Less than ten seconds had passed when Larry came in, he said "Here's a towel" and threw it to me. I said something about how I didn't know whether or not I needed one and wrapped it around my waist, but I left the sauna within the next few minutes anyway. When I got out, I found Larry, we showered, then went back to the room.
On the tram ride back, Larry told me that that guy was stalking me. I told him that I knew as much, but that I knew he wasn't going to get anything, so it wasn't that big of a deal. Larry said he was creepy and was the type of person who would try to find out our room number to track us down. I told him that he was paranoid and that was that.
January 31, 1997
4:15PM
As it seems I'm never going to get caught up, here's a quick synopsis of how the trip and December went. On the Wednesday in Hawaii, Larry and I went scuba diving. Unfortunately, my ears couldn't stand the pressure and so at any depth below 30 feet, I was in pain, and the pain was intense, as though someone were driving a screwdriver into my ear and even a depth change of a couple feet brought the most immense pain... I spent the entire time trying to stay at a level which didn't kill my ears. In fact, I focused so much on that, I barely noticed the surroundings. And not noticing the surroundings had its price, too. I scraped my knee on some coral and began bleeding into the water [The scrape, incidently, was so deep that my knee is still healing as I write this over a month later].
When I got back to the surface, which seemed hours later, the pain didn't disappear. Sure, it was less, but it still hurt and now I had the added worry of thinking I'd permanently damaged my eardrum. 
And of course, this wasn't a single dive deal we'd signed up for, but rather two sights and two dives... but there was no was I was going back under the water to be put in that pain again. And so, I stayed on the boat, hiding from the intense sun under a beach towel, as Larry and 20 some other people went diving. I felt like a puss for staying on board, but I knew not damaging my ear was more important.
The next day, we woke and I skipped breakfast while Larry ate at the concierge level. I wrote a few postcards, sat next to the window just taking in the view, then when he arrived back, the two of us headed to check out the time share place which the guy'd told us about the Monday before.
It seemed nice enough and for $10,000, a week a year for the rest of forever seemed like a good deal... but we didn't bother actually taking the tour or talking to anyone.
From the time share condos, we went to the Honohohau Harbor and once again began the search for the nude beach. --but wait, I forgot to write that the day at the white sand beach, when we were walking back to the car, Larry asked the lifeguard if there were any nude beaches on the island. The lifeguard answered with the one at the Honohohau Harbor. Larry explained that we'd been there, but only saw a small beach with everyone clothed. The lifeguard responded that we needed to go off to the right before going past the actual docks and that there was a path to a much larger beach through the treeed area.
After going down the road towards the harbor, we took a right, before the actual ships, and came to a place where several cars were parked along the road. There seemed to be no place where their drivers could have gone, as the road dead ended and there were no real trails, but it just so happened that a guy had arrived a few seconds before us and was walking in the apparent direction of no where.
We got out and followed him... there was a path, cut through the trees, which I thought had been blacktopped (but now realize it was just exposed lava 
), and which went on for a thousand or so feet before coming out to a beach. We could see a few people, but they were all clothed... but I wasn't giving up. So many people had told us about it, it had to be there.
Larry said he wasn't walking any further, but I said I was continuing. I walked a few hundred feet more and came upon a naked guy who was sunbathing in a little sort of nook, out of direct sight. I kept walking and before long, I was definitely at the nude part. I even felt overly self-conscious about the fact that I was wearing clothes. 
I walked the length of the beach, seeing what I could see, then came back to tell Larry that it was definitely the right place. He said ok, that we'd come back the next day, then we went back to the hotel. Nightfall came, we played in the pool and the hot tub, then went to bed.
The next day, we did go back to the nude beach. After a couple minutes sitting in my clothes on the towel, just looking around, I stood up, dropped my shorts, and took off my shirt. Larry was a bit more reluctant, but after some of the guys left and after he got into the water, he took his trunks off. We played in the water a bit, then having the reluctant exhibitionist personality that I do, I posed for a couple pictures while reclining on the beach.
We hung around there for a bit then went back to the hotel and had dinner. I got ID'd for the first time since my 21st birthday, which was on the 17th, and then we got on the plane to go home.
After the all night flight back, I slept most of Saturday, then Sunday night at 2:47AM, Larry got the idea that we should call Rich, his ex from a while back, at his workplace (as he'd apparently moved without a forwarding address or new telephone number).
He was there and seemed genuinely excited to have heard from us. He said he'd come over to the house at noon the next day. Larry was happy and it seemed koool that we'd be seeing him again.
The next day came and at 1:35PM, he still hadn't showed. So, I left a note on the door and left.
Somewhere between then and five o'clock, Larry talked with Rich on the phone. He said he'd overslept, but would be over at around 5PM... and he showed.
The three of us caught up and had dinner at a little Mexican place then Rich went on his way.
A couple days later, he called to see how we were doing and asked if he could come over the next morning... but he never showed and we haven't heard from him since. It seems crazy to me: Why would he call to ask if he could come over then not come over and not even call to explain?
This was also my first Christmas away from home. The worst hit me when at around 4AM, I was filling the stockings and realized that mine was for the most part empty. I'd planned and bought little trinkets and candy for Larry's and Katie's but I'd forgotten to get myself anything. That had always been my mom's job, but she wasn't here. I came back into the bedroom and started full-on crying. Through the tears, I explained to Larry why I was homesick and as the time difference meant it was nearly 7AM in Kentucky, he called my mom. I talked to her and felt a little better. (Ironically, when her Christmas care package did get here (after Christmas) she'd bought the one item, a white chocolate snowman, which I'd bought for myself.)
As opposed to last Christmas, when I opened my presents early and got depressed because I thought Larry had bought me something without thinking about it, this year, I actually waited until Christmas day to open the presents with Larry, and I was more than happy. He'd thought about what I would want and spent time in buying it for me. Sure, he bought a couple things that were really what he liked (like the Nintendo 64), but he also got things that I'd put on my wish list like a Papa Smurf stuffed "animal", Jaz drive, and software. I got him things like wooden puzzle/brainteasers, the Monty Python CD-ROM, other software, a lava lamp, etc, etc.. We'd both actually thought about things the other would like, so it was much koooler than last year. In fact, Larry even said it was the best Christmas he'd ever had and cried from happiness. 
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© 1997 Justin Clouse
Justin's Koool Page
