Nighthawks-Chapter 2 While waiting for her reply, the last call bell broke the silence, and the “leftovers” raised their brown stained fingers from the water-marked bar for one more. Downside the bar, a glassy-eyed strawberry blond with a scrambled egg hairdo gave me the once-over with a toothy smile, and for a moment, I thought…

“So what da buggah said?” ma madda asked afta ma fadda dropped me off. “About what?” “About what?” she said, mocking me. “How about what he promised fo pay me in child support? About what? How about what he owes me for trowing one brick tru my windshield?” She sat at the table looking out…

So what da buggah said? Coach said, “Can try again if I like.” You see. Can. No use. No can. I no can. Remembah da book, you used to like? Da small choo-choo train pull da whole line of cars up da hill. All da big trains tell “No use.” Or “No can.” Or “No…

There were six of us in that first group admitted to the Ph.D. program in English at UH Manoa. Two of us were local born and bred. I was the only non-white person – well, the only half non-white person. I’d gone to the University of Wisconsin at Madison for my Masters. Babs Kolowitz and…

When you wish for something hard enough, you just might get it. Then comes the part about how hard you thought about what happens next, as in being careful what you wish for. Jiminy Cricket says nothing about which star you should wish upon, nor about possible evil consequences of choosing poorly. How about the…

Next morning I’m hacksawing the x-brace separating the back seat from the trunk and measuring that space for an Army Surplus cot mattress, a perfect fit. Then the Salvation Army for a skillet, cooking pot, and pillow, which Carrie supplements with one of her own — goose down. Whitey surprises by adding their Coleman lamp…

When you wish hard enough for something, you might get it. It was getting late, and I moved over to a barstool to tell her that I was in the mood for her. She looked at her watch, took my hand, turned it over, then rested her chin with her other hand and looked at…

Broken Wings You can find these people with broken wings who were once angels but flew too close to the ground touched the earth with tips of their wings and became grounded. You can find them in bars, sleeping on park benches, playing slot machines, praying to match.com, glued to their cell phones, and evenings…

“Yessir, that’s the way it goes,” Dad declared. “Sooner or later come our turn.” Mom and Dad had participated in a graveside memorialization yesterday for a recently deceased neighbor at the Hawaiian Memorial Park Cemetery. It was a private affair; a somber circle of family members and two neighbors gathering to commemorate a man who…

“So what da buggah said?” Rudy the barber asks me. “Some bullshit about Denise and Chris.” I’m waiting for a haircut. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Christopher Andaya enter. He’s dark, looks real Hawaiian. “Chris, whas’up?” Suddenly he pulls a knife, comes at me. I grab my gun inside my jacket…