One Way Ticket

“One Way Ticket”

            It was a cold morning on September 27, 2012. I was 20 years old, Lea and I were standing outside of the San Francisco airport, saying goodbye to my brother and sister in-law. “Thank you guys so much for giving us a ride,” I said. “Have fun in Hawaii,” they exclaimed cheerfully. My fiancé has always wanted to visit Hawaii, and finally I was able to take her there. I was excited. We were about to board the plane. I remember thinking how nervous I was, standing outside and firmly grasping my luggage. I had hoped we were making a good decision. We quit our dead end jobs, bought a one way ticket to Oahu, Hawaii, and planned to stay at a campground.

            It was my first time on an airplane, and I was anxious. We had dreamt of doing this for so long, and we were finally on our way. We had a lot of luggage, because we didn’t know how long we were going to stay out there. Although I only brought a few shirts and a couple shorts, it seemed like my fiancé packed her whole wardrobe. Her brother let us borrow his huge red backpack used for wild land firefighting. We put all our camping gear in it, and it was quite heavy. That was filled mostly with camping gear such as a hotplate, a tent, a couple small pillows and pots and pans. Finally after five hours of sitting on a plane, and watching Lea overwhelmed with excitement, we landed in Honolulu, Hawaii.

            I immediately noticed the humidity when I stepped off the plane. It was a beautiful scene, like the pictures on the calendar in her room. I enjoyed the view, despite my sweatiness. We then realized we needed to take the bus over to our campground, called Maleakahana. There was a variety of people on the bus, and coming from a small town in the Central Valley, it was interesting to see new faces. I remember the huge red bag that I was carrying was annoying to maneuver, and I accidentally kept slamming people with it. When we arrived at the campground, I was surprisingly amazed. It was a beautiful, quiet, and sandy piece of paradise. Everyone there was very friendly, and welcoming. Most guests there were native Hawaiians. It was right next to the ocean, and surrounded by palm trees. “Look at that shower!” Lea shrieked. I noticed a private outdoor shower with bamboo and tropical plants surrounding it. It was next to a small shack that had electric outlets, a big sink, and a mirror. We were both impressed. We made ourselves at home, set up our tent, and relaxed in the sun with our toes in the sand for the next couple of weeks.

            The main problem with our adventure was that we had a very tight budget. We were literally living off of my unemployment, and it was barely enough for us to survive. Luckily my idea of bringing a hotplate saved us a lot of money. We plugged it into the outlets at the shack, and warmed up corn tortillas to eat, with canned meat. One time we got beans and spam to eat with the tortillas, and that was a nice treat. At one point my money was late coming in, so we had to search for change on the ground for food on our way to fill up our water bottles. ‘Hey what are you kids looking for?” Local Natives asked us. “Oh….nothing,” we replied. This lasted for a couple of days, but we made the best of it. Despite how poor we were, we were still having the time of our lives. Lea was just thrilled to be in Hawaii, and was grasping the adventure. It was nice not having to both be working at the casino, and suffer through our graveyard shift. We were enjoying ourselves, and surviving on the island, but that soon came to an end.

            One morning my fiancé started complaining about her lower back hurting. I figured her back was sore from sleeping on the ground for so long, and I got her a small camping mattress. Her pain continued, and it was followed by a fever. She was sick. I was hoping it would go away, but she was feeling worse. I was lying on the beach with her, while she was lying there with a cold wet towel on her face for hours. She began shaking uncontrollably, and looked frightened. “Hector, I need to go to the hospital,” she mumbled. So I went to the campground manager and explained the situation. He was eager to help, and we both hopped on his golf cart to go pick her up. Meanwhile Lea was standing up, frantically shaking, and wandering around searching for help. We picked her up and the campground manager gave us a ride to the hospital. She was throwing up and pouring water on her head. At the hospital the nurses hooked her up to fluids and gave her medicine to bring down her fever of 102 degrees. We were there for hours, and I was worried for her health. Then the doctors informed us that she needed to be transferred to an intensive care hospital across the island, to stay overnight. This meant that I had to find my way back to the campground, gather all our stuff, and be back before they left. I decided to run.

Covered in sweat and out of breath, I returned back to the hospital. Lea seemed to be in better spirits once her fever dropped, but her blood pressure was still too low. Despite the situation, I was surprised that I could still make her laugh and smile, even though she was in pain. The ambulance took us to the main hospital on the island, and we ended up staying there for the next four days. She was upset that she got sick, and wished we could stay longer. I felt bad that our plans failed. I had to ask for money from my parents to buy our ticket home.

            It was a relief to be back at home. Lea lost a lot of weight, but recovered from her kidney infection. Going to Hawaii was an experience I will never forget. We hope to go back someday, but be more prepared and have more money. Despite everything that happened, we still enjoyed our vacation. My fiancé, who is now my wife, still talks about it often. We took a lot of photos, and even met a celebrity. I suppose it was not the right time to permanently live in Hawaii, and we now realize that everything happened for a reason.