My Kind of Town
The Portuguese solution
>> State Library
Lily Ah Sun opened the golden-brown volume marked "Honolulu Star-Bulletin/Honolulu Advertiser -- 1981." The year her father and her Uncle Mits quit speaking and tore the previously close family apart.
The first Ah Sun reference was for a Clarence Ah Sun. Lily knew her family genealogy four generations back, but she'd never heard of a Clarence Ah Sun. Who was he? And what could he have to do with the feud between her father and uncle?
The second Ah Sun listing was also for Clarence. S-B A-6 6-21, A A4 6-21. Meaning both papers had mentioned him on the same day, June 21, and both in the A section. Hmm. Old Clarence was a newsy guy.
Ah, but here at last was something significant, the third listing: Ah Sun, Mits -- SB A-8 6-1, A A4 6-1. Again both papers, A section, same day, June 1. Well, well, Clarence again -- SB C8 5-5.
And that was the end of the news made by Ah Suns in 1981.
The whole year had taken just minutes. And while she needed to be at her home in Hawaii Kai in an hour to meet the decorator about giving her bedroom a new look after last night's shootings (and blood-letting), Lily was also fascinated by her family research. She placed the 1981 volume in its place between '80 and '82.
And just on a whim, she pulled down the volume for 1974, the year before she and Quinn were born. Whim? Later, she would come to believe it was nothing less than divine inspiration.
>> State Capitol
Machiavelli Yang was easily the most powerful person you've never heard of in Hawaii. His lack of name recognition to the general public, in fact, contributed to his power and influence behind the scenes in state politics. That and his regular flashes of brilliance. And he'd just had another!
Machiavelli couldn't help smiling. Sometimes his brilliance amazed even himself. Because he'd just figured out how to assure Sen. Donovan Matsuda-Yee-Dela Cruz-Bishop-Kamaka would be elected governor in November.
The problem was that the senator needed another hyphen. More precisely, he needed another name, another ethnicity.
Portuguese! Of course!
Sen. Donovan Matsuda-Yee-Dela Cruz-Bishop-Kamaka-Gomes does have a nice ring, doesn't it?
And Machiavelli knew just the girl. Donna Gomes, his travel agent. He speed-dialed her number to set up a meeting.
Now all Machiavelli had to do was find the senator and bring him back to reality from wherever his demons had dragged him off to again.
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