Teri punched Dan’s arm. She admired him. Annie didn’t know what a prize her husband was. He understood her completely and loved her unconditionally.
That’s what Teri wanted. If truth be told, she was the jealous one, jealous that Annie had such an incredible person to share her life with.
The sun was climbing through the clear morning sky as they turned up Highway 37 and headed toward the cloud-wreathed volcano.
“It’s so beautiful,” Teri murmured.
The road led them through Maui’s quiet upcountry. The lush green of the foothills and the abundance of colorful flowers reminded Teri of the Willamette Valley of Oregon.
“It’s so different from the beach. Do you guys come up here often? If I had island fever, I’d come up here for a few days.”
“Unfortunately, no. We’ve only been here a dozen or so times. With work and everything it’s hard to get away.”
They passed a few rickety looking mailboxes clumped together at the end of a tree-lined lane. “Do many people live up here?” Teri asked.
“Sure, lots of people. I have some friends up in Ulupalakua who are paniolos. I went to the rodeo with them last year in Makawao.”
“And I’m supposed to know what you’re talking about?”
“They’re cowboys. Actually, paniolos is Hawaiian for Espanoles.”
“Cowboys from Spain?”
“California. One of the Hawaiian kings, Kam III, I think, brought three Spanish-Mexican cowboys over from California about 150 years ago to raise cattle. Some of the paniolos who work at Ulupalakua today are descendants of those three originals.”
“That’s quite a story,” Teri said.
“It’s true. It’s a whole different Maui up here.”
“Sounds like it,” Teri answered, gazing out the window at the breathtaking countryside as it rolled past her. She was only half-listening to Dan. Something had clicked inside her when he had mentioned the Hispanic cowboys from California. She realized that since she had been here, she had seen the widest variety of cultural background she had seen anywhere.
In her small Oregon town, she was one of a handful of Hispanic residents. It had never been a problem, and she never had felt discriminated against. But always present in her mind was the underlying truth that she was different from the majority of the people in her community.
On Maui, however, the population was such a melting pot that she didn’t stick out. At least she didn’t feel as if she stuck out. If anything, she blended in with the natives because of her skin tone. It was one more reason she should consider moving to Maui.
Chapter Eighteen
Is this the top?” Teri asked as Dan turned down a road marked by a sign that said “Hosmer Grove.”
“No, we’re only about seven thousand feet up. The top is more than ten thousand feet. This is where we’re meeting the rest of the group. The trail begins up the road from here.”
“I can’t imagine that winding road going much farther up.”
“Oh, it does.” Dan parked the car and looked out the windshield to see if any of the guys gathered around the picnic table were from their group. “It’s the only road in the world that goes from sea level to ten thousand feet in forty miles. Do you feel a little dizzy?”
“No.”
“Some people do. It’s an intense altitude adjustment. And it’s a lot colder up here. I’ve been to the top once when there was snow.”
“Snow? On Maui?”
Dan opened his door and called back to her, “You can even ski on the Big Island when it snows.”
Teri pulled on her sweatshirt and joined Dan outside. It was chilly. She spotted Scott over at the picnic tables with Kai, Gordon, and a bunch of men she didn’t know.
Scott left them immediately and jogged over to her. He gave her a tender kiss on the cheek in full view of everyone and then tangled his fingers in her hair. “I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you, too,” Teri said. She found it easy to forgive him. After feeling angry and frustrated at him for not calling, all it took was one soft phrase and one tender touch, and she was putty.
With Scott’s arm around her and his fingers still playing with her curls, the two of them walked over to the group. Teri could feel Gordon’s smile on her before she actually looked at him. He watched every step she took and kept looking at her after she sat down on the top of the picnic table.
Spread out beside her were bags of food and other camping supplies. The men were talking about how they planned to divide it all up between the twelve backpacks.
“I think those of us with the bigger packs can handle most of it,” one of the men said. “And if any stuff is left over, you guys and Julie can take it.”
