My Kind of Town
>> Queen's Medical Center Twisted love
"I was OK until Donovan like said the A-word," Serena Kawainui said from the hospital bed. She spoke without moving her jaw -- that would hurt too much, what with all the stitches in her face.
"The A-word?" HPD Detective Sherlock Gomes replied.
"Yeah, like, abortion."
HPD Detective Sherlock Gomes was recording their conversation, but he wrote "abortion" in his notepad. Also written in Gomes' tight, precise script was "Sen. pays mortgage, bills" and "Serena scores drugs from old friends."
"Abortion," Gomes said. And then hopefully, "You're Catholic?"
"No, that's got nothing to do with it. No no no. I was like abandoned ..."
Gomes recalled Sen. Donovan Matsuda-Yee-Dela Cruz-Bishop-Kamaka telling him that Serena had grown up in a series of foster homes.
"... more than once, OK? I always said, the one thing I'm gonna do if I ever like have my own kid is never turn my back on it. And the way Donovan said it -- that the birth of this baby must never, ever happen -- he was very clear."
"So you were hurt and angry."
"Yes! He passed out, but I couldn't sleep. Not all night."
The crystal meth must have helped with that, Gomes figured.
"The sun was starting to come up, and I had this brainstorm.
Donovan's career is more important to him than me or my baby, so I'd fix his career."
"That's when you went for the drive, even though you don't know how to drive and don't have a license?"
That's how she ended up crashing off the Keeaumoku Overpass, landing upside down on Cartwright Field halfway down the first base line.
"I didn't think it was that tough! I mean, I drove a cart on a golf course once, and I was drunk. Hey, I didn't want to get in a crash. All I wanted to do was like get pulled over by a cop and see headlines about an ex stripper getting busted in the senator's car, drunk and loaded and totally nude!"
"Well, you got the headlines."
She started to cry. "You know the other thing I realized?"
Gomes shook his head.
"I realized that I really love Donovan. Nobody ever treated me better. He's got like his weird moods, but he has a good heart. Maybe after this, all he'll have left is me and the baby."
Only a person totally twisted on alcohol and drugs, Gomes thought, could dream up a crazy plan like that to hook a guy.
Serena grimaced at a sharp pain, clutched at her lower abdomen.
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