This is my very first story anywhere. Though the story is true, the names are changed. All comments welcome. Thanks to Louise who edited and encouraged me to submit.
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There are three ways to get around the island of Kauai. If you live there, you can drive you own car. But otherwise you depend on a bus system that runs when it wants to, and not all the way around the island. Or the much more reliable, true and tested thumb method. This story starts with the later being used.
I had just taken a new job on the island of Kauai, The Garden Island. On my drive to and from work, I kept seeing young women hitchhiking on the side road, almost every day. I ask my new workmates about this and was told that it was a very popular mode of transportation around the island for students on a small budget. Having just moved from San Diego, I would never even have thought about picking up a "hitcher". My new friends just laughed and said I should start thinking like an islander.
Now just a little about me. I'm no spring chicken, but now quite over the hill either. I had just turned 44, shortly after arriving. No body builder, but not a fatty either. Slightly over 6'1" tall 230 pounds, short brown and what I have been told are deep blue bedroom eyes.
A couple of days later, I spotted a "hitcher" with thumb out. I had just finished my weekly shopping trip to the large town of Lihue, and was on my way home. It was one of those rare bays on Kauai where it had been raining all day. She was standing there with her backpack by her feet as I pulled to the shoulder. She opened the door and I told her to hop in. putting her pack in the back seat, she ask if I was heading to the Westend. I told her I was and ask her where on the Westend? She said she was camping on Polihali Beach. I said it was just past my house. She said her name was Kelly and that she was from Alabama and was taking a break from college. I took a few quick glimpses at her, she was wearing a loose t-shirt that was plastered to her small chest. A bikini clearly visible through the wet material, short wet red hair, and perfect smooth legs.
We chatted as I drove, told her how I had just moved to the island a month ago, and was learning all the ins and outs. She told me she had come here about the same time with a girlfriend, but she had left the day before to fly home. Kelly said she was felling a little low, as her 22nd birthday was in a couple of weeks, and now her friend was not going to be here to celebrate with her.