My Kind of Town
My Kind of Town
>> Queen's Medical Center Cheek to cheek
Sheets Ah Sun's final thoughts before the lights went out were: I bet on the wrong damn kid ... All that money I gave Stanford Business to educate Laird so he'd take over the Honolulu Soap Co. and run it for me... And now he's going off to Afghanistan to teach Christianity and Capitalism to the mujahadeen?...
How can a guy with a new masters degree be so fricking stupid? ... Lily, she's the one I should have bet on. The one who's most like me, smart and tough ... And she's not even my real ...
If you're going to have a heart attack, the lobby at Queen's is one of your better venues. So it was just seconds until a doctor was at Sheets' side, an oxygen mask was strapped onto his face, somebody was pumping his chest, and Sheets was being wheeled away.
Laird followed, hoping this wouldn't mess up his plans to meet Christian X.O. St. James in New York day after tomorrow for the trip to Kabul.
>> Lily Ah Sun knocked and without waiting for an answer opened the door to her cousin Quinn's room. He was in his bed talking on the phone. Well, listening on the phone. He motioned to her, and she went to his side, kissed his cheek softly.
"Hey, Mom, say hi to your niece!" He handed her the phone.
Mom? It had been 16 years since Quinn had seen his mother. "Auntie Flo? It's so nice to hear you! How's Vegas?"
"I've been on a 16-year winning streak, dear, I'm happy to say. I'm also very happy to hear that you and Quinn are talking again."
"Me too," she replied, squeezed her cousin's hand. "I'd love to catch up with you, but you and Quinn should talk."
Quinn took the phone back. "Mom, I want Lily to hear everything you're saying about Bobo too. We're going to share the phone, so talk loud, OK?"
Lily was forced to sit on Quinn's bed, the phone resting between their ears, their bodies pressed together from cheek to thigh.
Flo quickly recounted how Bobo Ah Sun had been hanai'd by the grandparents of Lily and Quinn's fathers. Ah Sun was not his birth name.
"He didn't come until he was, oh, 9 or 10, he came with some problems. That's where Bobo came from, after Bobo Olson, he was always getting in fights. But he did OK for himself. He was a singer, you know."
"I found a bunch of references to him in the newspapers, especially the columns," Lily said. "Speaking of the papers, I just got back from some research at the library. Quinn, the last time they mentioned Bobo was that postcard, saying he wasn't dead."
Don Chapman is editor of MidWeek.
His serialized novel runs daily in the Star-Bulletin
with weekly summaries on Sunday.
He can be e-mailed at dchapman@midweek.com