My Kind of Town
>> Queen's Medical Center Mixed emotions
Mits Ah Sun was a cop, had been ever since he got out of the Army. For most of that time he'd worked out of the Pearl City station, close to home. And he loved the work, loved knowing that he was helping people, loved knowing he was putting the bad guys behind bars.
He could have moved up, should have really. You spend 27 years in HPD, you ought to make more than sergeant. But Mits didn't care about speeding ticket quotas.
He cared about the people in his neighborhood, and so he gave more warnings than tickets. These were good folks, generally speaking, and a warning that he wouldn't be so lenient next time usually left an impression.
And so when his son Quinn came home from Leeward Community College one day and said he wanted to be a cop too, Mits was filled with mixed emotions. Pride, sure, but also fear. It was one thing to put your own life on the line, quite another to watch your son do it. And then Quinn quickly gravitated to the solo bike detail. Not exactly a safe desk job.
And here Quinn lay in a hospital bed, still knocked out after the surgery to remove a .22 slug from his right high.
Technically Quinn had been off-duty. But his actions had been all cop. Or so Mits learned from his long-lost niece Lily when she stopped by moments ago.
Quinn had been at Lily's home and interrupted an attack on Lily's maid and had shot the guy in the groin, but had also taken a slug in the leg and lost a lot of blood.
More mixed feelings, pride and guilt, because if Mits wasn't a cop, probably his son wouldn't be one either.
And more mixed emotions on top of that, glad that the docs said Quinn would be OK, but worried that Quinn and Lily had reunited.
It had been 21 years since Mits' family had spoken to the family of his big brother Sheets, since that night in Waimanalo when things got so out of hand. No good could come from this reunion of cousins, none at all. But what could Mits do about it? Not much. If anything, Quinn getting shot while defending Lily's maid would probably bring them even closer together.
But there was one thing Mits could do.
When Quinn was released, he would not return to his own apartment in town. He'd have to come stay with Mits and new wife Wanphen.
And if Lily wanted to visit again, too bad. Mits didn't have to let Lily inside his house.
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