“This is Teri, not Julie,” Dan said. “I guess you all don’t know her. Annie’s sister, Teri.”
The man glanced at Scott and then back at Teri. “Teri,” he repeated. “My mistake. Nice to meet you. I’m Ron.”
The rest of the men introduced themselves in turn, and she tried to appear calm and casual. The coincidence was too obvious to ignore. First Scott called her Julie on the sailboat, and now some guy who sees Scott with her assumes her name is Julie.
As soon as the backpacks were loaded, Teri pulled Scott off to the side under a grove of tall cedar and pine trees. “Who’s Julie?”
“Beats me,” he said. “Julie, Teri. The names sound pretty similar. I can see why he was mixed up.”
“And why did you get mixed up on the sailboat?”
“I didn’t get mixed up. Didn’t we already go over this?” Scott looked down at the ground and shook his head. It was almost a gesture of pity. “I thought you were going to work on this paranoia thing. When are you going to ease up and start trusting me?”
Teri felt ashamed.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
Scott cupped her chin in his hand and tilted her face up toward him. “No more ‘I’m sorry’s,’ remember?” Teri nodded.
Scott looked as if he were about to say something, but he was interrupted by a Frisbee that sailed inches past their heads.
“Whoa! Sorry there!” Gordon came jogging over to retrieve the Frisbee.
Teri pulled away and felt her cheeks warming. “Is everyone else ready?” She needed to talk with Scott but not here, not like this.
“Looks like it,” Gordon said. “No hurry, though. We have all day to get there.”
“Dan said you’ve been on this hike before, Gordon,” Teri said.
“That’s right. Quite a few years back. We hiked out through Kaupo Gap and down to the ocean. Can’t go that way any more. We have to hike out the way we go in.” Gordon began walking back to the picnic tables.
Teri followed him with Scott beside her, his arm around her shoulder.
“Can you smell them?” Gordon asked.
“What, Dan and the boys are smelling bad already?” Scott joked.
Gordon ignored Scott, caught Teri’s eye, and drew in a deep breath. She did the same. “It’s the eucalyptus trees. I haven’t smelled them since I left home.”
Gordon drew in another breath of the strong eucalyptus. Teri glanced at Scott as he rolled his eyes. “I like it, too,” Teri said, suddenly feeling she needed to come to Gordon’s defense. “We had eucalyptus trees in Escondido. Do you remember those gigantic ones at the back of the school, Scott?”
Scott looked at her as if to communicate that the last thing he would remember about high school was a tree.
“You two went to high school together?” Gordon asked.
“Sort of. Same school, different years.” Teri didn’t feel she had to explain anything to Gordon, but she wanted to.
They all hoisted their backpacks over their shoulders, tugged up their socks, laced their hiking boots, and started on their way. Teri had borrowed Annie’s boots, which fit a little loose. She was wearing two pairs of socks, and they seemed to feel just right.
They hiked along the side of the winding road, single file, until they
reached the trail head of the Halemauu Trail. The minute the crater came into full view, Teri stopped and caught her breath. She hadn’t expected all the colors. Thick clouds hung over the higher pinnacles farther up the road. But where the group entered the crater, the sun shone and an eerie wind blew up at them.
“There’s no place like it on earth,” Gordon said to Teri and two other hikers who had stopped to catch their breath. He took a swig from his water bottle. “Wait until we get inside. You’ll think you’re on the moon.”
“By any chance, does anyone know the last time when this guy erupted?” Teri asked, gazing down into the deep crevices.
“Late seventeen hundreds, I think,” Gordon said.
“That doesn’t mean he’s thinking of blowing off a little steam any time soon, does it?”
“No, safe as a kitten. They monitor all activity at Science City up at the top. I had a friend who worked there,” Gordon said. “I went up the night Haley’s Comet whizzed by. Had a good look through his telescope. One of the thrills of my life.”
