My Kind of Town
>> Three-way phone call Dreamyland
It was a question that on this morning-after really didn't need asking. But when Shauny Nakamura heard that her identical but very different twin had finally at age 27 met a man willing to meet her standards for matrimony, she had to ask anyway.
"You told him, right?!" Shauny almost always spoke in exclamation points.
"Of course." Fawn Nakamura was honest and upfront about her vow. Which explained why the beautiful, lithe Fawn was still single.
Not one guy had hung around after learning he'd have to marry Fawn to get her pants off, not even the associate pastor at the Full Faith Fellowship where Fawn was the office manager.
"And he's OK with that?!"
"Yes."
"That," said the twins' best friend Lily Ah Sun, "is love."
"Or," Shauny said drily, "impotence,"
"Shauny!" Lily and Fawn squealed at the same time.
"Geez, I'm just kidding."
In fact, Shauny had her eyes on Chuck Ryan when they met him while working out at the Honolulu Iron Works. It was Shauny who asked him to lunch later.
Ryan was older but buff, and she had already imagined the things she could do with him, none of which included perfectly timing a Viagra dose. But then he and the angelic Fawn hit it off while Lily and Shauny were getting schnockered on white merlot. "I'm happy for you, Sis!"
Fawn knew as only a twin could that Shauny really was.
"So when's the big day?" Lily said.
"Hey, we've only had one date! Let's not rush things." In fact, Fawn was filled with such longing, she hoped Chuck would pop the question right now. Waiting was so much harder when you're in love.
"So what about you, Lil?!" Shauny said. "What happened when that hunk cop cousin of your's came to drive you home?!"
Lily's deep breath and long sigh told the story.
"That's either real good or real bad," Shauny said. No exclamation point, just wariness.
"It's both."
"Lily?" Fawn said, as if fearful of hearing the truth.
"So you and Chuck held hands walking on the beach last night?"
"Yes," Fawn said, slipping halfway back into dreamyland.
"Well, Quinn and I got past that." Dreamyland times two.
"Lily!" Fawn said, snapping both of them out of it. "He's your cousin!"
"First cousin," Shauny added. Again no exclamation point, just curiosity, slightly salacious. "Oh do tell."
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