Man Trip

by Graham Salisbury

  Not yet, anyway.

  Still … Shayla?

  I ran toward the front door. “I gotta go find Streak … and … and … and feed her. She must be starving.”

  Even though I’d already fed her.

  “Oh, right,” Stella said, low. “Just run away. Coward.”

  “No, I just gotta feed my dog!”

  “Calvin, you come back here and answer the phone,” Mom said.

  “Streak!” I called, banging the screen door open.

  I ran out into the night.

  Looking back through the window, I could see Stella talking to Shayla. What was she saying?

  After school a couple of days later, Julio and I were down by the river with bamboo fishing poles catching aholehole, which are spikeyfinned little silver fish. We’d caught six, and they were roasting in the sun next to us on the thick deep grass.

  The lawn mower sat up the slope behind us, exactly where I’d left it. I felt guilty for not finishing. But I’d do it later.

  I’d mostly managed to avoid Shayla, too, but not the frogs with bows that she kept leaving on my desk.

  The bufos in my yard were the opposite of cute. Maybe I’d bring one to school and give it to her. She’d scream her head off.

  “What are you grinning at?” Julio said.

  “Uh … nothing.”

  Julio hooked another aholehole. “Hoo! Cool, yeah, when they tug on the line?”

  “I know. That’s the best part.”

  Now we had seven fish roasting in the sun.

  I heard the sound of Ledward’s jeep.

  He waved and got out with a bundle of yellow flowers wrapped in green leaves.

  “Fish biting?” he said, heading down to me and Julio.

  I nodded. “Just these small ones.”

  He crouched over the seven aholeholes on the grass. “I see.”

  Julio stuck more bait on his hook. “They’re biting bacon today.”

  Ledward chuckled. “That always worked for me, too.”

  I lifted my chin toward the flowers. “Smells good. What are they for?”

  “Yellow ginger. For your mom.” He glanced at the empty garage. “Not home yet, huh?”

  “Soon, prob’ly.”

  Ledward watched us fish for a few minutes. “What you going do with these aholeholes?”

  I shrugged.

  “Feed um to the ants,” Julio said. “They’re junk fish.”

  Ledward frowned. “If they’re junk fish, why don’t you just throw them back in the water after you catch them?”

  We both looked at Ledward. Throw the fish back?

  “You just killing them for no reason.”

  I looked at Julio. Who threw fish back? Nobody I knew.

  Julio raised his eyebrows.

  “Was me,” Ledward said, standing up, “I’d throw them back. If you not going eat um, let um live, ah?” He smiled. “Hey. Gotta get these flowers in some water.”

  He headed back up to the house.

  Julio looked at me.

  “I know,” I said. “Weird.”

  A few minutes later Mom drove up and pulled into the garage. She got out and went right into the house. Good. If she saw that lawn mower sitting in the same place, she’d say, “The man of the house always finishes what he starts.”

  I frowned. I wasn’t much of a man of the house.

  Julio pulled up his line and wound it around his bamboo pole.

  “Take the fish,” I said.

  “What for?”

  “I don’t know. Give them to Maya’s cat?”

  “Pshh. Just throw um in the bushes for the mongooses.”

  “What you’re saying is you’re lazy?”

  “Bingo!”

  Julio flicked his eyebrows and left.

  I tossed the seven dried-out fish into the bushes and smelled the fish stink on my fingers. Some lucky mongoose would have a feast.

  When I put my fishing pole back in the garage, Streak was sitting there with a tennis ball in her mouth.

  I laughed. “You’re kidding, right?” Streak was the laziest ball fetcher on the planet.

  She dropped the ball.

  “All right,” I said. “But you better bring it back to me, and I mean all the way, got it?”

  Streak ran out into the yard.

  I picked up the ball and tossed it toward the river. Streak bounded down after it and brought it back … halfway.

  She dropped it and sat.

  I walked down to pick it up.

  I squatted to scratch her chin. “Lazy dog, you are something else, you know?”

  Just then, Ledward came out and waved to me. “I have an idea.”

