My Kind of Town
>> Makiki Heights Knock three times
To say that Sen. Donovan Matsuda-Yee-Dela Cruz-Bishop-Kamaka was getting edgy is to say that Captain Cook is getting dead -- it happened some time ago. Three days of smoking ice will do that. To take some edge off, he took another hit on the pakalolo pipe, grabbed another longneck Bud from the fridge. The first six-pack had gone down smoothly. Three to go. Down below, the lights of the city were coming on. The senator liked this time of day at the hillside hideaway he kept for Serena. Darkness was falling. He felt invisible. Out of sight, out of mind.
That's when he heard the knock on the door. One, two, three. His heart raced nearly out of control. It must be Serena coming home to make up! She knocked three times! He headed for the door.
>> Portlock
Peeking around the doorway of the kitchen, clutching a big kitchen knife, Mickey watched the Filipina maid walk back out through the sliding screen door and across the yard to a cottage, from which he had just heard a phone ring and then a young girl's voice call out "Mama! It's Auntie Lily!"
At the moment he was wearing just a towel -- he thought he was alone when he'd broken in and made himself at home. He even took a plunge in the pool. Some people might see the maid and the child as problems. Mickey, in his twisted way, saw them as opportunities. He liked this knife he'd found in the kitchen, the way it felt in his hands. But he liked the .22 he'd left in the master bedroom better. Knife in one hand, Mickey grabbed a bottle of red wine and a corkscrew from the counter with the other and walked quickly back to his gun. And his ice pipe, which also beckoned. But already his heart was racing with the possibilities that lay ahead.
>> Kailua
Her husband had made Grace Ah Sun feel pretty. She knew she was an attractive woman, but this was different, a feeling that only the man you've known and loved for 28 years can give. Yes, it had been the first time they had made love since she couldn't remember when. But it was also the most passion she had ever felt. It wasn't just love making, it was love giving.
After showering, Grace pulled on a silk robe Sheets had given her years ago for Valentines Day. He had fallen asleep in the bed -- and didn't he deserve it. She smiled, and practically danced down the hall as she went to check on a message from Queen's that Sheets said came in just before she got home.
Don Chapman is editor of MidWeek.
His serialized novel runs daily in the Star-Bulletin
with weekly summaries on Sunday.
He can be emailed at dchapman@midweek.com