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My Kind of Town Don Chapman |
One-man island
>> Honolulu
"Oh no!" Jolene Perreira said when Cruz MacKenzie told her about her former classmate Dillon Tanonaka dying in a plane crash.
"Dillon left a message that he could tell me about Daren Guy," Cruz added. "We were supposed to meet today. I'd appreciate anything you can recall. I do know a little about his dad dying and the insurance troubles."
"That's why he had to leave Punahou. Actually, he was kicked out. There were all these stories in the paper about the lawsuit against the shipyard and the insurance company. Everybody knew his family couldn't afford Punahou without both parents working; it was in the papers that his mother quit her job as a waitress at the Moana Hotel so she could take care of the dad.
Anyway, Daren wasn't your typical Punahou kid, not academically oriented, not at all social. He kept mostly to himself. Remember the line from John Donne, 'No man is an island'? When we read that in sophomore English class, somebody said: 'Except for Daren Guy.'"
"So why did he get kicked out of Punahou?"
"Oh yeah, I got sidetracked. Daren made it easy -- he punched another student and they had to kick him out. It was in the middle of all that court stuff. Randy Sutton was the kid, Daren hit him over nothing during lunch. 'Hey, Randy, nice knowin' ya,' Daren said and just cold-cocked him, broke Randy's nose. Daren was gone by that afternoon."
"Did you stay in touch with him?"
"No, he just disappeared from our circle of friends. Not like he was ever really part of it to start with. I think Dillon still talked to him for a while after high school, but that's about it."
"Thanks for your help. If you think of anything else pertinent to Daren Guy, call me, please."
"Sure, but I just told you everything."
Cruz hung up just as Aaron the editorial cartoonist returned and lay sketches of three similar but different faces on Cruz's desk -- Daren Guy without the usual beard, one with no beard and a shaved head.
"My best guess is No. 1," Aaron said.
"Thanks, I owe ya," Cruz said, and tried to imagine how each of the three versions of Daren Guy would look with shades and a sailor cap -- like the old man he'd seen aboard the yacht Wet Spot. Hard to tell, so much was guess work.
Aaron left, Cruz went to copy the clips about Daren's parents and returned to find his phone message light flashing.
"Cruz, hey, it's me," a soft breathy voice said. "Damn, I thought you worked on Sundays. I need to talk with somebody I can trust. Call me. No, I'll call you later. Bye."
If Sonya Chan trusted him so much, why didn't she leave a number?
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Don Chapman is editor of MidWeek. His serialized novel runs daily in the Star-Bulletin. He can be e-mailed at dchapman@midweek.com