My Kind of Town
>> 2002 Wilder If, if, if...
For Dr. Laurie Tang, the daughter of what were then known as Formosan immigrants, one of the best things about being a doctor is that she was able to buy her widowed mother a home. Mai Tai Tang was old-world and not an easy person to get along with, at least not for a headstrong daughter who wanted to be American. But her mother had sacrificed after Laurie's father died so Laurie could go to medical school, and she deserved a nice home. Her mother wanted to stay in Kalihi, close to friends and the little markets she knew. But when Laurie mentioned that she was seeing Sen. Donovan Matsuda-Yee-Dela Cruz-Bishop-Kamaka, her mother said: "But when you're living in the governor's mansion, maybe I'll come stay with you."
Now with Donovan out of touch for three days and a young woman crashing his car today, Laurie regretted ever saying anything to her mother. If she hadn't said anything, she wouldn't be so anxious about returning her mother's phone call.
>> Makiki Heights
If it wasn't such a crying shame, HPD Detective Sherlock Gomes thought, it would have been comical. When Sen. Donovan Matsuda-Yee-Dela Cruz-Bishop-Kamaka was finished explaining quite convincingly that he had no idea how his friend Serena Kawainui had gotten the crystal methamphetamine that was in her system when she crashed the senator's car off the Keeaumoku Overpass, Sherlock Gomes looked up from the notepad in which he'd been writing the senator's statement.
"Really. That's good to know, Senator. So could you explain that little glass pipe over there on the corner table?"
It was like a sucker punch. The senator doubled over, hugging himself, moaning softly.
The pipe gave the great Gomes a moral dilemma. He was who he was because of one man, Vern Matsuda, his old math teacher and wrestling coach at Leilehua High. Vern Matsuda was the one who had seen something in young Sherlock Gomes that he himself didn't know was there, a superior mind, and challenged and nurtured that mind. He made learning fun. And he believed in Sherlock.
And if a man as great as Vern Matsuda believed in you, how could you not believe in yourself? Of the many lessons he'd learned from Mr. Matsuda, that was the greatest.
The problem was that this great shaper of lives was also the late father of Sen. Donovan Matsuda-Yee-Dela Cruz-Bishop-Kamaka, who suddenly felt the world closing in on him and found breathing difficult.
Don Chapman is editor of MidWeek.
His serialized novel runs daily in the Star-Bulletin
with weekly summaries on Sunday.
He can be emailed at dchapman@midweek.com