My Kind of Town
Taking it personal
>> Portlock
Parked in a black SUV three doors down from Lily Ah Sun's home on the other side of the street, Tai, Seth and Wili heard three gunshots."What I told you?" Wili said from the back seat. "I told you things was going get interesting, brah."
They had seen it all. They'd been following Mickey from this morning, on a traditional aufogo after he ripped off Seth's daughter. They'd seen him tailing a woman in a teal BMW, then they followed him here, watched him enter a home and not long after saw the same woman come home with a guy. They were also the first to hear the approaching sirens.
"Stay tuned, brah," Wili said.
>> In Quinn Ah Sun's line of work, the disharmonious harmony of competing police and ambulance sirens was part of the soundtrack of his life. But he'd never taken it personal before. A .22 slug to the thigh will do that. Quinn was feeling lightheaded from loss of blood, and the adrenaline that at first made it easy to ignore the pain was receding. Shock was setting in. Plus, the guy who had been trying to rape Lily's Filipina maid and who Quinn had just shot in the groin was still dangerous. Quinn knew a wounded beast when he saw one, and knew the danger.
Quinn had kept the line open to HPD dispatch and was using his cell's earpiece-microphone: "Roger, Central, we're under control, but three individuals need a 10-10 (ambulance). That's 10-11 (expedite immediately)."
>> 2002 Wilder
It wasn't the usual ER, but it was a surgery room, the corners lost in mist, and Dr. Laurie Tang was wearing her scrubs and mask, and her favorite charge nurse Van Truong was there with her, and the woman on the table was screaming, but they still do in childbirth, and Laurie noticed that half the woman's face was covered with bandages, and then she gave a final push and there in Dr. Laurie's surgical gloves was a baby boy, and she wiped away a bit of blood and afterbirth from his face and nearly dropped him, because the baby had the face of Donovan and with his most charming smile said, "Hey, Laurie, I've been meaning to call, you know."Laurie awoke with a gasp. She could figure out the dream easily enough. It started when the young woman who had crashed Sen. Donovan Matsuda-Yee-Dela Cruz-Bishop-Kamaka's car off the Keeaumoku Overpass was brought to the ER and whispered to Laurie, "Please save the baby." Laurie guessed why, but she wanted to hear it from Donovan.
Don Chapman is editor of MidWeek.
His serialized novel runs daily in the Star-Bulletin
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