My Kind of Town
My Kind of Town
>> Queen's Medical Center The Bobo Policy
With photocopies of old newspaper stories spread beside him on the bed, Quinn Ah Sun was quizzing his mother about her recollections of those events.
"You know what's weird?," he said, glancing at a Police Beat item. "Dad never mentioned having his police revolver stolen out of his car. With me going into the department, I got lots of advice, but nothing about that."
"I was there that night at the Pearl City Tavern," Flo Kajiyama Ah Sun said from outside the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, glancing at her Chanel watch. It was time to hit the casino, but this business about Bobo seemed so important to Quinn. And after 16 years without seeing him, she was happy to talk.
"Your father called, said he and your Uncle Sheets and Bobo were going to play cards in Waimanalo. And of course I wanted to go, but he said it was boys only. Your father had a hard time dealing with the fact I was a better poker player. Anyway, he walked in, seemed surprised to see me throwing dice at the Monkey Bar. And I could tell something was wrong from the way he was knocking down the beers.
"When I asked, he said everything was fine, but something had shaken him up. I asked about Bobo -- who I knew owed your father money he used to pay off a gambling debt -- and he said he never showed up, the son of a gun was probably too busy chasing a wahine. Which sounded like Bobo. So they didn't go to Waimanalo. You still there?"
"Yeah, go on, Mom, I'm listening."
"Anyway, he didn't want to talk, just drink, which was not like Mits.
Finally we were leaving, and out in the parking lot I told him I'd better drive him home, I'd leave my car overnight, and somebody had broken into the trunk of his car and stolen his .45. Oh, I thought he'd explode, but it was like he was relieved.
"You know, I haven't thought about that time in years. But the memories are so clear. That was when Sheets and Grace and their kids lived a couple doors down from us in Pearl City. Less than a week after that night at the PCT, they started packing and moved to Kailua."
"The start of the feud. So what really caused it."
"Money, Mits said, but I never believed that. Sheets was doing OK with the Soap Company by then. Times were kind of tight on a cop's salary, but we were doing OK too. And then one day I asked about Bobo and Mits yelled and cursed and said he never wanted to hear that name again."
"Apparently Uncle Sheets had the same policy."
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