My Kind of Town
>> H-1, Ewa bound A total wuss
Rosalita Resurreccion's formal education in the Philippines ended with high school. A "simple, typical Filipina," is how she humbly described herself. She may not have been sophisticated in the ways of the world or well-educated, but she was inherently intelligent. And she was very observant, always aware of what was happening in her immediate surroundings.
Thus she noticed that Muhammed Resurreccion spent more time looking in the van's rearview mirrors than out the front window.
How odd, Rosalita thought, sitting in the van's back seat with her daughter Elizabeth. A young woman who introduced herself as Wilhemina Orlando drove and Muhammed, the cousin of Rosalita's late husband Jesus, sat in the passenger seat. And even while asking questions about how Rosalita liked working for Miss Lily and how Elizabeth was doing in school, Muhammed studied the rearview mirrors. Rosalita had seen enough Erap action films to know what that meant. He suspected he was being followed.
But, no, that didn't make any sense. Muhammed was a respected businessman, the owner of five Internet cafes on Mindanao, and was here to attend an electronics convention. And now, because he cared about Rosalita and Elizabeth, he was taking them to Pearl Harbor to see the Arizona Memorial for the first time. Probably Muhammed just found everything so interesting he wanted to see it both coming and going.
>> Honolulu Soap Co.
A wuss. A big wuss, that's what I am, Lily Ah Sun thought. Especially with my family. A total wuss.
She was mortally angry at her father for rejecting her proposal to restructure the Soap Co. So why was Lily trying to protect her father from having to meet her brother Lance's boyfriend Greg at the hospital.
And now she was trying to talk Laird out of going to Afghanistan to teach Christianity and capitalism to al-Qaida because of "some stupid book!" She should have been encouraging him!
"It's not stupid, Lily. 'Jesus Was a CEO -- The Gospel of Acquisitions' changed my life."
He kept saying that and it was starting to irritate her. Lily's second line chirped -- she was expecting a call from a ginger farmer. "Hold on, Laird, I have a call." Putting her brother on hold, she punched on line two. "Aloha, this is Lily."
It was her cousin Quinn, who she'd caught kissing and being fondled by some hoochie mama at Queen's. That ended everything for Lily. If they went another 21 years without speaking, hey, fine with her.
But here she was, turning into a freaking wuss 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