My Kind of Town
Busted, apparently
>> Queen's Medical Center
Lily Ah Sun expected her cousin Quinn to be sleeping, so she didn't bother knocking on his door. And what she saw when she opened it softly, well ... any other woman in the world and Lily would have thrown something at her!
But Lily knew the tall, brown, naked woman leaning over her cousin Quinn. And she knew the scent of eucalyptus and ginger and sea brine that filled the room. So Lily was happy to see the woman touching Quinn's bare thigh and whispering as her nose touched his.
Lily watched with a knowing smile until the woman stood up.
"So I see, Quinn," Lily said softly, "that you've met Ho'ola."
Quinn jumped at the sound of her voice, a look of panic spreading over his face. My God, he'd never been so busted in his whole life!
"Actually, I hadn't introduced myself yet," the goddess of life said breathlessly. "I sort of got ahead of myself."
Quinn had that effect on women. Even goddesses, it appeared.
"It's OK, Quinn," Lily said, kissing his cheek. "This is Ho'ola, goddess of life. Rescuer, preserver, healer."
"What?" he said shakily, his reality seriously rattled.
"It's true," Ho'ola said, her voice ringing like sacred music. She took Lily's hand in one of her big but graceful hands, Quinn's in the other, shared her breath of life with the cousins. "You have my blessings."
Ho'ola brought their hands together, turned to leave, stopped at the door.
"But, Lily, remember what I told you."
Lily nodded -- rather sadly, Quinn thought.
"What did she tell you?" he said when Ho'ola was gone.
"Let's worry about it later," she sighed and fell into his arms, pressing her face into his neck. "I'm just so glad that you're OK!"
>> Surely, Mits Ah Sun thought, a quick hello couldn't do anything to free the secret that he and his brother Sheets had carried for 21 years, the secret that had kept their families apart for all those years. So when the elevator stopped at the lobby level, Mits stayed inside and pushed the button for the ICU.
Arriving at the ICU nursing station, Mits asked for the room of Lance Ah Sun and inquired if the young man's parents were visiting. They were. Mits' heart began to race.
In his 30 years with HPD, he'd walked down some dark spooky alleys, chased an armed rapist through a cane field, pursued stolen vehicles in high-speed chases. But nothing made his heart race and his stomach churn like the thought of seeing his big brother for the first time in 21 years.
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