"I'm on vacation while I'm here. When I go back, I gotta work," I said. A version of the truth, but not the whole truth.
"Better make the rest of your time here count, then. Before you know it, you'll be on that plane back," he said. I nodded.
"I gotta get out more," I said, laughing.
"Listen, I'm going on a hike after my shift. You should come." A hike? I'd never gone on a hike, not on purpose, at least. I lived in LA, but it wasn't really my scene. I preferred the gym. Since he had offered, though, it didn't seem like such a bad idea. Abby wasn't taking me anywhere anymore. Might as well, right?
"Sure. That sounds great. Thanks."
"The guys here at the hotel could hook you up with some gear if you don't have any. Just check the island adventure center." I thanked him and said I'd meet him later.
I took his advice, getting myself some real hiking boots before meeting him at the entrance of the hotel, where a car took us out to the city. He said the trail we were doing was the Munro Trail. It was a lot of forest and there were some pretty serious elevations, he warned me beforehand. It was all good. I could take a climb. I felt like I could do anything since getting off the dope. The trail began beyond the city and went up behind it.
I had started working out a lot more since I had quit, so it wasn't that hard. The island was so small I could practically see where it started and where it ended. Plus, Keno was cool. He was good company. He was no Abby, but I wanted very different things from her than I wanted from him. He told me he had lived on Lanai all his life and was going to die here, too, as far as he was concerned.
It was sort of embarrassing hearing where he had come from. We had had very different lives. I felt like a little Richie Rich asshole who'd been coddled my whole life. He lived in a small place in Lanai City, but he'd done it himself.
I knew what it meant to be my father's son. I knew how much clout my last name carried. It was part of the reason why I hadn't followed him into business. Money made misery easier; it didn't make you happy. Even if you wiped your tears with Ben Franklins, you were still crying.
What was that like? Being in the same place all your life? I’d had a passport since I could talk. Besides moving to LA from San Francisco, I had been around the world, most of the time just because. Just to travel. Was it because he couldn't? Or because he didn't want to? It seemed so limiting to me.
"You've never left this island? Are you fucking serious?" I asked him.
"I've been to Maui, Molokai, Kauai-"
"You've never gone to the mainland?"
"Nope," he said lightly.
"Why?"
"Why would I? I live here."
"You're surrounded by people who've travelled here from different places. You never wanted to go somewhere yourself?"
"I've thought about it, but it's not that important to me to try leave. I don't want to leave. There are things I want that I want to get for myself; that's just not one of them."
"I could never do it. I mean, I came here, didn't I? I like being able to leave if I want to."
"You have something to run away from," he said sagely. "Or you're just not in the right place."
"If you had my life, you'd know why I had to run," I told him. We trekked in silence for a few minutes.
"Can I ask you something?" Keno said.
"Sure, what?"
"What's going on between you and Abby?"
"Nothing," I said truthfully.
"You had a lot of questions about who she was dating," he said. He didn't sound like he was accusing me, but he was onto me.
"I wanted to know," I said shrugging.
"Did you go out?"
"No... Well, sort of. It was just a few times, and she was basically just taking me on tours around the island. It wasn't that deep."