he arrives?" "Yes sir, would that be Mr.De Silva?" It struck me at that point that I didn't know Jomels surname but one look at Johnathons face told me he knew who it was,so with a slight quizzical look on my face I replied. "Ahh, yes, Mr. Jomel De Silva" "Yes sir, as soon as he arrives , sir." With that mystery solved he showed me to a table that would normally be used for four people but this time set out for two and located at the far side of the restaurant by the windows and overlooking the hotel gardens. Even behind the glass you could smell the fragrance of frangapani and the more delicate scent of orchids, the gradens were laid out to take the best advantage of the tropical vegetation's colors and scents giving a panorama of sight and smell,this was how I had remembered my earlier visits to the asian area, it was almost intoxicating and at first your senses become over whelmed by it. I sat with my first drink waiting for Jomel to arrive and let my body absorb it all with a feeling of peace and contentment, my mind in a soft fluffy cloud of nothingness,I was awoken from my reverie with the feeling of someone close to me. "Excuse me sir, your guest, Mr.De Silva." I refocused my eyes and saw Jomel standing beside Johnathon on the other side of the table, it was then that I saw the similarity between them and recognised the same blood lines in them. "Please take a seat Jomel, would you like a drink?" "Thank you er..Ben, may I have a San Miguel?" "Of course." "Thank you Johnathon, can you get that for us and I'll have another as well." "Yes sir." Johanthon left us to talk and to get our order.A quick glace at my watch showed me that Jomel had appeared exactly at 8.30 and I was impressed at his punctuality, it was a good sign of an ordered mind and that was a most important part of the type of work I was involved in. After delivering our drinks Johnathon stepped away about ten feet and stood next to a pillar looking straight ahead and appeared to take no notice of us in his own little world,as the restaurant was quite busy at the time I thought this unusual that he was not attending to other tables so I guestured for him to come to the table. "Tell me Johnathon, don't you have any other tables to attend?" "No sir,I am assigned to your table only this evening." "But the restaurant is very busy, how did you manage that?" A huge conspirational smile broke over his face and with a wink he said. "Fifty peso's to the Maitre De , sir" "Minx." He moved back to his position as Jomel and I broke out into laughter. "Ben, do you know he is my cousin?" "Yes Jomel, he told me, he is quite the devious one isn't he?" "Yes, he was always the planner even when he was very young." We both settled down now that the slight fromality feeling of the occasion receeded and we began to loosen up after chatting about odds and ends and generalities we decided to order dinner abd another drink so I looked across at Johnathon to let him know we were ready to order. "Could we see some menu's please Johnathon?" "If you would allow me sir,I have arranged a special menu for yourself and Mr.De Silva." I looked up at him and saw the small grin on his face looking all attentive and serious. "Okay Johnathon, cut the crap, you know my name and this is your cousin so I'm sure you know his too." I said this with a smile and a half laugh as he stood looking at us. "Ok, Mr. Ben, I've set out a special menu for both of you, I hope you don't mind,I can change it for you I f you don't agree." "No Johnathon, I'm sure it'll be just fine, you go ahead and we'll leave it to you,and thanks Johnathon it was good of you to do that for us." "My pleasure Mr. Ben." Johnathon left us to take care of our meal and I felt it was time to get down to more serious matters for a while. "So, tell me Jomel, do you stay alone with your aunty?" "No Ben,there are nine of us at home,my aunt and uncle and they have seven childeren of their own as well." "That's a lot of people in one house." "Yes but thats the way it works for us." "Mmm ok, so how long are you going to have to stay at university?" "It's a four year course, but the qualifications at the end are very solid and I should be able to get a good job at the end of it." "what are the fees for you at varsity Jomel?" "Usually about 9000 peso's a year and then there's living costs on top of that." "That's a lot of guide work to do to get your fees then?" "Yes, but if I want to succeed then I must make the sacrifice now." This young man had a good head on his shoulders and his determination to make something of himself in the future was so refreshing and I thought of some of the lazy attitudes of young people back home. "You know you haven't told me how much your fees for today are yet." "Oh, thats ok Ben, I'm an employee fo your company now, I couldn't charge you for today." "Ok Jomel, now are you doing anything tomorrow?" "I have to go to church in the morning but after 10.00 o'clock I'm free for the rest of the day." "Good, then can you meet me here at 11.00?" "Yes certainly." "Good, then that's settled, ah here comes our little minx with the first course." "Minx? what's a minx Ben?" I laughed and then began to explain what I meant by the term 'minx' as it aplied to Jonathon, Jomel laughed at the definition of his cousin and agreed with my thoughts. "Yes Ben, thats Johnathon alright." It was when Johnathon plced the dish of thin sliced papaya and avoccado with a hint of lime juice over it, that i saw the humour in Jomel that I hadn't seen before.As the plate was layed before him he looked up at Johnathon and said. "Thank you, Minx." Johnathon looked even cuter when he blushed, Jomel placed a hand over his mouth as he chuckled at the sight of him standing there not quite sure where he should look,he stepped back to his poaition beside the pillar still looking embarrased at the comment but at the same time seemed to be quite proud of the title. We both continued with our dinner and talked about Jomels dreams for the future and the places I had been in my travels, what it was like in New Zealand, the dishes kept coming and I could see by the meals being delivered to other tables that Johnathon had indeed made a very special dinner for us. As we both sat back with a rich dark coffee and for me a cognac, at the end of the meal, I glanced again at my watch onl;y to be surprised that it was nearly 1.00 o'clock in the morning, the time had disappeared so quickly I'd had no idea of it. When the coffee was finished I looked up at Jomel and the total look of peace and contentment on his face was a delight to see. "Well Jomel, I think that was the best meal I've ever had and your company was the most enjoyable I've also ever had, but I think that by the look of the time we had better call it a night, we've a lot to do tomorrow." "yes Ben, I think