My Kind of Town
Family secrets
>>Honolulu Soap Co.
Sheets Ah Sun closed the 42-page proposal from his daughter Lily and set it on his old metal desk. It was good. Very good. Lily knew her stuff. Sheets leaned back and slowly rocked in his old chair, its rusty squeak his mantra.The problem was, he'd already made up his mind. Years ago. There was a reason he'd sent his eldest son Laird to Stanford, and not the family's eldest child.
He wondered what Lily might have done with the same opportunity. Probably very well. But that was not an option her father provided. Sheets had given Lily a good life and a good education at Punahou. But she would never be Laird. Things were just different with Lily.
>>Cartwright Field
HPD Officer Quinn Ah Sun leaped from his BMW superbike. He couldn't see inside the yellow Town Car through the dark tinted windows. He hated tinted windows. One of the most powerful men in Hawaii was probably inside the car. Quinn had to reach him and whoever else might be in there.But he also needed witnesses. Why was the senator's car lying upside down on the first base line? A crowd was quickly gathering.
"O.K., who saw what happened?"
>>Democrat Street
It was a big day for news already, and the latest radio report of a chemical dump site -- this one in Waimanalo --reminded Lily of exactly why her company, Ola Essences, was so important. Lily made phyto-cosmetics and perfumes, derived from actual plants and flowers, not the usual petroleum- or animal-based gunk women have been putting on their faces for years. And she encouraged the many farmers to grow organic cucumber, papaya, aloe, pineapple, ginger, gardenia, plumeria and roses. Lily's products were as good for the Earth as for people.As Lily pulled into the Honolulu Soap Co. plant on Democrat Street, she flashed back to the beginnings. Her father had been a supporter of the Democratic Party in the early days of its ascent, and when space opened on Democrat, Sheets Ah Sun happily moved in.
If it were up to Lily, they'd move a block mauka to Republican. But she was too smart to talk politics with her father. She only wanted to talk business. Which is why she was a secret Republican.
>>Eden Off Kuhio
"Do you mean it?" Greg asked hopefully, still dripping wet from the shower."I am so serious," Lance said. "Totally. I want you to come with me to my brother Laird's graduation."
"With your family?"
"It's a family occasion. That's why I want you there."
"Oh, Lance, you are serious about us!"
Don Chapman is editor of MidWeek.
His serialized novel runs daily in the Star-Bulletin.
He can be emailed at dchapman@midweek.com