"Oh what fun! now this is a party place...just love it."Several hours past as he would point out a particular spot and say, "Yes that one, there." I placed each where he had pointed. The colors were deliciously wondrous. His eyebrows arched towards heaven. "Enjoy!" I would many times over. "Stay for dinner," "I don't mind if I do." "And, I have some news to share....I just got the most outrageous piece of land in Ke'anae, I mean it is something to die for. It has this hundred foot waterfall and pools...you're gonna love this....and this, your house, inspires me. Could you help me design something for there?" "Can't wait to see it....Sure!" I boiled penne, al dente, and spooned my East Coast sauce upon it. I had learned this recipe from Mrs. Cavaluso in the Bronx. Baba and I sat at the bar and with Italian bread and more red wine dug in. LaRue licked our bowls clean. He had drawn a map and we would meet tomorrow. As is my custom I arrived somewhat early. I joined my curly whirly girlie in the bed of the truck, and while petting her, gazed out over Ke'anae peninsular. Fields of taro, a few tin roofs and a church steeple patterned the vista. The whitest waves crashed over the black volcanic rocks at the shoreline. A horn beeped three hellos. Baba opened the cattle gate and he, me and Rue walked over the pastured flat. Guava trees dripped with fruit here and there. Mooing cows moved as we approached. The hill before us was solid with dense green. Upward we marched, over large and small rocks breathing the damp forest. Twenty minutes, we stood by a bubbling stream, clear and cool, making its way forward and down. Baba pointed at a flat spot, "There... right there is where it should be!" we merrily coursed the bouldered way to that place so very close where the water fell to a wondrous emerald pool way below. To the right a hint of ocean, and left forested land grew up the mountainside."Wow!" "Now come----come." We three , sauntered another pasture along the stream. Moved into a strawberry guava strand picking and eating as we went. Then, open before us was another wonderful pool. We dropped our clothes and jumped in. LaRue fetched stick after stick. The sun and cool water was perfect. A few cattle gazed as we play. Not another person was anywhere about. Wet and refreshed we sat at Baba's clearing and exchanged ideas of structure. "So how in the hell did you get this place?" "Well this local gent I barely know asked me last week for a ride into town. Driving him there he told me he was moving to the mainland...Las Vegas. Then he asked me if I knew of anybody who might want to buy this piece of land he had inherited in Upper Ke'anae. He gave me his number and I went to the tax key office in Wailuku and found the map. I hiked in and found this place. He sold it to me for a thousand." Mr Reyes' was an acre stack in a three hundred and fifty acre parcel. It is not uncommon in Hawaii to be a member of a Hui. A number of people own undivided interest in a common property. "There are five other partners, all cattlemen, who see it only as pasture. I staked this out as my acre." I did present him with detailed plans of an open pavilion. Collective hands and merry souls would build it and play in those pools.
Chic would relate more of his road traveled in other times shared. Both he and I had city backgrounds. He was from Philly. Our first meeting was at Pua Akamoa falls. Our last was here on the Big Island in Volcano town. Pune, Maharestra India, was where he met his Guru. We sat many times beneath the bearded man's photo.
I taught Chic how to cut hair. He passed me a green thumb. We met on an island far from our beginnings. In life one must be open to the unexpected and let it in. I continue to think so. By the way his real name was same as mine, Charles. He passed last year.
...........SEE YA LATER MY FRIEND
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