“Doesn’t take much to entertain you, does it, Gordo?” Scott said.
“No, not much at all.”
They headed down the trail and into the silence of the crater. Teri’s water bottle, strung to the back of her pack, flapped against her thigh as she walked. Good. Pound that fat, you little water bottle, you. Break up that cellulite! She decided she might need to switch sides halfway through so both thighs could come out evenly by the end of the trip.
Once they settled into their individual rhythms of hiking, the group was pretty spread out. She was about four from the back, not too slow and not at all interested in pushing to the lead.
Scott kept pushing forward. He seemed to want her right behind him, but then he would pass someone, which would put a person between them.
Finally, after the third break, she said, “Why don’t you go on ahead. I’m doing fine at my own pace.”
“But I want you with me,” Scott said.
“I’ll try to keep up,” Teri said with a shrug. “But I can’t make any guarantees. This is supposed to be fun, not a race.”
That was the wrong thing to say to Scott. Teri realized that, being intensely competitive, he found it hard to make this a leisurely stroll. He was out to conquer the volcano.
“Just go ahead of me,” Teri said. “I’ll be fine. I’ll see you at the cabin or sooner, if we stop for lunch.”
“You sure you don’t mind?”
“No, have fun. Go knock yourself out. I’m not up for it.”
Scott took off without even glancing back. Teri looked at her trail companions: two men younger than she whom she hadn’t met until today. “So, are you guys ready to hit the road?”
Her releasing of Scott must have had an effect on the two guys because they began to walk faster. Soon they were a good distance down the trail from Teri, and she realized she was now at the end of the group. This is not what she had wanted. She didn’t want to be the weak female who couldn’t carry her own weight or keep up with the men. The truth was, they were all in great shape from running around the hotel, hoisting heavy luggage for hours every day. She had been lying around for more than a week with a hurt foot. And it was beginning to feel a little tender now.
Why did I ever come on this trip? I mean, it’s beautiful, but I could have seen this from the car and turned around and gone home.
Then slipping into a conversation with God, she prayed, “I certainly hope you have a good reason for bringing me on this journey.”
Chapter Nineteen
As Teri meandered down the Halemauu Trail, the thought crossed her mind that she had no idea where she was going. She had only half listened when the men mentioned the cabin’s name they were planning to stay at tonight.
How hard can this be? I’ll stay on the trail until I come to a cabin. They will be there already, kicking back, and they will tease me for being such a slowpoke. I don’t care; I plan to enjoy this trip.
She thought of how Gordon had stopped to appreciate the eucalyptus fragrance. That’s the way she wanted to experience this adventure, fragrance by fragrance, sight by sight, and sound by sound. The strange thing about the crater was that the deeper in she went, the quieter it became.
How could those guys have gotten ahead of me so fast? I didn’t take a wrong turn, did I? I couldn’t have. There haven’t been any places to turn off. This has to be the right way.
Teri stopped for a drink of water at a curve in the trail. As she stood there, with her foot resting on a pitted volcanic rock, the clouds that had been floating in and out of the center of the crater began to part. The most brilliantly colored rainbow she had ever seen arched before her.
“Oh, Father, it’s beautiful!” she whispered. Spontaneously, Teri put down her water bottle and started to applaud while she laughed aloud. Then she watched as the wind drew the cloud curtain over the valley once more, and the rainbow slipped back into the invisible realm. “That was incredible!”
Hitting the dirt road again, Teri whistled to herself her grandmother’s favorite hymn, “How Great Thou Art.” When she reached the chorus, she sang aloud. Tears formed in her eyes. She couldn’t remember the last time she had felt this in love with God. It filled her like nothing else. As the satisfaction seeped into her soul, she wished she had someone to share the moment with.
Then she realized she needed to know that someday Scott could enjoy such a spiritual moment with her. Either Scott had to start showing clear evidence that he was committed to Christ, or she would end their relationship, fireworks or no fireworks.
