My Kind of Town
>> State Capitol Grounds Three questions
As he waded into the melee, HPD Officer Quinn Ah Sun keyed his helmet microphone and called for an ambulance and for backup. Quinn had broken up fights in Chinatown, Waikiki, Kaneohe, Kalihi, but he'd never seen anything like these gay guys when they swarmed Skinhead. Forget that don't-ask-don't-tell stuff. The Army ought to form a division, the 112th Fightin' Fags. Well, Skinhead had it coming after his initial attack caused a young man in the hate crimes bill rally to fall and hit his head on the edge of a concrete curb.
Skinhead was still conscious as Quinn applied the cuffs and read him his rights. Hard to tell how prosecutor Peter Carlisle's office would handle this one. But judging from the injury to the kid on the ground, Quinn was guessing manslaughter. He'd seen lesser blows kill. How could Quinn have known the kid was his first cousin Lance, born soon after their fathers quit speaking 21 years ago?
>> State Capitol
Watching the demonstrators approaching the Capitol from the fourth-floor office of her boss, Sen. Donovan Matsuda-Yee-Dela Cruz-Bishop-Kamaka, Grace Ah Sun gasped as a fight broke out. She had seen plenty of demonstrations in her years at the Capitol, but nothing like this. From this distance -- they had just entered the Capitol grounds from Hotel Street -- it was hard to make out individuals in the throng of thousands. But she could see a big HPD officer wading through the brawl.
It was too ugly to watch and she turned away. Besides, Grace was more concerned about the senator. He'd been out of touch for days, missing the end of the historic legislative session. And then his car crashed off the Keeaumoku Overpass, the lone occupant being a stark naked young woman loaded on ice. Good-bye, governor's office.
She heard a siren, looked outside, saw an ambulance driving across the Capitol lawn, another first. How could she have known that the siren wailed for her youngest son Lance?
>> Honolulu Soap Co.
If he had to do it all over again, Sheets Ah Sun would. And for the same reason, his wife Grace's honor. But Sheets would not have disposed of the evidence in that chemical dump pit. At the time it had seemed safe enough. The site was in the boonies 21 years ago. Who'd have thought that the population on the Windward side would grow so much that the city would drill a well in Waimanalo and find it contaminated by the nearby pit?
Don Chapman is editor of MidWeek.
His serialized novel runs daily in the Star-Bulletin.
He can be emailed at dchapman@midweek.com