My Kind of Town
>> All around town Roll the tape
The ambulance sirens had barely ceased their shrieking, hurrying the injured to various hospitals, when Elmar Oliveras' tape ran during the KHON 6 o'clock news. The Postal Service retiree had been outside the Arizona Memorial Visitor Center shooting for his class project at 'Olelo and just happened to be focused on boat No. 13 as it pulled away from the dock when a tremendous explosion knocked it out of the water and rocked it back. Using Channel 2 as a liaison with the Fox News channel, Elmar negotiated to sell exclusive rights to his tape for a heavy five figures and the possibility of appearing on "The O'Reilly Factor." (Elmar was the only man in America whose goal in life was to appear on the sharp-tongued Bill O'Reilly's show.) KHON's cut in the deal was local rights. Sorry, 'Olelo.
The broadcast of Elmar's unedited tape affected people in different ways. At the state Capitol, watching in the office of Sen. Donovan Matsuda-Yee-Dela Cruz-Bishop-Kamaka, Machiavelli Wang began working on a statement for the senator -- something that would show he was a man of action and on top the situation, to be trusted in a time or crisis. As Hawaii's next governor, the senator would tell the media, he'd make closer cooperation and communication between local and federal law enforcement agencies a priority. For the present, he would urge Gov. Cayetano to seek emergency federal funds to beef up the state's disaster rapid-response capabilities. The statement was the easy part for Machiavelli. Finding the senator would be the problem.
At Queen's, Lily Ah Sun watched on the TV in her comatose brother Lance's room with her mother and Lance's lover Greg. This second attack on Pearl Harbor was so shocking, it was the first thing in two days that took Grace Ah Sun's attention completely away from her son.
As the tape rolled, Lily saw a familiar face walk into the picture. She reached for her cell, speed-dialed her friend Fawn Nakamura and didn't bother with greetings: "Turn on the Channel Two news, now!"
At her Makiki condo, Fawn was watching the Presbyterian Channel, but switched to 2 just in time to see the man she wanted to marry put a pistol to the head of a Filipino man.
"That sure looks like Chuck," she heard Lily say as he forced the guy to the ground and cuffed his hands behind his back.
It sure did, Fawn thought as Chuck roughly pressed the pistol barrel into the man's neck.
"I thought Chuck said he was into international investments and head-hunting?"
"He did." Fawn just hadn't imagined he'd meant this kind of head-hunting.
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