My Kind of Town
The Honolulu Soap Co.:
Sunday digestQueen's Medical Center
Serena Kawainui gasped loudly and clutched at her lower abdomen. "Call a nurse! Please! It's the baby! I don't wanna lose it!" And then she screamed. The world's oldest nurse call. A moment later, two nurses burst through the door.But there was nothing they could do. "You lost it, honey," one of the nurses said, checking the bloody sheet. "I'm sorry."
Serena began to cry. Detective Sherlock Gomes looked away, thinking that Sen. Donovan Matsuda-Yee-Dela Cruz-Bishop-Kamaka was off the hook.
He walked to Serena's side, took one of her hands in his, leaned down close to her heavily bandaged face. "You have a friend," he said softly, "in me. And I know the senator pretty well. Seems to me he owes you something. I'll talk with him."
What the hell kine cop is that, Serena thought.
>> Lily leaned down, her lips an inch from Quinn's, and spoke softly: "I don't care if I'm your cousin or not. I love you."
She kissed his lips. "What the hell?!" A man's voice, from behind her. "Who are you?!"
Lily turned around, blushed as she'd never blushed before. She was just a little girl the last time she'd seen this man, but she recognized him in an instant -- and knew she'd just gotten busted, big-time.
"Oh, hi, Uncle Mits." Her father's brother. The uncle she hadn't seen in 21 years, since the brothers Ah Sun mysteriously quit speaking.
She saw puzzlement on his face. Then it hit him. "Lily?"
"Yes." And then it was her turn to be baffled because instead of her Auntie Flo coming through the door a step behind Mits Ah Sun, it was some little Asian girl. "Oh, Lily, this is Wanphen. Wanphen, this is my niece, Lily."
"Do you know what happened to Quinn?" Mits said.
Of course she did. "Long story short, he was at my house. Some guy had broken in earlier and was trying to rape my maid, and Quinn stopped him." She paused. "He was off-duty."
Mits frowned. Quinn being off-duty confirmed his worst suspicions -- Lily and Quinn were together for personal reasons.
Lily paused at the door. "By the way, my brother Lance is also here. In the ICU. Your brother is with him."
"You have brother?" Wanphen said, her shock apparent.
>> Lily knocked on her brother Lance's room, stepped inside. What a sad sight, Lance unconscious on the bed, tubes and wires running into and out of his head. Their mother Grace sitting on a chair beside his bed, head bent in silent tears and prayer. Their father Sheets slouched in a chair at the foot of the bed.
"Where's Elizabeth?" Grace said. On her earlier visit, Lily had her maid's 6-year-old daughter with her.
"Rosalita was released from the ER. She's fine, and they're waiting for me downstairs."
"Thank God for that at least. And Quinn?"
"Lost a lot of blood, but he'll be OK."
Grace saw something come over Lily when she spoke of her long-lost cousin -- and that something made her nervous. "What was Quinn doing at your home?"
"How long have you been seeing him?" Sheets added.
"What is this, the grand jury?" Lily said. "We're both adults now, we can talk to anyone we want."
"But our side of the family does NOT speak with that side of the family," Sheets said.
Lily looked her father in the eye. "It's too late already. When they let him out of here, he's coming to my house to recuperate."
"No!" Sheets thundered. "You can't!"
"Why?! What happened 21 years ago to make you and your brother quit speaking? What was so terrible that you tore a family apart?!"
"Lily," her mother intervened. "Now is not a good time for this."
"Why not?" And why did her mother seem to be such an integral part of the brothers' feud?
Lily turned to leave, glared at her father. "I'm going to find out, you know. I'm going to find out what happened 21 years ago to make you and your brother quit speaking. I'm going to find out why you kept me and my cousin apart until today!"
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