My Kind of Town
Guilt trip
>> Queen's Medical Center
It was bad enough that they wouldn't let Greg ride in the ambulance with Lance when they took him to the ER. Instead the police wanted to question Greg. Now at the ER entrance, they wouldn't tell him anything. He wasn't next of kin. Family had to be notified first. If they were married, it would be different.Greg was angry and frustrated and worried for his lover. But mostly he was feeling the albatross of guilt. It was all his fault. Hadn't he insisted that Lance join him at the hate crimes bill rally, and made it clear that their relationship depended on it? And Lance, sweet, innocent, unpolitical, cared enough to come. And then it was like Greg told HPD Officer Quinn Ah Sun. They'd just entered the Capitol grounds from Hotel Street, and there was shouting back forth with a band of Gabbardites, but everything was OK, he and Lance were walking arm-in-arm until a big skinhead lunged at them and threw a punch at Lance. He dodged it but tripped in the crowd and fell awkwardly, Greg reaching out in vain to catch him. Lance fell and hit the back of his head on a concrete curb with the sound of splatting pumpkins.
It was all Greg's fault. And nobody would even tell him if Lance was alive or dead.
>> The Philippines
At the Zamboanga office of Infitada Inc., Muhammed Resurreccion had to smile. His plan was adjusting nicely to a little hitch.It was supposed to have been Joseph Estrada who represented the nation at the Pacific Rim Inter-Defense Coalition meeting, until he got himself impeached and imprisoned. Estrada, the actor who stole millions of dollars from a nation full of starving people after promising to help them. And when it was revealed he took millions more in payoffs from gambling lords, Estrada said he had placed the money in a scholarship fund for Muslim youth -- a fund that didn't exist! Another slap at his people.
Too bad Estrada would not be coming to Hawaii. His successor Gloria Macapagal Arroyo would have to do. And hadn't she recently declared war on his people? Yes, Gloria would do very well indeed when they made their statement to the world.
He checked his watch. Time to leave for the airport, his ticket paid with funds that came to him from Afghanistan by way of Indonesia. A quick hop to Cebu, then Manila for a meetings with colleagues there.
Their street bombing campaign was going well, further destabilizing the new government. But it was baby stuff compared to what Muhammed would accomplish in Hawaii.
Don Chapman is editor of MidWeek.
His serialized novel runs daily in the Star-Bulletin.
He can be emailed at dchapman@midweek.com