My Kind of Town
>> Ala Moana Beach Park No can help
Sharing a park bench, HPD Detective Sherlock Gomes and Dr. Laurie Tang from Queen's ER were paying so much attention to one another, the old guy kind of snuck up on them. Gomes didn't like it and mentally kicked his own okole.
You never get surprised in a public place! Keep your eyes moving at all times! And more so with that crowd gathering at the water's edge to see the WWII-vintage mini-sub that had surfaced minutes before. Even more so sitting here in swim shorts, his short-barrel Glock 9mm in its ankle holster in his car. Gomes' basic rule -- it's what he told the rookies and would teach his son if he ever had one -- was "Be aware, of everything, at all times." And he'd just broken that rule. All because of this wahine. He couldn't take his eyes off Dr. Laurie Tang.
At least he was aware enough to notice that Dr. Tang couldn't seem to take her eyes off him, either. Something was going on here.
"Some people over there ..." The old guy, dressed in a faded T-shirt, faded Stubbies and worn zoris, nodded toward the swelling crowd. "... they're saying you saw a naked woman inside the sub."
"Yes, she was kind of glowing," Laurie said excitedly, "And then she came up out of the hatch ..."
"And just disappeared." The old guy finished her sentence.
Gomes' cop instincts kicked in. "What's it to you?"
"I know this woman."
Laurie and Gomes exchanged a glance. Maybe this old guy was crazier than they were.
"Her name is Ho'ola."
"You saw her too?" Laurie wanted to know.
She had been in the final yards of her swim when the sub with the Rising Sun painted on the hull surfaced out of nowhere, lifting Laurie out of the water, and she rode the sub rodeo style as it beached itself at the Diamond Head end of the park. Gomes, waiting to ask Laurie about her relationship with Sen. Donovan Matsuda-Yee-Dela Cruz-Bishop-Kamaka, jumped up onto the sub and after much effort was able to twist open the exterior latches to the sub's lone hatch.
"All my life I wanted to see that wahine, and today I did." Jimmy Ahuna was glowing too.
"But why," Laurie said, "didn't anyone else see her?"
"She's a goddess."
"And?" Gomes said impatiently.
"She only reveals herself to whoever she wants to reveal herself."
This was too much for the super-logical Gomes. "I'd like a better explanation than that."
"I no can help that, bruddah."
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