My Kind of Town
>> Queen's Medical Center Ridiculousness
When nurse Nina Ramones named the seven people who had visited Quinn Ah Sun in his room today -- two of them twice -- it explained a couple of things. For starters, Quinn wasn't just dreaming that Gwen Roselovich had been here. And more importantly, his cousin Lily had been here a second time. The second time, Quinn was knocked out from a painkiller. Apparently that's when she dropped off the photocopy of an old news story about the disappearance of "popular entertainer Clarence 'Bobo' Ah Sun."
Was that what made Lily do the quickest emotional about-face in history, one moment wanting him to come home with her to rehab, the next moment refusing to speak with him and telling her maid that he could "go straight to hell?" Quinn was sorry about that, but at the moment he was so fixated on Nina that Lily mattered less and less. Plus there was the cousin thing, which bothered him more than he'd admitted when he was kissing Lily.
But Quinn was dying to ask Lily the significance of the Bobo story. And he was amazed that it was the only reference to the Ah Sun clan she found in the newspaper archives.
"If you don't mind," Nina said, "when I'm off duty I'll stop by and check on you."
"I'd like that," Quinn said, as he reached out and took her hand. "You make be feel better."
"That's why I'm here," she said with a wink, squeezed his hand gently.
When Nina was gone, Quinn reached for the phone beside his bed. Maybe one day he and Lily would be friends, maybe not. Right now all he wanted from her was a few answers.
>> Honolulu Soap Co.
Lily Ah Sun pulled the phone away from her head and looked into the ear piece, as if it was to blame for the ridiculousness coming through it. "Laird," she said to her younger brother in Palo Alto, "if you're smart enough to go to Stanford, how can you be so stupid?!"
"What do you mean?" His feelings were hurt.
"Listen, I'm all for self-expression and being your own man, but my God, Laird, spending a year in Afghanistan teaching Muslims Christianity and capitalism because of some book you read?! Come on!"
"It's not just some book, Lily. 'Jesus Was a CEO -- The Gospel of Acquisitions' changed my life."
"Getting your head cut off by extremists will change your life too."
Ridiculousness was catching, apparently. All Lily wanted in the world was to run the Honolulu Soap Co., which her father wanted Laird to do. She should have been encouraging Laird to hurry to Afghanistan.
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