  I stood, tossing the ball up and down. “What kind of idea?”

  “Come,” he said, nodding toward the river. “Let’s sit.”

  We sat side by side on the grass. I tossed the ball from one hand to the other.

  For a minute no one said anything.

  “Who’s Shayla?” Ledward asked.

  “What?”

  “The girl who called you?”

  “Uh … she’s just a … girl. She won’t leave me alone. It’s kind of a problem.”

  “That’s not a problem.”

  “You don’t know Shayla.”

  Ledward chuckled.

  He glanced at the lawn mower. “What about that?”

  I looked up in fake surprise. “Oh. Yeah. Forgot.”

  Ledward laughed but said, “Be good if you finish that job. Your mom counts on your help.” He crossed his arms over his knees. “What’d you do with the fish?”

  I lifted my chin toward the bushes. Ants were probably crawling all over them by now. “In there.”

  Ledward said nothing. Then, “I’ve been thinking. You know those tickets I won?”

  “Yeah. Hawaiian Airlines.”

  “Got two left, and I think you and me should take a trip, too. A man trip.”

  I sat up. “Man trip?”

  Ledward smiled. “Me, I try to get away once in a while, just to rest my head. Sometimes I go by myself. Sometimes I go with some guys I know. But I always come back relaxed and thinking clearly. That’s a man trip. You get away by yourself, or with some guys. This time you could come with me.”

  “Me?”

  “Why not?” Ledward bumped me with his elbow. “How’s about it?”

  “A real trip?”

  “Uh-huh. We could go deep-sea fishing. Fly to the Big Island for the day. I have a friend with a boat.”

  “Ho! Really?”

  “The fish will be a little bigger than those aholehole you caught, but I think you can handle it.”

  “Yeah! Let’s do it!”

  I could see myself catching a giant fish, tall as me. But I’d never been on a boat bigger than my small rowboat. Never been on a plane, either.

  “I’ll give my friend a call tonight, then. Sound good?”

  “Yeah! But … well, Mom …”

  Ledward winked. “I’ll take care of that part.”

  Holy moley, deep-sea fishing! That would be so totally awesome! “Thanks, Ledward!”

  “No problem.”

  We stood and started back up toward the house. Ledward held his hand out for the tennis ball. I gave it to him and he tossed it over Streak’s head.

  Streak ran after it … and brought it back halfway.

  Ledward chuckled. “Your dog has a sense of humor, I see.”

  “Deep-sea fishing?” Mom said.

  The yellow ginger that Ledward had brought her sat in a blue vase on the counter. Stella and Darci were near it, breathing in the sweet smell.

  Ledward spread his hands. “It would be good for the boy. Do you remember you met my friend Bill from the Big Island? Well, he’s got a boat, and fishing is his specialty.”

  Mom studied me.

  “Calvin has never been on a boat before, let alone on an airplane to get to that boat.”

  “All the more reason to go.”

  I couldn’t stand
it. “Mom, I want to go. I’ve never—”

  She held up her hand. “All right, all right, you can go.” She grinned at Ledward. “He could use a little man time. All he ever gets is us girls.”

  A huge smile spread across Ledward’s face. “Don’t worry, Angela. I’ll take good care of him. I was thinking we could go next Saturday.”

  This was really going to happen! I was so excited I could kiss a bufo! Maybe I’d even try to cut more grass. Yeah, I’d do that.

  Like, right now.

  But Stella had to butt in.

  “Lucky for you wood floats, Stump.”

  I hated when she called me Stump. I scowled at her.

  “Because when you fall off the boat you won’t sink.” She laughed. “Get it? Stumps float.”

  “Hardy-har.”

  “Not hardy-har, party hard, because that’s what I’m going to do the minute you walk out the door.”

  I looked up at Ledward. “Can we go right now?”

  The next day at school I told Mr. Purdy about the trip.

  “Wow,” he said. “Even if you don’t catch any fish you’re never going to forget being out on that boat.”

