My Kind of Town
Suddenly ex
>> Queen's Medical CenterWhen Dr. Aeschylus Wong dropped a copy of the afternoon Star-Bulletin on a lunch room table in front of Dr. Laurie Tang, it quickly drew a crowd. Johnny B. Goo's Page One photo of Laurie wearing a high-hipped electric blue swimsuit was a revelation to her ER colleagues on a number of counts.
Some -- particularly the men, but also one closet lesbian nurse -- were impressed with Laurie's body, lean and curved, which at work was always hidden behind baggy scrubs.
Others, like charge nurse Van Truong, were amazed by the look on Laurie's face as she gazed up at a hunky guy wearing only red Birdwell surf shorts. Laurie was a pleasant person, but dead serious about her work, and none of them had ever seen such a rapturous look on her face, one that said Laurie was ga-ga in love. And after the news in the Bulletin's morning edition about a young woman crashing Laurie's boyfriend's car off the Keeaumoku Overpass, neither Van nor anyone else who gathered around the table could blame her.
Still others were most impressed by what Laurie and the guy -- identified in the caption as HPD Detective Sherlock Gomes -- were standing on: the top of a WWII-vintage Japanese mini-sub that had just beached itself at Ala Moana Beach Park.
"Where did it come from?" said Dr. Wong, a WWII buff.
"I was just finishing my swim and all of a sudden it surfaced and lifted me out of the water with it," Laurie said.
The disbelieving looks on her colleagues' faces told Laurie not to even bother going into Sherlock opening the sub's hatch and a tall, brown, naked woman climbing out -- the goddess Ho'ola -- or that the sub was piloted by a skeleton.
Van, the other women and one openly gay male nurse couldn't help admiring Sherlock Gomes.
"Is this serious?" Van asked.
"Really, we just met, um, but he is coming to my place for dinner tonight."
"Oooh-la-la!" squealed Eddie, the nurse. "We'll want details!"
Laurie was about to change the subject and ask Van about her first experience with an Internet dating service last night when her pager chirped. Laurie checked the call-back number, grimaced. It was her boyfriend, Sen. Donovan Matsuda-Yee-Dela Cruz-Bishop-Kamaka. As much as she didn't want to talk to Donovan, at least he was a good excuse to get out of any more questions from her colleagues.
Besides, he ought to know that he was now her ex-boyfriend.
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