Moving to Hawaii

Charlotte stretched her arms as best she could in the front seat of her yellow Dodge Neon. She started the engine to check the time, 8:15 am, before turning it back off again to save gas and search the packed vehicle for a bottle of water.

It had been just around a month since Charlotte moved from Birmingham Alabama to Honolulu Hawaii. Her parents had passed away about three weeks prior to the twenty two year old’s big move, a bad car accident, and having no immediate family in Alabama prompted her rash decision. Reflecting on her current situtaion, Charlotte realized the old adage was true: you should not make a big decision within six months of a tragedy. Because of this, she had moved to Hawaii with $850 to her name. She should have researched how expensive it was, maybe even how hard it was to find a job. She was fresh out of art school from Samford University, having managed a full scholarship all four years, with a degree in art and design. She figured a design job would be easy to find, but boy had she been wrong. Not having a job made getting an apartment impossible, and she was almost out of money from staying in motels. At this point, Charlotte was praying for a miracle.

She finished a half drank bottle of water and opened a breakfast bar she had gotten from the last motel she stayed at, luckily they had a continental breakfast. Her last motel stay had been the night before last so she was relatively fresh still, but needed to brush her teeth pretty badly. Charlotte chewed slowly, trying to make the bar last, when a loud rapping on her window made her jump. She turned to look out the side, eyes wide, and saw a man standing there staring at her. He motioned for her to roll the window down. Taking in his appearance, Charlotte was a little afraid to. He stood with dark sunglasses over his weathered and sun cooked face, long blond hair and a black leather vest unzipped to his naval with no shirt underneath. Charlotte weighed her options, but decided she couldn’t back out of the shopping center parking lot fast enough to get away from him. She noticed a few people milling around outside of vehicles and decided one of them would probably help her if she screamed loud enough and cracked her window.

“How’s it?” The guy asked when Charlotte got the window down about two inches. “Are you waiting for a bond?”

“Hi, uh, what?” Charlotte asked, confused.

“You waiting for a bond? We don’t open until nine but I can help you now”, the man said. He pointed to the building Charlotte was parked in from of. Turning, she noticed a sign in the window that said “Da Kine Bail Bonds”.

“Oh, no, sorry”, she said blushing. “I just pulled in to sleep, I didn’t realize where I was.” Truthfully she hadn’t paid any attention to the shopping center when she pulled in last night. She was exhausted and just looking for a place to park.

The man leaned back to glance into her backseat, noticing all of her worldly possessions, “you traveling?”

“Something like that, it’s a long story”, Charlotte said, unsure why she was still talking to this man. She fidgeted with the wrapper from her breakfast.

“I got a long story too, want to come in and have a cup of coffee?”

“Uhhh”, Charlotte stammered. Honestly, how bad could he be if he worked for a bail bond company? That made him basically a cop right? Plus she didn’t have anywhere to go and it would be super weird if she turned him down and then stayed sitting in the parking lot. And hot coffee sounded amazing...

“I’m Dog, by the way”, he said, bringing her out of her thoughts once again.

“Dog? Really?” Charlotte asked.

The man gave a hearty laugh, “Duane really, but people call me Dog.”

“That sounds like a story”, Charlotte said.

“Come on in, kid. I’ll make a pot of coffee and we can swap long stories until the rest of my crew gets here.”

Charlotte shrugged before pulling her keys out of the ignition and dropping them in her purse. What did she have to loose at this point?

“So you just moved here out of the blue?” Dog questioned.

Charlotte nodded, “yep.” Honestly she was surprised he didn’t seem more surprised after hearing her story, but after the bits and pieces he had told her about earning his name she figured not much surprised him.

“Well, that takes guts, kid.”

“Tell me about it. Probably the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.” Charlotte heard the bell on the door ding.

“That’s my crew arriving”, Dog said standing. “Come on out here and meet them.”

Charlotte stood and instantly began trying to smooth out her jean shorts and white t-shirt. She wasn’t prepared to meet new people and was surprised when she realized how much she had relaxed around this guy. Honestly, he had reminded her a bit of her father. By no means in his looks, but his friendly-talk-to-anyone nature. She felt her heart squeeze at the thought of her dad and blinked rapidly to keep tears from falling.

Coming into the main area Charlotte came face to face with three people; one was a man about Dog’s height with a gray pony tail that went down his back, the other a guy who looked about Charlotte’s age and a very buxom blonde woman.

“Charlotte, this is part of my crew. My partner Tim”, the guy with the ponytail waved, “my nephew Justin and my wife Beth.”

“Hi”, Charlotte said barely above a whisper.

“You here for a bond, honey?” Beth asked, she moved to sit behind the receptionist desk. “I can get your paperwork started.”

“Oh no Bethy, she’s not here for a bond. I found her sleeping in her car out front when I came in this morning”, Dog informed his wife.

Charlotte was sure she was bright red. If she could melt into the floor this would be the time.

Beth shot Dog a glance, and he sent one right back. Charlotte wasn’t sure what it meant but she had a feeling she had worn out her welcome.

“Thank you for the coffee, but I will get going and let ya’ll get to work”, she said moving to exit the building. “You’ve been the nicest person I’ve met here so far.”

“Wait, do you have a number?” Dog asked. “I’d like to check up on you to make sure you’re getting along here.”

“Um, yes”, Charlotte answered. She had a cell phone, but wasn’t sure if it was still working since she didn’t have much money to put minutes on it. But then, who had she called lately anyway?

After jotting the number down Dog handed her a business card and Charlotte hurried out the door.