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My Kind of Town Don Chapman |
No revolution today
>> Off the Big Island
From the moment the yacht Wet Spot rounded Pueo Point and Pele's Bath came into distant view, Sonya Chan figured they had about 20 minutes before it was time to drop the anchor.
Twenty minutes to decide the fates of her 12 Filipina passengers. Twenty minutes until Sushi Leclaire would be rounding them up, loading them into the rental van and taking them to a house in the hills above Kona to star on his new porn Web site.
Sonya had some fairly strong feelings on this subject, having appeared topless in Pet House magazine's "Girls of Hawaii 2001" pictorial -- and subsequently being shocked and sickened to learn what some men did while looking at her photo.
"Magdalena, call all the girls, please," Sonya said from the wheel. And soon all 12 were standing and sitting around her.
"That's where we're going," Sonya said, pointing to Pele's Bath, eliciting excited chatter and cheers.
For the first time she noticed the smoke on the hill above Pele's Bath, saw a fresh streak of black lava winding down the slope. Was Pele returning to Pele's Bath? If so, they'd better hurry.
"We'll be there in just a few minutes, but I have to tell you something,"
Sonya said. "You don't have to go with Sushi. None of you do. You're about to land in America, nobody can control you."
"But what else can we do?" Magdalena said.
"You can stay with me. I'm about to become very wealthy. Like millions of dollars, OK? And I can help you. We'll get you green cards or going to college, whatever you like."
"What do you mean 'about to become' a millionaire?" Poinsettia said.
"It's complicated, it involves Daren ..." She cut herself off. The less they knew the better.
"But it is not, how you say, a deal done?" Magdalena said.
"Almost, but ... no, not a done deal."
"Sushi is nice man, he takes good care of us," said Agnes, the one who had fallen in love with the Japanese fisherman Hideki aboard the trawler Tuna Maru. "I like him."
Others murmured in agreement that Sushi was a good man.
"He offered a better life than we had in Manilla," Magdalena said.
"No sex with stranger man, just dancing!" Poinsettia added cheerfully.
"And three TV sets!" Agnes chirped.
They were not revolutionaries. They were choosing the known over the unknown. And they were right, Sonya knew. Getting Daren's Lotto and insurance millions was far from being, how you say, a deal done.
"OK, ladies," she said, one hand on the wheel, the other on her spear gun, "Good luck. Anybody changes their mind, speak up."
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Don Chapman is editor of MidWeek. His serialized novel runs daily in the Star-Bulletin. He can be e-mailed at dchapman@midweek.com