My Kind of Town
>> Queen's Medical Center Hit like a punch
Lily Ah Sun knew what the answer would be when she asked Elizabeth if she'd like to stay in the children's play room that was just off the waiting area in the new ER while Lily went upstairs for a few minutes.
"I want to stay with you, Auntie Lily," her maid Rosalita Resurreccion's 6-year-old daughter said, squeezing Lily's hand.
With Rosalita being treated in the ER, Lily was all that Elizabeth had in the world. Her father had died last year when a ferry between Zamboanga and Cebu sank. Lily had seen a tremendous change in Elizabeth during the year since Rosalita came to work for her. Auntie Lily was a big part of the little girl's growing sense of security and confidence, and she didn't want today's traumas to shatter that.
"OK, Sweetie, you and me are sticking together," Lily said.
And so here they were outside the door to her brother Lance's room. Lily heard angry voices on the other side of the door, knocked twice, pushed open the door and saw her parents glaring at each other.
"Good, you got my message," her father said, glad to change the subject before his wife exploded.
Lily frowned, remembered -- the message she really hadn't heard because it came as she was running through her home, trying to keep Elizabeth from running to her Mama in the bedroom where they'd already heard three gunshots. Later, they'd been in such a rush to get Rosalita to the hospital, she'd left without checking the message. "Right," Lily said.
Beyond her parents, Lily saw Lance lying unconscious on a bed with tubes and wires running into and out of his head.
"Oh my god!" Lily went to the bedside, hugged her mother, saw her tears and puffy eyes.
"Thank you for coming, Lily," Grace Ah Sun whispered in her daughter's ear as they hugged, "but why is Elizabeth with you? This is no place for a child."
"Or anybody else," Lily said, standing up, still holding the little girl's hand. "Rosalita is in the ER."
"A kitchen accident?" Grace said.
"No, some creep broke into the house and attacked her. And he would have got away with it, except that a friend of mine interrupted the attack."
"Thank God!" Grace said.
"You know his parents."
"Who?"
"My cousin Quinn."
The name, Lily saw, hit her parents like a punch to the gut -- Quinn! -- the nephew they hadn't seen in 21 years because of the feud between Sheets and his brother Mits, Quinn's father.
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