My Kind of Town
The happiest girl
>> Queen's Medical Center
Gwen Roselovich pushed the elevator button for Quinn's floor, still not believing the good luck that came with HPD Sgt. Mits Ah Sun's call to her at Dispatch this morning. Such luck was the last thing she expected when he'd said, "I need a favor. I don't know if you heard about Quinn."
"I did. I'm so sorry!"
Mits heard the sincerity in her voice. There was no secret in the department about Gwen's mad crush on Quinn.
"Listen, could you look in on Quinn for me? With the big celebration at the stadium today for everybody's favorite columnist's birthday, no way I'm getting there until late."
"No problem," Gwen said breathlessly. "I'll run over during lunch."
"Thanks. And then give me a call, let me know how he's doing."
"Glad to," she'd said, her heart racing so madly you could see it beating through the quivering cleavage spilling out of her clingy top.
Gwen stepped off the elevator on Quinn's floor, the happiest girl in the world. After all, hadn't Quinn's father just given his blessing for her and Quinn to be together? So it didn't matter a bit what that other little b-i-t-c-h she'd met in Quinn's room last night had to say about it.
>> The words Grace Ah Sun had been whispering non-stop into the ear of her unconscious son Lance for the past hour were partly prayers to every deity she knew, partly exhortation to get well, partly lots of I-love-yous. She'd been encouraged earlier this morning when, for the first time since going into a coma nearly 24 hours earlier, Lance twitched and moaned softly. Even the doctor said that was a good sign, but added that Lance wasn't out of the woods yet. That's why at the moment Grace was praying to the Druid wood spirits. "Bring my son back to me," she implored, "out of the woods."
That's when Lance's eyes fluttered open, focused on Grace, and his lips moved. "Onhgm," he said, but she read his lips and knew he was trying to say "Mom."
"Thank you!" exclaimed the newest Druid convert.
>> Lily Ah Sun made a point of remembering that she parked her teal BMW on floor 4A in the parking garage so she wouldn't lose it like she did this morning. But come to think of it, that had worked out well. It was while looking for her car that she'd overheard her father and Uncle Mits talking -- the first time that had happened in 21 years. Gathering up the copies of news stories pertaining to the Ah Suns she'd just copied at the State Library, Lily wondered what Uncle Mits meant when he said he had a plan to keep her away from Quinn. Hmph! Didn't matter. Wouldn't work.
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