Chapter 19: Saralinda

I sat in the front seat with Gary, and Moira had the back seat. Gary made me wear my seatbelt, which kind of annoyed me, since I wanted to be able to turn around and talk to Moira too. I did manage, but it wasn't easy, with the strap cutting into my tits. We drove around West Maui, which is the smaller of the two blobs that make up Maui. Well, they are blobs – I don't know what else to call them. It looks like two biscuits stuck together, one large than the other, at least on the map. From the car, though, it doesn't look anything like biscuits.

Gary made me navigate, which wasn't too hard, since there's really only one road around West Maui – we couldn't really get lost. But Gary had gotten a guide book, and he made me read about what we were coming up to, so we wouldn't miss anything good. Up at the north end, the guide book directed us to this really cool spot where the ocean waves would crash into the cliffs below. There was a hole in the cliff, though, and whenever a really big wave came along, it would come squirting out of the hole in a geyser. I got soaked! It was such a blast.

The whole north end is kind of barren and undeveloped. There are cliffs there instead of beaches, so the resorts don't want to be there. Gary said the storms are pretty bad too. The road was really twisty, and I think Moira was getting a bit car sick in the back.

When we got to the west side, the road got better, but there were all of these condos and stuff. Lahaina was cool though. We stopped for a late lunch there, and we went to this Vietnamese place. We got a booth, and Moira stretched out on one bench, while Gary and I squeezed into the other side.

"I think I need a drink," she said with a sigh. "Maybe a Pina Colada."

I had to ask her what that was – I mean, I'd heard of them, but I didn't know what was in one.

"Rum," she answered, "and pineapple juice, and coconut cream, and ice, and it's all blended together. It's cold."

" ... and sweet," Gary added.

" ... and yummy," Moira continued.

" ... and dangerous," added Gary, sternly.

I decided to have a Pina Colada too, but I asked them not to put in too much rum, because I wasn't supposed to drink. Gary wanted a beer.

From looking at the menu, it looked like Vietnamese food was kind of like Chinese, which I'd had a few times. But there were a bunch of things that just looked weird. I ordered Sweet and Sour Chicken, not being brave enough to order Fried Duck Tongues with Tangerine. Moira got a Green Papaya and Shrimp salad. Gary ordered Eel in Coconut Curry sauce. Eeew.

"What – you don't like what I ordered? I'll make you try some..." Gary taunted.

I rolled my eyes at Moira, but she just smiled. "He will, too," she confirmed.

"I'm not eating eel," I avowed.

"Wait until it gets here. You'll see it's okay," he said in his most comforting voice. I wasn't convinced.

The Pina Coladas, on the other hand, were great. "We use only fresh pineapple and coconut," the waiter said proudly. I promptly drained half of mine, before Moira reminded me that it was about a quarter rum. "Hey – slow down, Honey. You're supposed to go easy on the alcohol, remember."

I pouted, but she was probably right.

When the lunch came, I looked over at Gary's. It actually didn't look too bad. But it was eel. Gary put a bunch of rice on his plate, spooned a bunch of the eel and stuff onto it, and took a bite.

"Mmmm –" he said, but then swallowed and took a gulp of his beer. "I think you're off the hook, though. I bet this would be too spicy for you."

Moira reached across the table and helped herself to a bite without asking. It reminded me just how, like, close and comfortable they were together. She appeared to like it, but she, too, reached for her drink.

"You ever have unagi sushi?" Gary asked me.

"I've never had sushi at all. Isn't that like raw fish?" I wrinkled my nose. "What's unagi?"

"Barbecued eel. God, it's the best. We'll have to have sushi some night while we're on Maui. There's a place with this tiny little conveyer belt with very small dishes of different kinds of sushi going round and round. You just take the dish off of the conveyer belt and eat. But the deal is that I won't tell you what the dishes are. You'll have to just try whatever looks good – but you don't have to finish what you don't like. Heck, I'll even let you spit things out if you need to. At the end of the meal, though, you'll have to tell me what your favorites were. I'll bet you eel is your favorite."

"Then maybe I don't want to have sushi," I teased.

Moira laughed, then offered me a bit of her salad. It was weird – salty, sour, spicy, crunchy – too many flavors all at once. Not awful, but I'm glad I didn't order it. I was much happier with my chicken.

Or I would have been, except that we discovered something about seating arrangements that I hadn't really thought of before. See, Gary's a leftie and I'm right-handed. And I was sitting to Gary's left, which meant our elbows were battling for space. The first few times our elbows bumped, I apologized, and tried to move over a bit, only I was right at the edge of the seat already. But then Gary started to, like, try to knock my elbow without making it look too obvious. Almost every time I was about to take a bite, his elbow would nudge mine. I got sweet-and-sour sauce in my hair! And Gary would give me these totally innocent looks. Moira just smiled at us with a resigned look on her face. She was no help at all.

But I got him good, one time, and got my elbow into his ribs just as he was taking a desperate gulp of beer after eating a chili pepper that he later said he'd thought had been a carrot. I think beer came out of his nose, but I guess I was lucky that he didn't spray beer all over Moira. We both settled down after that and ate, keeping our elbows to ourselves as much as possible.

After lunch, we went to this town square place, where there was a craft show. Lots of cool stuff there, and it was all underneath this huge Banyan tree. Moira found me some batik skirts and insisted on getting them for me. I found a jade frog hair clip that looked stunning in her red hair. Gary spent all of his time talking with a local wood carver.

When we left the fair, it was mid-afternoon and Gary wanted to go snorkeling. Moira wasn't so sure, but I was eager to try the water, so Gary found a place to rent equipment, since I didn't have any. Gary and Moira had their stuff in the trunk. Moira and I went to a nearby hotel's ladies room to change into our suits, and when we got back, Gary got me outfitted with flippers and a mask and a snorkel.

"We'll have to get decent stuff for her, Gary. We should have thought of that, instead of renting," said Moira.

"We don't even know if she'll like snorkeling," insisted Gary.

I was already in the water, trying to get everything to work. Ignoring them, I put on my mask, slipped the snorkel into my mouth, tried blowing air out and breathing air in, then put my face in the water. Ohmygod, what a trip. I could basically just lie down, face first in the water, and see everything that was down there. There were people's legs, but there was also sand and rocks and a fish. And it was quiet except for the really loud sound of my breath in the snorkel. The sun rippled on the sand at the bottom. Breathing was kind of odd, and it tasted funny and salty, but the water was warm. I guess Moira and Gary realized I'd started without them, for a hand grabbed mine, and it was Gary, pulling me into deeper water.