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My Kind of Town Don Chapman |
LAMA ON THE LAM
A female sense
>> Liliha
Bodhicita Guzman -- back in her Sister Mary Miraculoso persona -- was spying on the spies. In addition to Fon Du, her lover of six months -- former lover! -- she spotted at least four other members of Te-Wu in the crowd outside the small woodframe home, awaiting the arrival of the second Lama Jey Tsong Khapa, who in this very house 16 years ago at the age of 2 realized his Buddhahood. And she knew their orders: Kill the young lama.
So she watched from the periphery of the media flock as Fon Du spun lies about helping the Tibetan people through the Bank of Lhasa's new Tsong Khapa Fund, and for a moment her loathing of him overwhelmed her, and her disgust, and she dropped her pose of piety.
Bodhicita had a female sense that told her "I'm being looked at," and with her looks and body she often was getting looked at by somebody. But now she was getting that sense again. Who would watch her in this disguise? An older friend told her that gray hair makes a woman invisible. And the gray nun's habit straightened out her curves. She was supposed to be invisible, yet a tall man in a silk aloha shirt was watching her from across the media circled around Fon Du. And now he was approaching. Please, not one of those weirdo-kinks with a nun fetish!
"Hello, sister. I'm Sherlock Gomes." He handed her an HPD business card.
"Hello, detective," she said gracefully. "I'm Sister Mary Miraculoso. How may I help you?" But thinking, can you get arrested for impersonating a nun?
"I just wanted to introduce myself. I'm Catholic myself, get around to several different parishes, and never met you. There's been so many attacks on the church, I just feel we have to stay in touch and support one another when we can."
"And bless you for that," she said and crossed herself. "Actually, I'm at the university." Which was true, she was a UH student.
Gomes made a note to stop by the Newman Center.
"I couldn't help noticing you didn't much care for the banker."
"Because," she whisper-hissed, "he's lying."
Gomes touched her elbow, guided her away from media earshot.
"Why do you say that?"
Bodhicita, entirely Mary Miraculoso, said with steely compassion: "We know what is happening to nuns in Tibet. As we speak, Chinese soldiers rape and beat our Buddhist sisters. This is a known fact, and his Chinese bank supports it."
"Whoa, sister, you have to be careful who you say that to."
"I trust you, detective. And I trust you to do the right thing. Look into it, these bankers are more than you see."
And she was gone, leaving Gomes with a growing hunch she was right.
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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