My Kind of Town
>> Portlock Guilt and gratitude
The paramedics wanted to take Rosalita to the ER -- not so much for the cuts which turned out to be superficial, but because she had taken two blows to the head and had been knocked unconscious. Elizabeth insisted on riding in the ambulance with "my Mama."
And Lily didn't have her car -- her cousin Quinn had driven her home because she'd gotten drunk this afternoon with her friend Shauny -- so Lily rode in the ambulance too. Quinn, who had saved Rosalita from being raped and took a .22 in the thigh in the process and been taken away by the first ambulance, his brown skin so pale, his lips that minutes before had been so warm on her's suddenly so cold.
Riding in the back of the ambulance, Lily was overwhelmed with guilt. This was all her fault. If she hadn't gotten drunk, if she hadn't called Quinn to drive her home, he wouldn't have gotten shot.
But then she thought about what that creep would have done if Quinn wasn't there -- Lily, Rosalita and Elizabeth were all at risk -- and it made her shiver. And she knew that, cousin or no cousin, she would spend the rest of her life finding ways to show her gratitude and love to Quinn.
>> 37,000 feet
This was an 11-hour flight from Manila to Honolulu, and he needed the sleep for the task that lay ahead, but Muhammed Resurreccion had a hard time sleeping on planes. It may have had something to do with his combining business and terrorism. As the Zamboanga-based owner of five Internet cafes scattered around Mindanao, he liked to check personally on his investments. That also gave him the perfect cover to dispense information, instruction, encouragement and pesos to the warriors in The People's cause -- to help them "make a statement."
On this trip to Hawaii, they would make their loudest statement of all. He should have tried sleeping, but he couldn't help running through his mental checklist again and ... again stopped when he got to Rosalita, the widow of Muhammed's late cousin Jesus, and how Rosalita and her daughter Elizabeth would help make that loud, loud statement possible.
It was always a pity when war involved children. But it could not be helped, especially this time. Elizabeth was just 6 years old, but she was the key to his plan. She would not be the first or the last child who suffered from war. Yes, she was a Christian, but Allah would bless her for her sacrifice. She would have her reward.
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