Working Too Hard
Dan Williams pulled at the knot in his tie, loosening the striped silk enough so that he could open the collar of his dress shirt. He was exhausted, but so were his fellow detectives, who were all gathered in the corner office of the Iolani Palace for yet another session of reviewing the details of the current difficult case over a hasty take-out dinner. Five-O had been at it for days with scarcely a break. They were closing in on a major drug operation that had been flooding the island with shipments of deadly heroin, and McGarrett wouldn't ease up until every man involved was behind bars.
One by one, each detective pulled his own order from the large brown paper bag on the big desk and settled in for what had become, of late, a nightly ritual. Danny took the white leather chair positioned in front of the model sailing ship displayed on his boss's side table, pulled a pair of chopsticks from their red paper sheath and then opened the flaps of the white cardboard box that held his dinner. He took his first bite of the meal and made a strange face.
"Something wrong, Danno?" Steve asked. The lead investigator noticed everything, even in his current weary state.
"Huh? I don't know," Danny replied around the food still in his mouth. After swallowing, he looked down at his dinner and said, "This tastes funny…not bad, just different."
"What did you order?" Ben inquired while picking at his own meal.
"The usual, moo goo gai pan," was the answer from the puzzled detective.
The boss turned his attention to his eldest officer. "Your Uncle Lee change his recipes recently, Chin?"
"Not that I know of," the Oriental detective replied once he had swallowed his own mouthful of lo mein. Then he addressed Danny, "Let me try some of that."
Williams passed his carton to Chin, who dipped into it with his own chopsticks and pulled out a substantial morsel which he deposited into his mouth.
All the eyes in the room were on the portly officer as he tasted the mouthful, attempting to identify the strange flavor.
"Well?" Danny asked, wanting his dinner back.
Chin's face broke into a smile and then he chuckled. "I know what this is, Danny. This is just Uncle Lee being frugal. He's replaced the chicken with turkey. Since yesterday was Thanksgiving, turkey was probably on a good sale at the market this morning."
"Yesterday was Thanksgiving?" Steve broke in, genuinely surprised. He shook his head. "I had no idea." His regret for the necessity of having his men work through the holiday, a holiday that he hadn't even remembered, was written on his face.
"So that explains why Jenny wasn't here yesterday," Ben added.
"I forgot, too," Danny chimed in. "Guess we've just been working too hard."
"Yeah," Steve agreed. "Unfortunately, we can't quit until we nail these guys. I won't have this rock inundated with smack and the death and destruction that come with it!" Steve's strong jaw was set with anger and a passion for justice. Then he took a breath and calmed down, lifted his own paper carton toward his team in toast fashion. "But for right now," he said in a warmer tone, "a belated Happy Thanksgiving, gentlemen!"
Pau