  He grinned. “I caught a marlin two years ago. This was along the Kona coast, right where you’re going. Hit the line at twelve-fourteen in the afternoon. Boom! Hoo-ie, that fish was strong. Took me over three hours to bring it in. Four hundred thirty-two pounds.”

  “Wow.”

  Mr. Purdy put his hand on my shoulder. “You know, I just got an idea. Most of your classmates may never get a chance to go deep-sea fishing, even living here in the islands. So what would you think about sharing your experience with us when you get back? Would you be up for that?”

  “Sure, Mr. Purdy.”

  “You’re a lucky boy, Calvin.”

  I thought so, too.

  Later that day, I was sitting at my desk, looking out the window and thinking about the trip. I couldn’t stop dreaming about it.

  “Hi, Calvin,” Shayla said.

  “Uhnn,” I grunted.

  Mr. Purdy was on the other side of the room, passing out a math quiz. I didn’t want him catching us talking again.

  “Did your sister tell you I called you? She said you were taking a bath.”

  A bath!

  “I don’t take baths. And that wasn’t my sister.”

  “Anyway, I called about homework. But it’s all right. I figured it out.”

  “Good.”

  I could feel Shayla looking at me, her gaze like the heat off a lightbulb. I made a blinder with my hand on the right side of my face.

  Mr. Purdy handed me the quiz.

  “Word problems?”

  “They’re easy,” Mr. Purdy said. “And you’re a smart boy.”

  I puffed up my cheeks.

  “Shayla,” Mr. Purdy said. “You look especially lovely today.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Purdy.”

  Mr. Purdy smiled and looked up at the class. “Okay, boot campers, you have ten minutes.”

  There were five questions. Five!

  Mr. Purdy tapped my desk. “Just use your head.”

  Five minutes later I was only beginning number three.

  Shayla slapped down her pencil. “Done.”

  Show-off.

  She took out a piece of paper and started drawing another frog. If she likes frogs so much, I thought, she should come over and dig the bufos out of my grass.

  My pencil still hung over question number three.

  Shayla sighed, like, It’s so hard being smart and finishing my test before everyone else.

  I turned in my seat so my back was to her. Saturday’s man trip couldn’t come soon enough.

  When Saturday finally arrived, Ledward picked me up in the dark before sunrise. I stumbled into my shorts and T-shirt. Ledward had told me not to bring anything. Bill would take care of it.

  “My favorite time of day,” Ledward said as we headed down our deserted street in his jeep. “Got the whole world to yourself.”

  He was right about that. The only other person we saw was a kid on a bike delivering papers.

  Mom, Darci, and Stella were still asleep.

  Dang. I hadn’t asked anyone to feed Streak. I hope you’re a good beggar, girl.

  Ledward drove up and over the mountains that split the island in half. On the other side, we headed down a green valley with high thin waterfalls that flowed up instead of down. They were hard to see in the dark, but I knew they were there. They flowed upside down because when the water fell, the wind blew it back up.

  I sat hunched forward in the open jeep with my arms crossed in the cool morning air. Heat from the engine warmed my feet. Like Ledward, I was only wearing my rubber slippers, shorts, and a T-shirt.

  I could hardly wait to get out on that boat.

  “I forgot the guy’s name who has the boat,” I said. “Is it Bad Bill?”

  Ledward laughed. “No, but that would work. Everyone calls him Baja. But I like to add the Bill part. Baja Bill sounds more like a sea captain. Anyway, we went to high school together. He’s got a head full of stories, so hang on to your hat. Got a head full of knowledge, too.” Ledward chuckled. “He’ll tell you it’s useless knowledge, but it’s not. You’ll like him.”

  Cool name. Baja Bill.

  We headed down into Honolulu, and finally, to the airport.

  The airplane was like a giant tube. We made our way down the aisle to the back. I scooted in next to a window. Ledward sat next to me.

  “Does this plane go fast?” I asked.

  “Sure does, but when we’re up in the air it won’t feel like it. It’ll be a nice, smooth ride.”

  We took off as the sun began to lighten the sky. The plane shot up and turned toward the ocean, pressing me into my seat. I squeezed my eyes shut. But when Ledward elbowed me, I slowly peeked out the window.

