My Kind of Town
>> Queen's Medical Center Hostile takeover
Taking the elevator to see his nephew Lance, HPD Sgt. Mits Ah Sun was kicking himself for having lied to his son so poorly. But finding the photocopy of an old newspaper story about Clarence "Bobo" Ah Sun's disappearance in Quinn's room caught Mits off guard. He knew where it came from because he'd received other newspaper photocopies from Gwen Roselovich -- after Lily had thrown them across the room when she saw Gwen with Quinn. And Mits thought the problem was solved. Obviously, Gwen missed this one. Wouldn't that be a helluva thing, he thought, kicking harder, my brother and I get busted by my own son?
>> Sheets Ah Sun promised his wife Grace that he'd stay with their son Lance until she returned from visiting their nephew Quinn. What a deal, both boys hospitalized at the same time. It made Sheets nervous because the family was suddenly dancing too close to the secret that he and Mits had hidden for 21 years.
Lance made a guttural sound, shifted in his bed, his eyes fluttered open. Those were all good signs, the doctors said, that Lance was coming out of the coma. Sheets was glad for that.
But it was really his elder son Laird who was foremost on Sheets' mind. Laird was about to graduate from Stanford Business. Lance's injury royally screwed up Sheets' plan for the whole family to attend, and for the formal announcement over dinner that Sheets was naming Laird president of the Honolulu Soap Co. That had been Sheets' unspoken plan all along.
When Grace wanted to call Laird last night and tell him about Lance's injury, Sheets put his foot down.
"He has his last final today, let him concentrate on that. Worrying about his brother won't help Laird get an A. I'll tell him afterward."
That was just one of the reasons why Sheets was anxious to get back to the office.
>> Honolulu Soap Co.
Lily Ah Sun turned her teal BMW off Democrat Street into the parking lot and pulled into the space reserved, according to a stencil on the wall, for "Lily." Next to it was a space reserved for "Sheets," her father. Funny, when she parked yesterday Lily thought that when she became president of the Soap Co. she'd always keep that space reserved for her father. But now that he'd confided he was turning the company over to her younger brother Laird, Lily figured she wouldn't be parking here much longer. She was going to take her Ola Essences private.
Auto-locking the Beamer, Lily had another thought that made her smile. Instead of going independent, maybe she'd do a takeover of the parent company. A hostile takeover. Very hostile.
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