Sitting in my car at midnight on Monday night, outside a Dunkin’ Donuts, on the side of the Grand Central Parkway near LaGuardia Airport, I started thinking about the summer I spent in Hawaii when I was ten.  I spent 7 weeks there that year, living with my Uncle Wallace and his family.  Life with them was slow-moving and average, the shining light of that visit being the five days my dad came to visit.

My dad lived in Hawaii from between the ages of 8-13 and used to tell me stories of his youth there when I would beg for a tale from his childhood.  Being with him on Oahu was having those stories of his youth come to life.  One memory of that trip that stands out in clear relief is of driving with him across the island in our rented car, the windows down to let the ocean air in.  It was a warm day, and he turned on the air conditioning, saying that just this once, we could have the both the windows down and the air on.  I remember feeling the sensation of absolute decadence wash over me, with the view of the greenery and the ocean.  We stopped at a shave ice stand that he used to go to as a kid and the moment was complete.

Don’t ask me why this was the memory that flooded my head while I sat in my car, waiting for Seth’s phone call to say that his plane hand landed, but it’s the one I relived in those moments.  I didn’t mind at all to be taken back to that time.