My Kind of Town
The Honolulu Soap Co.:
Sunday digest>> Queen's Medical Center
When the HPD Internal Affairs guys left after interrogating him, solo bike officer Quinn Ah Sun was like a boxer who had just taken a shot to the gut, doubled over, and then taken an uppercut to the chops. He was wobbly. Woozy too, but that had more to do with the painkillers they'd given him for the gunshot to his right thigh.
The punch that knocked the wind out of him was the call to his cousin Lily, who refused to speak with him.
The uppercut was the IA guys' contention that, after shooting the mutt who had been trying to rape Lily's maid, Quinn kicked the living crap out of him. Which was clearly impossible because Quinn had blacked out from loss of blood. But that wasn't stopping the usual claims of police brutality. And of course, the IA guys added, the media was jumping on the "story." Quinn knew that one day he'd have to get off his bike, but in his mind that day was still years away. Losing the love of his life was bad enough, but he couldn't bear losing the right to mount up on his BMW bike and make Honolulu safer.
Quinn heard a knock on the door. It was the nurse who, simply by checking his temperature the old-fashioned way - gently touching his forehead - had given him an emotional lift.
"It's time to change the dressing on your leg," Nina Ramones said, masking very well the excitement she felt.
For the first time, Quinn noticed that she was more than a beacon of goodness. She was also very attractive.
"It's really nice to see you again," Quinn said.
>> Portlock
Lily Ah Sun thought she'd feel better seeing the AAA truck towing away Quinn's pickup from her house. Instead, tears ran down her cheeks, set free by the lingering fantasy of him returning every night after he'd moved in with her. But they'd never get that far, not after Lily walked into his hospital room and saw him kissing another woman. And so she'd thrown all the photocopies of newspaper references to the Ah Suns across the room and ran out.
>> Queen's Medical Center
Nina stopped halfway across the room, reached under the chair beside Quinn's bed and picked up a piece of paper. "I think this is yours," she said, handing him a photocopy of an old newspaper story.
It was from 1981, a Police Blotter item about the disappearance of "popular entertainer Clarence 'Bobo' Ah Sun."
"How did this get here?" Quinn said, baffled.
This didn't make any sense. Quinn had asked Lily to go to the State Library and research newspaper archives for mentions of the Ah Sun clan 21 years ago, hoping to find clues as to why their fathers quit speaking. But Lily hadn't been back since then, or so he thought. So how did this photocopy get here? And who was Clarence "Bobo" Ah Sun?
But when the nurse pulled away the sheet that covered his legs, and lifted the hospital gown to get a better look at his thigh, he set the paper aside.
"What's your name," Quinn asked.
"Nina Ramones," she said and looked up from her work with a smile, just managing to keep the butterflies out of her voice.
"Thank you, Nina," he said, taking one of her hands and giving it a gentle squeeze.
"I can't do my work if you're holding my hand," Nina said. "But if you like, there will be time for that later."
>> Portlock
As the tow truck drove off, Lily wondered again about Clarence "Bobo" Ah Sun. She had never heard of him until she read the old newspaper articles. And yet his photo looked strangely familiar. He was more Hawaiian-looking than either her father or her Uncle Mits, but with familiar features. She'd have to ask her mother.
Lily was about to go back inside when a silver-blue van slowly rounded the corner, obviously looking for a particular address. The van slowed nearly to a stop, and Lily saw them looking at the number on her mailbox and then at her.
"Rosalita!" she called to her maid through the open door. "I think your visitor has arrived!"
Lily met the van as it pulled into the driveway.
"Mr. Resurreccion?" Lily said through the window.
"Yes, and you must be Miss Ah Sun," Muhammed Resurreccion of Zamboanga replied.
"Aloha," Lily said. "It's so nice to finally meet you." Rosalita hurried outside, holding her 6-year-old daughter's hand. "Rosalita and Elizabeth are very excited to see you."
As Muhammed stepped from the van, Rosalita and Elizabeth gave him a big hug.
It was not, alas, the first time a foreign terrorist had been warmly welcomed to America.
>> Queen's Medical Center
"I'm so lucky that they sent me the world's greatest nurse," Quinn said, holding Nina's hand. She had just changed the dressing on his thigh.
Nina blushed. "They" hadn't sent her. Nina, newly divorced and already tired of sleeping alone, volunteered to work an OT shift so she could care for Patient Ah Sun. He squeezed her hand, she squeezed back.
"Knock knock," they heard a male voice call as the door opened.
Nina jerked her hand out of Quinn's, fearing it was Dr. Elton Nakasone catching her acting unprofessionally. Nina turned, relieved to see HPD Sgt. Mits Ah Sun in his blue uniform.
"Howzit, Pops?" Quinn said.
"That's what I was going to ask you."
"Happy to report, sir, your son is doing much better," Nina said. "I was just on my way out. See you later."
"Hope so," he said.
Mits tousled his son's hair, then swore under his breath.
"What?" Quinn said.
Mits picked up a photocopy of an old news story from the table beside Quinn's bed. "What the hell is this?" he said, already knowing the answer.
>> Portlock
Lily Ah Sun did not like the thoughts going through her head. Lily considered herself to be a very accepting person, and certainly without prejudices. Still, there was something about her visitor that bothered her.
For starters, Lily didn't like realizing that she was troubled by Muhammed Resurreccion's Muslim name. Or that he came from Zamboanga, where news reports said U.S. troops were based in the war on the terrorist group Abu Sayaf. She reminded herself that one of her drivers at Ola Essences was a Muslim. A good man.
Further, Lily reminded herself, Muhammed Resurreccion was the cousin of Rosalita's late husband. As her husband's eldest male relative, Muhammed had taken responsibility for Rosalita and her daughter, and arranged a work visa for Rosalita to come to Hawaii where she could earn far more than she ever could back in Cebu.
But there was something about Muhammed that bothered Lily. She just couldn't put her finger on it.
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