|
My Kind of Town Don Chapman |
It’s the lights
>> Pipeline CafeSpiriting the second Lama Jey Tsong Khapa, the 18-year-old Buddha from Liliha, out of the Blaisdell Arena in disguise had so far been a three-man operation -- Kamasami Khan, descendant of the mighty Khans of Mongolia and local leader of the clandestine Free Tibet Warrior Society; the fellow member who was the lama's stunt double and took his place in a limo to a Waikiki hotel, and the lama's older brother Joe Kharma.
Four other members of FTWS were proceeding in the belief that the real lama was now ensconced in his hotel suite. While they couldn't match Te-Wu, the Chinese secret police, in numbers, they used that to their advantage. As they would do one day soon with guerilla actions against the Chinese Army to retake Tibet from the Communist butchers. And it helped to have a member inside Te-Wu, the first known breaching of that infamous secret service.
And now, just as Khan wanted to speak with the lama about their plans and how he could fit into them, along came Bodhicita Guzman. And the young lama was drawn to her. Well, what man could miss the allure of the Puerto Rican-Japanese beauty? The tight jeans? The cleavage spilling from red halter top? The full, glossy lips? The spirited personality? The lively laughter?
The young lama was well aware of her attributes -- as a Buddha he was aware of everything in this world and worlds beyond. Still, it was impressive to Khan that he spoke to Bodhicita without a glimmer of come-on, no hint of gimme-gimme-gimme, not one nether glance.
Something was attracting others to him as well. In twos and threes and fours, guys stopped by the corner table, not sure why, except they were drawn, and, uh, hey dude, nice to meet you. See you around, 'kay.
Women came too, the same barely clad women he'd seen shaking it on the dance floor, and perhaps at first they started for his table because he was cute and the new guy and ... then they got there and kind of forgot about that part, introduced themselves, learned his name was Jey, and like the guys walked away feeling better about themselves.
Bodhicita, Joe and even Khan felt a tinge of something like jealousy, they wanted all of his attention, but in the next instant each realized they had everything they needed.
"Eh, why's your hair doing that?" Bodhicita said.
"Doing what?" Jey replied.
"Like, um, glowing."
"It's the stage lights," Joe said.
"We gotta go," Khan said.
On their way out, the manager stopped Khan: "Eh, I don't know who your friend is, but don't bring him back."
"Eh, he never make trouble for nobody."
"Yeah, but when people talked to him, they quit drinking. Bar sales suck."
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
