My Kind of Town
>> Queen's Medical Center The girl can’t help it
Lily Ah Sun and her brother Laird left their cousin Quinn's room and were waiting for an elevator to the ICU to visit their brother Lance.
"So what's up with you and our cousin Quinn," Laird asked Lily.
"What do you mean?" she replied a little too defensively. And then, trying to cover her tracks, "It's been 21 years since we've seen each other, OK, Laird? You're too young to remember, but Quinn and I were raised together for the first six years of our lives. We were best friends and cousins. And it's just really nice to have him back in my life."
But her big sister tone and squint-eye didn't work this time.
"Lily, I'm your brother. I know you, and there was something going on in that room besides a long-lost cousins reunion. I saw it in both of you."
Lily never had been a good liar. And her brother did indeed know her too well. "You could? Was it that obvious?"
"Oh, Lily, say it isn't so."
"It is so, Laird, I can't help it."
"Lily, he's our first cousin!"
"We didn't plan it, OK. It was a total accident. A good-looking motorcycle cop pulled me over for speeding, and I fell for him at first sight. And the feelings were mutual. We had no idea we were cousins until I handed him the license. And then it was too late."
"Lily, it's an abomination for first cousins to ..."
"Not according to state law, it isn't."
>> Above Waialua
Sam got such a kick out of hearing the new guy's full name, he laughed so hard that Miller Lite sprayed out his nose.
"Say it again, brah, say it again! But mo' slow!"
Enunciating each syllable he said, "Donovan Matsuda-Yee-Dela Cruz-Bishop-Kamaka."
Which prompted another round of snorting. "At's a mouthful!"
But that reaction was nothing compared to when Moki asked what kind of work he did and the new guy replied "I'm a state senator."
"See what I mean?!" Sam choked through tears of laughter, slapping his leg.
"Proves what I said, politicians are crooks!"
"Eh, look who's talking," the senator teased.
But he didn't know these guys well enough yet to tease. That comes with time and trust.
Sam stopped laughing. "No, Mr. Senator, not crooks. We got a cause."
Ah, crooks with a cause. But that didn't seem to stop HPD from arresting these guys' previous leader Isaac Kunia for possession of drug paraphernalia, did it? "Understood," he said. "It's a good cause."
Don Chapman is editor of MidWeek.
His serialized novel runs daily in the Star-Bulletin
with weekly summaries on Sunday.
He can be e-mailed at dchapman@midweek.com