Just out of Pā'ia

Abstract

The din of the Hali‘imaile lunch crowd drifted to the veranda where Bob and Evelyn sat enjoying the breeze. “The pineapple upside-down cake I just had for dessert is the best way to eat pineapple I've ever found,” Bob said. “I'll see if I can get the recipe off the restaurant's Web site. Are you ready to go?” Evelyn asked. Bob preferred returning to the condo in Kihei to searching the north shore of Maui for some place he had no desire to visit. “Are you sure you want to go out there?” “Yes! I promised Dr. Winthrop. Anyway, it's just out of Pā'ia. We'll get back in plenty of time for you to sit on the lanai and read neurology journals.” “You know I have to get caught up on vacations,” Bob mumbled. They walked to the rented Chevrolet Impala. Bob slid behind the wheel and said, “This is something—early January, the car's been sitting outside, and you have to turn on the air conditioning to cool it off!” “It's not Minneapolis, for sure. I love seeing everything so green,” Evelyn said. Bob pulled out of the gravel parking lot and drove cautiously on the narrow, winding road. In the wind the sugarcane in the fields on each side undulated in broad waves, motion vivid in Bob's mind, the inland correlate of that lapping the island's shores. The road intersected Baldwin Avenue, which he took into Pā'ia. “Go slow,” Evelyn requested. “Let's pick up flowers here, and I'll get the directions then.” When they didn't pass a flower shop, Bob thought, ‘The whole purpose is taking flowers, and we're going to get out there without any.' Once past …