Travel Reference
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had sent them trotting off behind a copse of rocks, but I had turned off my engine and was
very quiet. The breeze coming off the sea was cool and sounded wonderful as it whispered
through the long grass. By and by, the herds of horses emerged and were more interested
in grazing than me. They looked amazing: all different colors, dark brown to piebald and
even black. Their long manes waved in the sea breeze. I could hear their teeth ripping at
the grass and the satisfying sounds of them chewing and crunching up the grass in their
powerful mouths. Together with this sound and the warm afternoon sun, I was hypnotized.
I couldn't move if I tried. I was completely content. They surrounded me now; I supposed
they were curious of my car. They continued to tear mouthfuls of grass and crunch them
up. I don't know what it was that made me love that sound. I always have been utterly tran-
quilized by the chomping of horse's teeth. They were serenading me.
I had discovered a very nice brand of beer, and I now quietly screwed a cap off one and
took a sip. It was utterly serene and completely peaceful. Time seemed to stand steady, but
the sun was going down, and there was no hiding from that. I think if I were on the other
side of the island I might have seen the green flash just before the sun disappeared below
the horizon. I first saw this phenomenon in the West Indies. I had never even heard of it. It
was the favorite topic in the bars on the beach when viewing the ocean at happy hour; nay,
it was the reason why you would start drinking before the sun had set. I believe it occurs
as the sun's usual light rays are refracted due to the prism effect of the horizon, but there
definitely is a satisfying green flash. One has to be quick to see it though.
It was around this time of my stay on Lanai that Gavin decided to quit his work on the
yacht, Felicia, and come across to Lanai to see what it was like. He arrived on a visiting
boat from Keehi and moved his meager possessions aboard Déjà vu. I welcomed the com-
pany as it had been very quiet in the harbor, and the diversion was agreeable. We were a bit
of a sensation, being twins from South Africa, and the friends I had made up to this point
quickly became his friends as well.
He was offered a job with the Lanai Service Station as well, and we were given an inter-
esting job building an old rock wall enclosing the service station's little garden off from
the main road. I have fond memories of Gavin and I spending hours driving around the
leeward side of Lanai, uphill and down dale searching for old, weathered rocks which we
loaded into the back of Mike's old four-wheel-drive pickup truck. These were deposited on
the pavement and were to be used on the wall. We were given strict instructions not to use
or upset any old rocks that looked like they may have been used to mark old graves, spiritu-
al, or ancestral landmarks. We saw a number of these and dutifully avoided them. (Quite a
number of these old rock formations had petroglyphs etched into the rock that weren't too
visible from afar.)
