Chapter 7: Taking Off for the First Time (Living in the Now)

The first thing I wanted to do, now that I could, was play. I had the Longitude fueled up, the house was locked, the area secured, and I wanted to ‘blow this pop stand’ as a man once said. The wind was out of the west, not too awfully strong, but that kept me from having to taxi all the way down the runway, then turn around in the widened touch down area. That worked well, but for now, I didn’t have to. It would be nice when the end-to-end taxiway was completed.

I made the short trip from the hangar to the runway, turned the plane at the end to face toward the west, looking out and up to a clear blue sky, smiled, and pushed the throttles forward. At just over a hundred and ten knots, plenty over the safety threshold, I pulled back on the yoke and just several seconds later cleared the hills on the eastern side of the National Park that stretched out from there. I didn’t veer too much for a couple of hours. I was heading to San Francisco to fuel up and then keep heading west to Kauai. I wanted to spend some time in and around Jurassic Park to think about how fortunate I was, and what to do about it.

I had booked a little house in Princeville, right on the beach, and was able to hang out there for a few days, unencumbered by any thoughts of the past. The future, now, that was a different story.

Anini Beach was busier than I thought it would be, but I was able to sit on the porch of the place I rented and just watch the world go by. A lot of the world went by, too. Most of the world, especially the female aspect, had a tendency not to cover their personal landscape much. Thong bottoms and skimpy tops were the norm. It made for fun people watching. Walking the beach was fun, as well. Hundreds of people, mostly locals, I think, were spending their time there.

It surprised me when two girls, most probably not twenty yet, got my attention and asked me to spread suntan lotion on their backs.

“Me?”

“Yeah, you,” the smaller one said. If she was five foot tall, I would have been surprised.

Her five-two girlfriend laughed. “You don’t get out much, do you?” she asked.

“No, ladies, I don’t.” I knelt between them and went to work. “I’m Charlie. What I’d really like to know is why you asked me to do this.”

“Hi, Charlie. Nice to meet you. I’m Laura, Laura Daniels, and this is Lana, Lana Kahele. As you can see, Lana is a local, and I’m a transplant from SoCal. My parents bought the house here several years ago, and they’ve been living in both places. When they moved back to California this time, they left me here to finish school. Lana and I live in my parents’ house just a few doors down from you. Did you know that?”