29 April 2004
Lamont Arrives
I'd been vaguely disappointed on arriving in Kona. After the thick, wet jungle of Kauai, it was a little shocking to find myself in a barren landscape formed by 'a'a lava flows, jagged and hostile. They say it's called 'a'a because that's the sound you make when you try to walk on it. But as it turns out, I was just on the ugly side of this island. Don't get me wrong: ugly is just another sort of beauty, but it's not my favorite sort.
Sonic and I had a leisurely morning playing with Gabe, the finch that Sue and her kids rescued from their back yard and tamed. Then we met Sue at the elementary school, where Sonic was the show-and-tell for little Hannah's kindergarten class. Their current subject is transportation, so Sonic told them about her travels on various ships. When asked whether they had questions for Sonic, most of the kids wanted help with their math homework. "What's six plus three?" they asked her. "Uhm, I think it's nine."
Sonic and I drove up to Waimea and scored some cool stuff at the Salvation Army store there. We knew that Lamont would be landing at Kona soon and passing through Waimea, so we settled down at a cafe and phoned him with our location. Soon he appeared in his rented Mustang convertible. (With which he doubtless hopes to score many, many chicks.) Sue picked Sonic up and took her back to Waikoloa Village, and Lamont and I headed toward Hilo to meet his friends Kendal and Satoshi.
On the east side of the Big Island, it's very lush and damp, more like the landscape I loved on Kauai. Kendal and Satoshi say that everything develops mold and mildew if neglected even briefly. After dinner, we pulled out a Scrabble board, which emerged from its box with a light film of mold on its backing. Ick! We all played fiercely anyway, with Lamont emerging victorious despite being forbidden to play the word "COWEGGS".