My Kind of Town
>> Queen's Medical Center Hard to talk
Quinn Ah Sun lay supine in his bed, his cousin Lily leaning over him, their need to hold tight together fighting the need to pull back and look into the other's eyes. The words, the emotions, the tears poured out in a wet jumble, Lily and Quinn whispering passionately, kisses tumbled together with sobs and laughter, hands dancing lightly from faces to parts unseen.
Lily was blubbering, unable to finish a sentence, her thoughts running into the next one like a pileup on the freeway. And besides, it's hard to talk with somebody else's lips on yours. "Oh, Quinn, I'm so sorry ..." For last night at her home, where Quinn was shot by an intruder trying to rape Lily's maid Rosalita. "I'm so glad ..." That the gunshot wound to his right thigh was neither life- nor career-threatening. "Now that I've found you again ..." After 21 years with no contact. "You just don't know ..." How deep her longing for him ran. "You're coming home ..." With Lily when he was released from the hospital. "Ho'ola blessed us ..." The goddess of life. "It's OK ..." For the first cousins to be husband and wife.
Quinn was gasping for words and breath. Lily's tears rolled down her cheeks and onto his, and it was such an unusual experience that at first he didn't realize moisture was coming from his eyes too. But once the floodgates burst, there was no holding back the tears that had been dammed up for so long. The dynamite was the longing, the love, the knowing in his soul that Lily was all he ever wanted in life, the brush with death last night, the fear of losing her again. Hard to believe, but Quinn was even less coherent than she. "Lily ... Oh Lily ... You ... It's OK ... Really ... You ... Oh my God ... This is all I ... Yes ... Yes, Lily, yes ... I love you."
"I love you too," she said, sliding onto the bed, lying down beside Quinn, throwing one leg over his, but rather too rambunctiously.
"Ahhhh!" he cried out it pain.
She had accidentally bumped the right leg, the wounded one. And the painkillers were wearing off. He gasped and winced.
"Oh, I'm so sorry," she said as he buzzed for a nurse.
But when she tried to get up from the bed, he kept one arm around her and pulled her close. "Stay right here. Please."
Lily didn't need to be asked twice. She snuggled closer, rested her head on Quinn's big, strong arm and shoulder.
That's where they were when nurse Nina Ramones hurried in with the meds.
Nina, newly divorced, didn't know if she was more disgusted with this woman so wantonly sharing a bed with her cousin or if jealousy was the predominant emotion.
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