Daniel Bourne
WRTG 3020
Rough Draft 1
The Hawaiian Persona
As my family and I stepped off the United Airlines jet, a cool tropical breeze greeted us to the lovely island of Hawai’i. “Hakunamata ta” my little sister said to me, quoting the Lion King movie. “No sis”, I said, “Wrong part of the world”.
Our long-awaited trip to Hawai’i got off to a mundane start. We gathered our bags and made our way to the immaculate-looking Hilton hotel, where the pools were filled with water so blue, it made Cameron Diaz’s eyes envious. We had never been to Hawai’i before, so we went directly to where all the clue-less tourists go; The concierge.
The concierge recommended several exciting things to do. What appealed to me most was the snorkeling adventure. There, snorkelers discovered different forms of aquatic life, such as stingrays and sea turtles. What appealed to my sister the most was a trip around Hawai’i in a fancy limo with these supposedly lavish features that only Donald Trump knew. I am the kind of guy who actually prefers the simpler things in life. Just throw me a hammock and some sunscreen and I’m all set for the day. With that knowledge, surely you can see why an expensive limo ride did not quench my thirst for relaxation. But of course, my parents agreed to oblige with my sister’s wants. My parents said we’d go snorkeling later during the four-day trip, but only if everyone wanted to. I didn’t think that was fair at all, as I had just expressed that I didn’t want to go on the limo ride. My opinion didn’t seem like it mattered, and the limo ride was booked for the next day. We left the concierge’s desk and had a quick dinner before retiring for the day. We had an enthralling adventure ahead of us, oh boy.
Morning came way to fast. It was 6 am and my entire family was ready to rendezvous with the limo while I was still in bed. “If you don’t get out of bed you aren’t going to come with us”, my mom said in a threating voice, as if I had actually wanted to go with them on the limo ride. I kept my eyes shut and my mouth closed, hoping they would just go with out me. My mom refused, pretty much doing all she could to force me out of bed. I didn’t have time to shower, or brush my teeth for that matter. We had to meet the limo precisely at 6:30 outside of the hotel, according to my parents. We made our way to the front entrance of the hotel, where I could see the limo coming in the far distance.
“eeeeeeeeekkkkkkkkkk” was the sound I heard when the limo pulled up. It was the squeaky brakes of the limo. The limo’s exterior looked like it had just gone through a war-zone, with dents and rust ubiquitously on it. This was not the limo the concierge had showed us in the brochure. No, Donald Trump would not be envious of this limo as I had previously thought. Amazingly, my parents did not seem to mind at all. They claimed that it was a good deal to begin with, so it didn’t bother them at all. The driver then greeted us, and all of a sudden my mood took a huge turn…….
“Aloha, my name is Troy, we’re going to be doing some stuff not originally planned because of road blocks in certain areas. Instead of shopping in Hilo, we’ll go check out the sea turtles. We’ll also be checking out some sugar plantations. I hope that is okay”.
This guy seemed awesome, to say the least. He was young, hip, and seemed adventurous. I was expecting the driver to be boring and uninteresting, who would read from a script in a monotone voice similar to that of Ben Stein. My family and I hopped in the car and all of us eagerly anticipated an exciting day ahead of us.
Our first stop was a sugar plantation. I looked at the sugar crops that had not been plucked yet, asking Troy for more information about them. “How about a hands on experience”, Troy said. I don’t believe it was legal for him to do so, but Troy plucked a couple crops from out of the ground and gave them to my family and I. I had never tasted sugar so good and pure.
Our next stop was a secluded beach away from all the tourists, filled with exotic sea turtles. Lined along the beach were coconut trees. My sister and I were admiring the coconuts, dreaming about how good the milk inside them must taste. The coconuts appeared to be unreachable for any normal human being. Troy, however, was not a normal human being. He swiftly climbed up one of the coconut trees, shook it violently, and down came several coconuts. I tried to crack open the coconut shell, but it was to no avail. Troy took one look at the coconut I had tried to crack, lifted it up, than smashed it on an adjacent rock. The shell had been cracked. Similar to the sugar crop Troy had given us, the milk was pure and delicious.
Our final stop for the day was the legendary Akaka Waterfalls. Troy was eager to show us this spot, claiming it was “the most scenic landscape you’ll ever see”. On our way over, crazy Troy spotted another sugar plantation next to the highway we had been driving on. He had remembered how much my family and I had enjoyed the sugar, so he wanted to give us another taste of paradise. Unfortunately, the sugar crops were on the other side of the highway. This meant that Troy would have to cross this busy highway (where cars often sped) in order to get us the sugar. We pleaded with Troy that it was not safe to cross the highway. Troy would not hear it. He was determined to make us happy.
Troy’s first crossing of the highway was effortless. He even danced in the middle of it to prove that it was no big deal. When he reached the sugar crops, he ferociously tore them down and attacked it. It was quite a show to see. The crops were at least 10 feet tall, while Troy was barely above 5 feet. Sure enough, he was able to tear them down and extract the sugar parts from them. Now, however, he had to drag the crops from the sugar plantation to the limo. The distance between him and the limo was probably around 200 feet, but it seemed like 10,000 feet because of the highway he had to cross.
Troy lined up to the highway while cars whizzed past him going at least 70 mph, way above the speed limit. Troy’s task was now even more daunting with the extra weight the crops brought upon him. It took him 10 long steps and a lot of patience to cross the first half of the highway, but he would have a little more trouble crossing the second half.
Troy was now in the median, stuck there while cars kept zooming past him, unwilling to stop for poor Troy. In the distance I could see a ginormous truck coming, but I thought Troy would easily be able to cross the highway before it reached him. However, the cars in the other lane just continued to stream in, with almost no space in between them. The truck kept on getting closer and closer. We screamed at Troy to go back to the other side of the Highway, but he refused. He was determined that he could make it across before the truck would come.
The truck was now within a couple hundred feet of Troy. I was expecting the truck to brake, but there was no sign of it. It appeared as if the truck driver was distracted, talking to his companion in the seat next to him. As it turned out, Troy would get his lucky brake (pun) from a car in the second half of the highway he was trying to cross. The car saw the situation that was unfolding, and had let Troy pass. Troy may have missed the truck by no more than 10 seconds.
While my family and I were in shock at what had just happened, Troy seemed unfazed. “Hakuna Mata ta”, Troy quipped. “It means no worries, for the rest of your days”. I burst into laughter, and we continued our journey to the beautiful Akaka waterfalls, and it seemed like we all had no worries, for the rest of our vacation days.