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My Kind of Town Don Chapman |
Thinking business
>> Kona
Don Dzuraski, the attorney turned bartender, slid a red refill across the yacht club bar. Cruz MacKenzie raised the glass in salute.
"One other thing you ought to know," Don continued. "For your story, I mean. Like a lot of people, Daren Guy bought his Lotto ticket and then came here to watch the drawing on TV. I know the state started the Lotto to raise money for its own coffers, but it's a great thing for the bar business. What I started to say before: You know the first thing Daren did after winning the Lotto? It said a lot to me about the guy."
"No, what?"
"He got up in front of everybody and proposed. I mean, Sonya was working, hustling tables, sweating like a pig-dog. Like I said, the place was jumpin', especially after a local guy wins two mill. Babes were all over him, women who wouldn't consider even looking at him before suddenly wanted to party with him intimately. A lot of guys would flip, go for the babes.
"But Daren gets up and takes Sonya by the hand and says: 'Before God and all these people, Sonya, I love you and want to be your husband. Will you marry me?'"
"What'd she say?"
"Tell the truth, I don't know. Everybody started cheering and she started crying and hugging him, which I took to be a yes. A lot of people had tears in their eyes.
"And then later Daren whispers to me: 'Don, this is the last night that Sonya is going to work here. But she can go out in style -- I'm buying Dom for everyone.' Well, we only stock about a dozen bottles of Dom at a time, which is usually enough for a month, but not that night, so everybody else got whatever champagne we had.
"The weirdest thing, though, is that in the middle of the party, people toasting him and everything, Daren is thinking business. He calls the Lotto people and one of them comes out and checks his ticket and, bingo!, the guy has Daren sign some papers and says he'll get his first payment within a week. Signed the papers right here at the bar.
"When the Lotto guy leaves, Daren says to me: 'I have to think about the future now. Investments. Insurance.' And I'm thinking his future's taken care of, you know, what's he worrying about? But as it happens, one of the guys who was in here that night is an old friend of mine from Honolulu, Nick Ornellas, used to be a cop, these days he's selling a piece of the Rock.
"Could be, half of HPD is named Ornellas. You say he's selling insurance these days?"
"Right. Can you see where this is heading?"
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Don Chapman is editor of MidWeek. His serialized novel runs daily in the Star-Bulletin. He can be e-mailed at dchapman@midweek.com