My Kind of Town
>> All around town Ripples
Muhammed Resurreccion's bomb attack on Pearl Harbor sent ripples surging far beyond the high tide mark.
Within an hour of the news that Muhammed was being held at the Pearl Harbor brig, a dozen part-time students and one career anarchist who was in town to speak at UH began a protest outside the main gate, demanding he be turned over to authorities and allowed to speak with an attorney.
A spokesman for the Muslim Association of Honolulu denounced the attack, adding that any Muslim who kills innocents will never see Allah. "And not even one fig-bearing virgin."
In the Queen's ER, Dr. Laurie Tang couldn't help glancing at the clock as she worked on the broken wrist suffered by the pilot of boat No. 13 when the explosion knocked it out of the water. Laurie was supposed to be leaving right now to go home and start dinner and pick up her condo. Including the bedroom. Sherlock Gomes was coming over. But Laurie was a pro and put a tourniquet on such thoughts, focusing on the young sailor in her care. Only 20 years old. Why were military casualties so often so young?
Back in his room at Queen's after his second trip to the ER in two days, Quinn Ah Sun watched a tape of the attack on the Channel 2 news with off-duty nurse Nina Ramones. The HPD solo bike officer saw his pop, Mits, an HPD sergeant in Pearl City, helping MPs escort a suspect into a Navy van. And he felt proud. But he also felt something else, something inside that totally changed his desire for Nina.
"I'm getting kinda sleepy," he said honestly. "And you've had a long day." Her shift, plus four hours of OT, and two more to be with him.
When Nina blew him a kiss and closed the door, Quinn breathed a sigh of relief. He needed to be alone and think. He didn't know why, but when he heard that Hawaii had been attacked by a terrorist, his first impulse was that he needed to see his cousin Lily. Maybe she was angry with him -- although he didn't know why -- but he felt the world tilting out of control and the one thing of which he was certain in an uncertain world was that he wanted Lily.
Watching the news in her comatose brother Lance's room with her mother Grace and Lance's lover Greg, Lily Ah Sun felt tears gathering at the corners of her eyes. Her heart ached for Quinn, she wanted to feel the security of his strong arms around her. Her tears broke free. Because how could she go back to him after what she saw?
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