My Kind of Town
>>The Queen's Medical Center Let’s get drunk
ER physician Dr. Laurie Tang had seen it before -- no ID, no name, no past, and not much of a future judging from the little she knew about the patient who had been pulled from the senator's crashed car and would be known as 46-225909. It would be Dr. Tang's job to make sure that the young woman would have a future. What 46-225909 chose to make of it would be up to her.
The moment 46-225909 had been wheeled through the doors of the ER, the trauma team went to work, each with her or his own duties. Right now they were trying to find out the extent of her injuries. The faceful of glass and a broken arm were obvious. It was the internal injuries Dr. Tang worried about. Especially a head injury, which could lead to serious respiration problems.
>>Honolulu Soap Co.
The Bellagio card dispenser that held her pastel business cards made a statement: Lily was a player. She liked Vegas, the lights, the action, the smell of money. When a visitor came to her office, she'd say "Let me deal you one of these" and slip a card from the dispenser with a graceful sweep of fingers that was as much lovely hula hands as pit boss savvy. In fact, she'd received the dispenser from a pit boss after she won $8,450 at blackjack last year on a trip with Shauny. He sure didn't want it any more.
Lily was getting a promotion, she needed new cards. It was a promotion that would have thrilled most people. But it only angered Lily. Her urge to fling the card dispenser at the wall rose, then quickly ebbed. Lily was too much like her father to do that. Too much of a control freak, including controlling her own emotions, which ran deep.
And that was what hurt and angered her most. Of Sheets Ah Sun's three children, she was most like him. She was also his eldest child. But in his Old World view, it was the eldest son who inherited leadership, daughters be damned.
It was only 10:30 a.m., but Lily's work day was pau already.
But first she had to make a couple of calls.
"Shauny, hey, me. I feel like getting drunk, but I'm going to work out first."
"Sounds good to me!" Shauny almost always spoke in exclamation points.
"I ought to be at the club in 45 minutes."
"Great, I want to get out of here! You know who is back!"
"The former trustee who is now in the legislature?"
"The cheating slimeball himself! Gives me the creeps! See ya soon!"
Don Chapman is editor of MidWeek.
His serialized novel runs daily in the Star-Bulletin.
He can be emailed at dchapman@midweek.com