My Kind of Town
>> Portlock Don’t bother knocking
From the black SUV with tinted windows parked in the shade of a banyan tree, Tai, Seth and Willie watched as Mickey left the faded gray sedan just 30 yards away from them. It was all Seth could do not to jump out and slam this creep Mickey and their aufoga would be over.
But as his cousin Tai said, they had him now, and on a dead-end street. They could take him at any time. But this rotten punk was up to something, and it was interesting to watch. Maybe by waiting they could really mess him up.
It was as obvious from his piece-of-bleep car as his attire -- old rubber slippers, black surf shorts hung low to show the tops of his BVDs and a navy "Eh!" T-shirt cut short to show his stretch-marked beer gut -- that Mickey did not belong in the neighborhood. But he acted like he did, walked three houses down, up the driveway and tried the front door. It opened.
"I think our friend Mickey just got lucky," Wili said from the backseat.
"How you know he's not doing some work there?" said Seth.
"In those clothes? And if he's working there, why he cruise the place twice, then park three houses away?"
>> Queen's Medical Center
One of the greatest dangers from a severe blow to the head is that it can affect respiration. No sooner had the paramedics wheeled Lance Ah Sun through the doors of the ER than he stopped breathing. But he was in the best possible place.
"Let's get him tubed," said ER physician Dr. Laurie Tang.
>> Honolulu Ironworks
"See ya, ladies," Lt. Col. Chuck Ryan said as he got up from the bench press machine and wiped the sweat from his brow. And waving the towel on his way out, "Nice to meet you."
"Hey, Chuck, why don't you join us in the bar?!" Shauny called. Like her friend Lily, she had taken one look at Ryan -- lean, fit, confident, and that erect posture -- and thought "military." Unlike Lily, Shauny didn't have anything against older guys. Graying hair at the temples was actually kind of sexy.
"Thanks," he said. "You're on."
"But you might have to wait about two hours for us to get beautiful!" Shauny said.
"I'm betting a whole lot less than that," he said, smiling that country boy smile. And focusing on Fawn: "But I'll wait."
"What a nice man," Fawn said after Ryan walked through the door to the men's locker room. "A gentleman."
"An officer and a gentleman, I'm betting," said Lily.
"What a butt!" said Shauny. "Mm-mm-mm."
Don Chapman is editor of MidWeek.
His serialized novel runs daily in the Star-Bulletin.
He can be emailed at dchapman@midweek.com