  Ho …

  Below, I could see the gray-blue morning ocean, and reefs, and big patches of underwater sand, and fishing boats heading out of the harbor, and the edge of the island with all the house lights and roads and buildings and ballparks and rivers.

  Man oh man.

  I loved flying on airplanes! “Look,” I said. “We’re going higher than the clouds!”

  “Yup.”

  I stared out the window at the ocean until we dropped down out of the sky and landed on the moon.

  Well, it sure looked like the moon.

  What we really landed on was miles and miles of black rock, with hardly any trees or bushes anywhere. “Is all this rock an old lava flow?” I asked.

  “Yep. From back in the eighteen hundreds, I think. Everything you see once flowed red hot down the mountainside. Then it cooled and dried. This island still has an active volcano, but that’s way down on the south end. This part is inactive. Or so they say.”

  The airport sat at the edge of the ocean on all that rock.

  Everyone climbed down a stairway that some guys rolled up to the plane. “Wow.” I stood at the top looking around. The airport was small compared to the one in Honolulu. And nothing was around it but black rock.

  Ledward put on his sunglasses. “A different world here, huh?”

  “It’s so quiet.”

  “Who needs noise?”

  We walked through the gate and headed out to the road. Ledward nodded up the street. “Here he comes.”

  “Whoa!” I barked as a truck came toward us hauling a huge boat behind it. “That’s Baja Bill?”

  “In the flesh.”

  The truck pulled over and stopped. A smiling guy in a baseball cap jumped out and met Ledward man-style, thumb to thumb with a shoulder bump. “Long time no see,” Baja Bill said. “About time you took a break from that crowded rock you live on.”

  Ledward laughed. “It’s not so bad.”

  Baja Bill turned to me. “And you must be Tarzan … er, I mean Calvin.” He crushed my hand when we shook. “You bring us some luck today?”

  “Uh …”

  �
�You bet,” Ledward said. “Beginner’s luck.”

  Baja Bill motioned us toward his truck. “Let’s get out of here. We don’t want anyone overhearing our fishing secrets.”

  We drove to a small-boat harbor, the glow of sunrise growing brighter behind the mountain.

  The harbor was a waterway blasted out of the lava rock. Fishermen scurried around silently, loading their boats for the day.

  We stopped near a concrete ramp that sloped down into clear green water. Ledward and I got out. Baja Bill turned the truck around and backed the boat into the water.

  Boy, I thought. Would my friends love this!

  Ledward waded in and held on to the boat so it wouldn’t drift away.

  There was a name on the back. Kakalina.

  “It means ‘Cathy’ in Hawaiian,” Ledward said. “Bill’s wife.”

  There were lots of boats in the harbor. They all had funny names, like Kokomo, Reel Life, Tuna Kahuna, Catch Me If You Can, Something Fishy, Witchy Woman, and Goodbye, Charlie.

  And the funniest one, Snatch Me Bald-Headed.

  Ha!

  Baja Bill drove the truck and trailer back up the ramp and parked.

  Ledward pulled the Kakalina over to a concrete pier. The boat lurched when I jumped aboard. I could feel the watery world through my legs. My knees bent with the slight rocking of the boat.

  “Hoo,” I whispered.

  Ledward grinned. “It’s only the beginning, boy.”

  Five minutes later I was sitting next to Baja Bill in the skipper’s seat above the deck, cruising out toward the smoothest, bluest, biggest ocean I had ever seen in my whole entire life.

  “Welcome to the Kona coast,” Baja Bill said.

  “Amazing,” I whispered. “Amazing.”

  The first thing Baja Bill told me was “You don’t drive a boat. You sit at the wheel and pilot it, or you skipper it.”

  The wheel was like a car’s steering wheel. On Baja Bill’s boat there were two of them. One was down below inside the cabin and the other was up where we were sitting.

  “How come two?” I asked.

  Baja Bill chuckled. “Like it up here, do you?”

  “Yeah. I can see better.”