you're right it is getting late, thank you so much for tonight, I've never had a night like this, I'll remember it forever, thank you." "Thank you to Jomel, I'm sure you'll have many more like it in the future." We both arose from the table and made our way to the foyer to part for the evening as Johnathon began to clear our table. "Well thank you again Jomel and I'll see you at 11.00 then." "Yes Ben I'll be here at 11.00, goodbye and thank you." So saying we shook hands and he made his way out of the main door's toward home,I returned to my room and after a shower slipped into bed totally relaxed and to put together some plans that had been running around in my head during the meal. A soft tapping on my door signalled the arrival of the Minx, and I hoped that he was not puting his job in jepardy for these nightly meetings. "Come in,Minx." The lithe form slid into my room removing his casual clothes as he did so and when they were all on the floor he glanced at the shower with a questioniing look on his face. "Yes of course you can, go ahead." He giggled at the tent in the sheets as he entered the shower stall with a wiggle of his tale end. 'Mmmmmmm another night in heaven but I'm going to have to take it easy, I'm not twenty anymore' I thought. When Johnathon joined me in the bed I looked down at him laying beside me, snuggled in close his arm over my chest looking up into my eyes. "Are you ok,I don't want you to get into trouble with your boss for me?" "It's ok, I payed the night manager 100 peso's and he said I could stay with you till you left the hotel if you wanted me too." "Yes, Minx is the right name for you." Johnathon giggled and kissed my cheek,then he began to look after a lot of other places that were available for him to kiss and it was not long before he was in the place he seemed to like the most,perched up on my groin with my hard rod deep inside of him while he wriggled and pushed downward, smiling and moaning as he tried to take more than there was to take. It was 9.00am when I finally woke to am empty bed but with the smell of fresh coffee in my nostrils as I rolled over to see Johnathon wave as he left my room for another day od work. After finishing my coffee and showering I dressed very casual and made my way down to the dining room for breakfast,(of course to be served by my Minx) then made my way to the front desk. The duty nanager was standing behind the desk and looked up smiling as I approached. "Yes sir, may I help you?" "Yes thank you, do you have a computer room for guests?" "Yes sir, just through that door, there is full internet facilities available for our guests." I moved through the doorway into a small but tidy room and the bank of four computers, of which two were in use were laid out back to back with privacy sheilds between them, I Moved to the furtherest one and began to setup for a link to my home office. Although There would only be the one staff technician on duty I would not need to bother him as I could do all that I needed to do with a direct link to the mainframe. By the time I had set everthing in motion and left the messages that were needed for the staff to work on, on Monday when they came in, I saw that it was almost 11.00 o'clock and time to meet Jomel for his second day as an employee. As I sat in the reception lounge he arrived as before right on the dot of 11.00 and came over to where I sat waiting. "Good morning Ben, did you sleep well?" "Yes, thank you Jomel, and you?" "Very well, thank you Ben, and now what would you like to do today?" "Well, firstly we have to get some clothes for you so that you can look good as our representitive, then we will have to find some good accomodation for you and set that up so that you are not disturbed when you're working or studying, after that we will have to discuss your contract with the company, then it should be time for dinner again." "But Ben this is not needed, I'm sure that I can continue as I am, there's no need for the company to go to all this expense." "Don't worry about the expense Jomel, I can claim it all on setup costs when I return home, We pride ourselves on picking the right people to work for us and we like to look after them when we find the right ones and that includes you now." "Ben, I'm a bit embarrased by all this, I never expected you to do all this for me." "Don't worry Jomel by the time things are setup here you will be earning every peso of it." I'm sure by the look on his face he did not know if he should shake my hand or hug me, so I put out my hand for him to shake and then arose to leave for our morning and afternoon of business. By lunch time we had managed to find all the clothes he would need (and a few extra ones just for the hell of it) and I asked him where we should go for a light lunch before starting the hunt for suitable accomodation. Lunch was delightful and in a small restaurant that was more of a sidewalk bistro and after finishing he began to look through a local newspaper for available accomodation to go and see. Jomel pointed out certain apartments and where they were what was needed in the way of payment and utilities and the accesability to the company that we would be installing our systems for. It did not take me long to realise that Jomel was looking more at the price the the suitablitiy and it took a while to convince him that I wanted a full house not an apartment and explained that at certain times either myself or a staff memebr would need to come here and that it was easier to have our own accomodation here than rely on a hotel all the time. Finally he found three houses for us to look at so I asked him to see if we could arrange to have a look at them tomorrow after the meeting. "We don't have to wait till tomorrow Ben, here people will do business on any day of the week, they can not afford to just work five days a week like overseas, they would never survive here other wise, if you would like to look now then I have only to telephone them." "Ok Jomel,lets do that then, you want to set it up then get us a taxi for the rest of the day or until we have sorted it all out, then we'll go back to the hotel and change for dinner, sound ok to you?" "Yes Ben, that sounds like a good idea." I sat back as he left to go into the restaurant and use the phone to start making arrangements for us and again thought about how lucky I had been seeing him on the bus when I'd first arrived, and later outside the hotel, I was sure this was gong to be a good partenership both for myself and for the company. Ten minutes later Jomel arrived back at the table with the news that all three houses were available to see at any time today and went to call a taxi for us, the day was moving along well for us and the plans I had made the previous evening before the Minx had arrived at my door. To Be Continued: