Big Blowoff Maui (short story of a storm in 2001)

Big Blow off Maui
(12/2001)



It was dark and there was water in the street and no lights on the road, and the trees were blown down everywhere, I had heard once we got off the plane at the Maui airport, a storm was coming, it evidently had come. The streets and everything was full of water, gutters, and cars and just everywhere was water and the wind was picking up, a moon was scarcely seen overhead and dark clouds and plenty rough weather seemed to be brewing. So I grabbed my wife’s hand and got into the escorted tourist van. And we were headed for our hotel within minutes; it was off the Western Harbour.
When we got to the hotel all the lights were out, and the wind was picking up, “Man,” I said to Rosa, “this is some storm coming.” Like a hurricane in the makings.
It was just as dark as an empty barrel, looking down into it, we couldn’t even recognize our hotel, the driver had to shine his headlights on the sigh, and point to it, and when we got out, he was gone like a flash.
As we walked to the back of the hotel, where there was kind of a plaza area with a pool in the middle of it, trees and all types of greenery were blowing in wind, water from the sea and branches from the trees, and birds, whole trees and some dead birds, a few pelicans, all kinds of birds trying to escape, everything floating in the sky, flying by, blowing in the wind, you had to look everywhichway, lest you get slapped with something, someplace on your body.
Everyone had gone inside to two of the four buildings, one serving food on a lower bottom floor, a hot meal cafeteria style, and Rosa and I were hungry, very hungry. The other part that was opened was by the desk clerk.
We talked to the hotel clerk, got our keys to our rooms, and we went and put our luggage in it, but there were no lights. And it now was raining hard; I started to look out towards the sea, and to where they were serving hot food, kind of back and forth, one on each side of me, thinking: should we go eat or run back to our rooms.
“Let’s see what they got left to eat,” I told Rosa “we ought to eat something before morning,” we had flown directly from Minnesota, to San Francisco, and then onto Maui, with very little to eat.
We were way on the other side, across from the plaza, to where the café was, and we ran, getting slapped with the air, and blows of water from the sea carried by the winds, the hotel was a hundred yards from the beach.
When we got to the café, the floor was under an inch of water, “We haven’t had a storm like this in a decade,” said some voice serving food behind a long row of tables, to a guest in front of me. The food looked like it was mostly picked over. And the sign read $25.00. And it was take it or leave it (written under the $25.00-dollars), and where the nearest café was—only God knew.
“If this storm would just take a break until we get settled in,” I commented to Rosa.
There we were standing up with our trays and dishes of food, bits and pieces of leftovers, looking out a glass window at the tall tress looking as if they were going to be ripped out of the ground any minute, and a few smaller ones were already ripped up and out from its roots and all. We looked about, there was no place to sit down, and so we ate standing up.
It made me shaky to think how much the dinner cost; it was the closest thing to anything eatable though.
As we finished our food and walked outside, I could see the tops of the trees floating as if they were ships out at sea. And you could hear the hard twisted winds, its whistling and noise clanking, in your ears, braches breaking. I hung onto Rosa as if onto a little dinghy, and she I, we took a couple of breaths like doves and nearly swam to our hotel rooms.
I could see Rosa’s hair was tied down somehow, close to her head, and I had to carry my hat. She was right up close to me, when we got into our apartment building; the hallway was dark, drenched. We went up one flight of stairs, and once in our apartment, I had to let go of Rosa, and I heard a great thump, looked out the window, thought a building crashed, but it was a large tree had fallen by the pool, and then I noticed lighting and thunder and there was no longer a moon to be seen.
My head felt tired, stiff and then I rested on the bed, fully clothed, in case I had to get up quick, for whatever reason, and fell to sleep. It wasn’t any good staying up or worrying (the hotel staff was not going to vacate the hotel, and told us to simply lock ourselves in our rooms and outwait the storm), the wind was like a hammer, and the rains lashed out like glass, clear and sharp against our windows and stone building. That night it came onto Maui, like a blowing storm out of control, and it blew for hours and hours and hours. You couldn’t get out of the hotel, until morning, even if you wanted to, and where would you go anyhow. But it came out all right, in the morning, Maui was as if it had a nightmare, and had taken a sedative.


No: 419/ 6-22-2009
Dedicated to my sidekick, Rosa