My Kind of Town
>> Royal Hawaiian Hotel What a pair
A man who thought he'd already made love for the last time.
A woman who wondered if she ever would.
The widower and the virgin. What a pair.
Waiting for the valet to bring his rental car, Chuck Ryan fingered her business card -- Fawn Nakamura, Office Manager -- punched in the number for the Full Faith Gospel Fellowship. She answered on the third ring.
"Hi, how's your day going?"
"Oh, Chuck, it's so sweet of you to call!"
Sweet. Imagine that. Him.
"I was just thinking about you," she continued.
"That's two of us."
"You were thinking about yourself too?" she teased.
"No no," he said and had to laugh. "Thinking about you."
"I'm glad. How about you, how's your day?"
"The strangest thing happened when I was ..." He paused, looking for the right excuse. "... out for a run this morning at Ala Moana Beach park."
Ryan hated lying to Fawn. Still a virgin at 27, she radiated purity. But lying was part of his job description. That's why he'd told her that he was into international investments and head-hunting. One day he'd have to tell her the truth, that he was in fact Commander Chuck Ryan, Navy intelligence officer.
But now he spoke honestly of the World War II-vintage Japanese mini-sub that ran aground, driven by a skeleton. He didn't mention that after hearing about it on the news, he'd run over to investigate.
"How spooky!" Fawn exclaimed and said a silent prayer for the world.
"I know. Anyway, my client from the Philippines has arrived, but if it's possible I'd like to see you for dinner. The problem is the meeting might run late, so we have to play it by ear."
"You have my cell number, right?"
"Right here."
"Other than stopping by our homeless mission on the way home, I don't have plans tonight. Just call and let me know what's happening."
Ryan hit the off button just as the valet appeared with his champagne Intrepid. As he tipped the kid, Ryan's phone rang with the opening bars of "Stars and Stripes Forever." Pulling out of the port cochere, he listened as Lt. Martin Luther Washington gave him a status report.
Ryan's "client from the Philippines" was on the move again. He'd picked up a young woman and a small girl in Hawaii Kai. They'd stopped to buy flowers in Aina Haina. They were on Kalanianaole again, heading toward town.
"Stay on the line," Ryan said. "I'm on the road and I want to get on your tail."
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