My Kind of Town
The Honolulu Soap Co.:
The Sunday Digest>> Makiki Heights
Maybe Serena just went for a walk, Sen. Donovan Matsuda-Yee-Dela Cruz-Bishop-Kamaka figures. She certainly isn't anywhere in the hillside hideaway he keeps for her, paid for with campaign funds.After he showers until the water runs cold, the Democrats' best hope of maintaining their leasehold on Washington Place beyond next year considers calling Grace at his Capitol office. He's been out of touch for a few days now. But the pipe on the coffee table is beckoning. And after a few puffs, he sort of forgets about that other world.
>> State Capitol Grounds
As he wades into the melee, HPD Officer Quinn Ah Sun keys his helmet microphone and calls for an ambulance and backup. Quinn has broken up fights in Chinatown, Waikiki, Kaneohe, Kalihi, but he's never seen anything like these gay guys swarm Skinhead. Well, Skinhead had it coming after his initial attack caused a young man in the hate crimes bill rally to fall and hit his head on the edge of a concrete curb.As Quinn applies the cuffs and reads Skinhead his rights, he wonders how Prosecutor Peter Carlisle's office will handle this one. Judging from the head injury to the kid on the ground, Quinn guesses manslaughter. He's seen lesser blows kill. How could Quinn have known the kid is his cousin Lance, born soon after their fathers quit speaking 21 years ago?
>> State Capitol
Watching the demonstrators approaching the Capitol from the office of her boss, Sen. Donovan Matsuda-Yee-Dela Cruz-Bishop-Kamaka, Grace Ah Sun gasps as a fight breaks out. She's seen plenty of demonstrations in her years at the Capitol, but nothing like this. Grace hears a siren, sees an ambulance driving across the Capitol lawn, unaware the siren wails for her youngest son Lance.
>> Honolulu Soap Co.
If he had to do it all over again, Sheets Ah Sun would. And for the same reason, his wife Grace's honor. But Sheets would do one thing different. He would not have disposed of the evidence in that chemical dump pit. The site was out in the boonies 21 years ago. Who'd have thought the population of the Windward side would grow so much that the city would drill a well way out in Waimanalo and find it contaminated by the nearby pit?
>> Honolulu Iron Works
It isn't her beauty or curves or coffee-with-cream skin that catches Lt. Col. Chuck Ryan's attention. It's her anger. Ryan has just stood up from the bench press machine when she stalks past him, adjusts the weights and slams off 12 quick ones."Uh, don't you warm up first?"
She stares bullets. The last thing she needs is another man old enough to be her father telling her what she cannot do!
"Hey, it's none of my business," he says and starts to back away before she nukes. "Sorry."
She takes a deep breath, and not from the exercise. "You're right. I know better. I was thinking about ... things."
"It showed. Did you know there was steam coming out of your ears?"
She has to laugh. "Was I that obvious?"
"Afraid so," he says, offering his right hand. "Hi, Chuck Ryan."
"Lily Ah Sun," she replies, shakes his hand. "Thanks for the reminder."
"I just hate to see people get hurt."
Don Chapman is editor of MidWeek.
His serialized novel runs daily in the Star-Bulletin.
He can be emailed at dchapman@midweek.com