More minutes slowly ticked by. Flight attendants were busy throughout the plane preparing the passenger cabins for arrival. More time slowly—ever so slowly—ticked past. The plane continued to descend. True to his word, the pilot was able to bring us directly into the airport without a complex series of turns and twists as sometimes happens when a plane comes into a busy airspace.
When I felt the wheels touch the ground, I was extraordinarily grateful. I had flown a lot over the years, but this flight had been unusual. Our plane slowed on the runway and immediately turned off onto a taxiway for a very fast taxi to the terminal.
A flight attendant updated the passengers that when we arrived, the door at the very front of the cabin would not be available since medical personnel would be using that one to remove the sick passenger. The plane jerked to a stop, and the engines were shut down immediately. In under a minute, there was a knock at the cabin door; a flight attendant opened the door from the inside to admit a series of medical personnel. Kyle stepped out of the way to allow them access but also relayed to one man all of the information he could about the man, his medications, his situation, and what he had done in-flight. I was so proud of him!
The sick man was moved onto a stretcher and taken away—thankfully by someone other than us this time. When they had departed, Kyle suddenly found himself with an armful of me. “Hey. You okay?” I asked. “I’m really proud of you, babe! You are one freaking awesome man! And I’m glad you’re my man!”
Kyle stared at me for a moment, not knowing how to respond. “So are we in Hawaii?”
“Yeah, we’re here. I’m so sorry you didn’t get to see anything out the window as we were coming in.”
“Me too. I guess that means we’ll have to do it again sometime so I can see.”
“Deal. Let’s just skip the in-flight medical emergency next time.”
“Deal. I’m hungry.”
“You didn’t get to eat lunch when they were serving.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Then let’s get out of here and find some food and then start our vacation.”
“Deal.”
I grabbed Kyle’s hand and squeezed it. We retrieved our bags, repacked the things that we had had out during the flight, accepted thanks from the cockpit and cabin crews, and said our good-byes.
Chapter 21
WE HAD lost track of time in the excitement of the flight. What had been planned as a quiet eight to nine hours of reading and napping had turned into an adrenaline-pumping medical emergency that prevented eating, drinking, sleeping, reading—all the things that we had assumed would happen.
Once we got off the plane and into the terminal, the telltale look of wonder returned to Kyle’s face. His first comment to me was simple. “Sure is big and busy, isn’t it?” As we walked, his eyes got wider and he told me what I already knew. “There are no walls.” I’d seen that reaction many times before, and I had known it would hit Kyle just as it hit everyone else.
“If they tried this no walls thing in Oklahoma in the middle of winter, it would be very uncomfortable,” was his simple observation.
As with so many other things, through Kyle’s eyes and reactions, I experienced the awe of Hawaii all again as if for the first time. I had been to a lot of places, seen a lot of things. I had traveled the world and had seen the good, the bad, and a whole lot of perfectly average things that had just simply blended into vague mists of memories. Kyle had had none of those experiences, and everything about the new places was a first for him. And jaded-world-traveler me got to tag along for the ride, which thrilled me to no end.
We grabbed a quick snack at a kiosk in the airport. Since we had no bags to retrieve, we simply exited the front of the airport into the sea of humanity that accompanied a big arrival bank of flights. The line for cabs was surprisingly not an issue, and in no time at all, we were in a cab and headed into Waikiki to our hotel.
Even though I had been to Hawaii six times previously, I hadn’t stayed at this particular hotel. I knew exactly where it was and what would be nearby. The reviews online from previous guests had been glowing in their praise of the place, the accommodations, and the staff. While I always took such reviews with a certain grain of salt, I was optimistic about the place.
First impressions are always important, so we were both pleased when our arrival was easy and efficient. There was no line—yes! Who wanted another line after flying for more than ten hours? We got checked in, our room was ready, and in under five minutes, we were on our way upstairs to what turned out to be an absolutely lovely room with a spectacular view of Waikiki Beach toward Diamond Head.
“Holy shit!” Kyle swore in wonder as he stepped to the sliding glass door that opened onto our balcony. “Holy shit!”
“You like?”
“Holy shit!”
“You already said that.”
“Holy shit!”
The only thing I could do was chuckle. “I’ll take that as a positive reaction.”
Kyle simply stood looking, his mouth hanging open in astonishment. To give my partner a few minutes to soak in the scene, I decided that I could give a little commentary about what he was seeing.
“You’re obviously looking out at the Pacific Ocean. Off in the distance,” I said, pointing toward Diamond Head, “is Diamond Head, the top of a very old volcano. Very old and most likely extinct. Tomorrow we’ll go up into the caldera and walk around inside. Un-freaking-believable experience.
“Between here and there is, of course, the world-famous Waikiki Beach, one of the best-known beaches in the world. Personally, in
