My Kind of Town
>> Portlock Jesus, Muhammed
and BuddhaRosalita Resurreccion took the thermometer from her daughter's mouth -- 102 degrees! -- and placed a cool washcloth on her forehead.
"But when can I see Auntie Lily?" Elizabeth said as the thermometer exited her lips.
Just 6 years old, Elizabeth had quickly adopted her mother's employer as her new auntie. She needed one. Elizabeth's father had drowned 18 months ago when the ferry from Zamboanga, where he'd gone to visit relatives, sank coming home to Cebu. And how could a young widow with a high school education support her daughter? At the urging of a friend from school who said it was fun and exciting and the money is good and you might snag a rich American husband, she left Elizabeth with her family and tried working at a bar in Angeles City. But the thought of having sex with anyone but her husband Jesus terrified her. So she cowered in a corner, refusing to even talk with customers, and got fired within a week.
For the past year Rosalita and Elizabeth had lived in the cottage in back of Lily's home, and Elizabeth had full run of the yard and swimming pool. Portlock was quite a change from their dusty barangay in Cebu. But it wasn't the luxury that the girl noticed. It was the love and the growing sense of security she felt living with Auntie Lily.
"You know your Auntie Lily, always working," Rosalita said. "But she said to call as soon as we got you home."
As Rosalita reached for the phone, it rang. She answered, and heard a familiar accent.
"Oh my gosh!" Her husband's cousin, Muhammed Resurreccion from Zamboanga.
The very cousin who had arranged for her to come to Hawaii on a work visa.
Muslim mother, Catholic father explained his name. Muhammed's parents' personal religious wars eventually led his father to stab his mother to a death, a crime for which her Muslim brothers tortured and killed Muhammed's father -- after breaking him out of jail!
Muhammed was visiting Hawaii and needed a place to stay. "I'll have to ask Miss Lily," Rosalita replied.
She wondered where on the Catholic-Muslim divide her cousin stood, but didn't ask.
>> Honolulu Iron Works
Signing up for a trial membership at the gym recommended by the hotel concierge, Lt. Col. Chuck Ryan smiled at a banner behind the desk promoting a drink special in the restaurant: "Happy Buddha's Birthday!"
Only in Hawaii.
Don Chapman is editor of MidWeek.
His serialized novel runs daily in the Star-Bulletin.
He can be emailed at dchapman@midweek.com