My Kind of Town
>> Queen's Medical Center 12 minutes only
Between the Samoan cabbie chasing her into the ER parking lot, rear-ending her and trying to drag her out the window by the throat, and then her cousin Quinn sneak-attacking the guy in a wheelchair and grappling with him on the ground, Lily Ah Sun had rather forgotten why she was back at Queen's. Now, waiting in the ER lot for Detective Sherlock Gomes to ask her some questions, she suddenly remembered: To meet her brother Lance's lover Greg.
Yikes, she was already 15 minutes late.
"Tell the detective I'll be upstairs in my brother's room," Lily said to Nina Ramones. The off-duty nurse was also waiting to be questioned by Gomes, who at the moment was inside the ER.
"Sure," Nina said, glad to see her go. There was definitely more than just cousinhood going on between her and Quinn. Lily was definitely a threat. And Nina already felt awful with guilt and remorse. She was born to nurse, born to heal, and now she'd caused Quinn to reinjure his leg. If she hadn't pushed him out into the ER lot to get some fresh air and sunshine, he wouldn't have reopened the wound. And the cabbie might have choked his cousin.
Which wasn't that bad of a thought, actually.
>> Arizona Memorial -- Theater 2
It came as no surprise to Muhammed Resurreccion when the female ranger who was introducing the movie said they'd have 12 minutes only at the Memorial. Of course he knew that. One of his people, Rey Orlando, had visited three times in recent months. Muhammed knew the script. But hearing the ranger say it now -- 12 minutes at the Memorial -- it rang like an alarm. But that's all he would need. A violent act, a powerful statement for his people on Mindanao, delivered wrapped in a symbol of peace.
Muhammed glanced at the bouquet of flowers lying across the lap of Rosalita, his late cousin Jesus' widow. When the time came, her little daughter Elizabeth would place the flowers in front of the big marble wall that spelled out the names of the Arizona crewmen killed on Dec. 7, 1941. Cutest little terrorist in the world. Even if she didn't know it.
"Once you get out to the Memorial," the female ranger was saying, "ask the ranger there about the flower policy."
The policy out there didn't matter. Once his flowers were on the Memorial, he'd won. Ah, but on second thought, maybe it would be better if he did not make the boat trip out with the girls. If a ranger had a problem with the flowers, well, Muhammed didn't mind becoming a martyr on the spot. But if it wasn't necessary, why?
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