As the last switchback led to more level, grassy ground, Teri saw a cabin and quickened her step. She could see the guys sitting on the grass, eating and shouting out their “turtle” comments to her as she huffed and puffed their way.
“Tease me all you want,” Teri said, unstrapping her pack and lowering it to the ground with a thump, “but I saw a rainbow, and I bet you didn’t!”
They all glanced at each other as if to say they had seen so many rainbows in their lifetimes why would one more make a difference?
“This wasn’t just any rainbow. It was the rainbow of the day, of the week, maybe of the whole year!” She dramatically tossed her hands into the air. “And you speedy burritos missed it.”
“Speedy burritos,” one of them repeated, and they all laughed.
Teri gave up and sat down next to Scott, who held out to her a stick of beef jerky. “So why aren’t we inside the cabin?”
“This isn’t the one we’re staying at tonight,” Dan said.
“Where are we staying, or do I not want to know?” Teri asked.
“Let’s just say we’re about a third of the way there,” Gordon said.
“Which means Teri might make it by sometime around midnight,” one of the men teased.
“I can keep up. Don’t worry about me.”
“Well, time to get going,” one of the guys said. “We’ll see the rest of you at Kapalaoa Cabin tonight.”
Teri took a quick drink of water. “Let’s go,” she said.
“You need more of a lunch than that,” Scott said. “I’ll stay with you.”
“You don’t have to wait. I can eat while I walk.”
“You sure?” He reached over and drew a stray curl away from the corner of her mouth.
Teri stood and offered her hand to him as if she had to help him up. He grabbed it, pulled himself up to her, and said, “I can see you hiking the Andes someday. I’d like to go back to Peru. You interested?”
She wondered if anyone else had heard him. All the men were shuffling to put on their packs. “I guess that depends.”
“On what?” Scott said, helping her hoist her pack back on. She realized she had felt much more energetic with it off.
“We have a few things we need to talk through,” Teri said softly. “I was doing some pretty intense thinking on those switchbacks.”
“Oh yeah?” Scott’s hair had relaxed from its combed
position, and the wayward strands hung over his temples. “That’s funny, because I did some intense thinking myself.”
The rest of the group tromped on ahead while Scott and Teri hung back to talk.
“I want you in my life, Teri. I’ve tried to understand what you want. I’ve tried to take it slow like you asked. I’ve tried to give you your space. I haven’t called every day or hovered over you because I didn’t want you to feel smothered.”
“I don’t feel smothered. I actually feel … well, kind of hurt that you haven’t been coming over or calling, especially when I hurt my foot.”
Scott shook his head. “Seems we had a misunderstanding, then. I thought you were pushing me away, so I backed off. That’s not the way I want things to be. But it’s up to you. Are you ready for things to be different?”
Teri hesitated. She thought she was, but being unclear on where Scott stood spiritually was something she wanted to resolve. “May I ask you a few questions?”
“Sure. You mind if we walk as we talk?”
Teri followed him down the trail and said, “Scott, I need to know where you stand with God. I mean, I know you said you became a Christian in high school and that you sort of wandered away in college but now you’re ready to get back into church and everything. Well, I guess I want to hear your heart.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, you know, are you saved? Do you love God? Have you asked Jesus to forgive your sins and come into your heart? Is he the Lord of your life?” Talking to people about spiritual matters had never been Teri’s strong point. She suspected her questions were too direct.
Her suspicions were confirmed when Scott started to laugh and said, “Man, what church wouldn’t like to make you its Sunday school truant officer!”
“This is important to me, Scott. I want to know how important it is to you.”
“Very.”
She waited for him to elaborate.
“I believe all the same things you do, babe. Part of the reason I’m so crazy about you is that you’re a good influence on me. Are you upset because I haven’t gone to church with you yet? You know it’s because of my work schedule. As soon as I’ve been there long enough to ask for a shift change, I’ll start going with you. You are planning to move here, aren’t you?”