It is Sunday. I go for a long walk. Sunday is a good day to walk because the traffic isn’t as bad. It is a bright, blustery, wet, winter’s day on Maui.
I head off down Makawao Avenue, holding onto the bill of my ballcap to keep it from blowing off. For the first half mile, I step into the weeds when the cars come barreling up the street towards me.
Then I reach the sidewalk and start to really relax. I see a local woman with several children coming towards me. I give them the sidewalk. The little girl on the bike says hello and I return the favor. The woman comes next. She is pushing a stroller. I say hello and she looks my way without changing expression and walks past me.
I turn right at the intersection and start walking up the hill towards the rodeo arena. There are a lot fewer houses and cars on this street. I stop to gaze at a tiny pinto foal lying in the tall grass of a large pasture. A handsome bay mare grazes nearby. The foal twitches a few times but does not rise. I look at my feet and see a large avocado. I pick it up and it is unblemished.
Carrying my prize, I continue up the hill. A little further along, I stop to watch a shiny ring-necked pheasant picking its way across another pasture towards a fat pheasant hen.
A small car is coming down the hill towards me and I step into the weeds. It begins to slow down and keeps slowing down until I think it is going to stop. I am puzzled until, at the last moment I see the smile of the woman behind the wheel and realize she has slowed to pass me out of respect. She is also a local woman but what we call Haole here because she is white.
