My Kind of Town
My Kind of Town
He ain’t heavy
>> Marco Polo
Unlike most frames, this one had glass on both sides. Lily Ah Sun glanced at a photo of a sunny strand of white beach with the words "Welcome to Miami!" on the front, turned to the back. The hand-writing was eerily familiar.
"Do you have any other postcards from Bobo?"
"Shoots," Tony Martinez said, stood, ran his eyes across his two walls of framed postcards, most sent by fans on the mainland.
"Once he got the gig singing on cruise ships, Bobo would send cards from all over. Only thing is, I didn't start this collection until later. But I got a couple here."
While he searched, Lily read the postcard -- the final communication from the mysterious Bobo Ah Sun: "Heard about the missing person report and appreciate your concern, but am laying low. Partly some gambling debts, mostly I met a rich wahine from Brazil wants me to run away with her. So I quit the gig singing on the ship, but that's on the QT. Ciao."
That would explain his absence for 21 years.
"How good of a singer was Bobo?" Lily said.
"What you'd call a really good karaoke voice," Tony said, searching his collection. "But he was good looking and, oh, could he dance. The girls loved him. Kind of a cross between Zoulou and Danny Couch, with a little Bart Bascone thrown in. He could do a little comedy shtick too."
Sounded like Tony Martinez.
"I like this song," Lily said of the a cappella duet of "He Ain't Heavy He's My Brother" playing on the stereo. The harmonies were perfect. "Who is it?"
"Me and my brother, just goofing around," Tony said, pulling a framed postcard from the wall. "Never been released."
"You should," Lily said.
"This one's from Alaska," he said, handing it to her. Again she only glanced at the photo -- a team of huskies pulling an Eskimo on a sled through the snow -- and turned to the writing on the back. The message -- about hooking up with a Hawaii wahine in Anchorage, of all places -- was important only because it showed a trend: the ladies did indeed seem to like Bobo. She held the two postcards side by side.
"What?" Tony said, seeing her frown.
"I was wondering," Lily said, changing subjects, "why were you concerned enough to file the missing person report? Most show biz people I know are pretty jealous of one another. So what if he's gone?"
"You don't know?" he said, looking for another postcard.
"When it comes to Bobo, I know almost nothing."
"So your father never told you. Hmmm ... Actually, most people don't know. See, before the Ah Suns hanai'd him, Bobo was a Martinez. He's my kid brother."
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