Disclaimer: this is only a work of a fiction therefore there is no need to take it seriously and NO, images are not mine. Credits to UH Volleyball too on YouTube for the picture of Austin Matautia on UH vs CSUN 2017 match and Hawaii Athletics on the portrait of the image.
And no, the portrait of the image is actually NOT me.
Oh and this one might be painful ever since I did mention the pain and the long road to recovery on recovering the mental pain and emotional pain everybody are going through actually in real life. [No, I wasn't joking--I have endured this pain hence why I am reading on 'Love for Imperfect things' by Haemin Sunim.
And yes I do recommend this book for everybody.
https://melwritessparkstides.tumblr.com/
The next day; just recently after breakfast—we decided to take the white bicycles for a ride; as we got changed into clean clothes additionally we wear our favourite pair of slippers on our feet: Austin ask me to wait outside the Villa by the pier additionally he will try to take out both of the white bicycles from their original place while I watched him; leaving the task to Austin—Austin takes out one of the white bicycle carefully.
And no, the portrait of the image is actually NOT me.
Oh and this one might be painful ever since I did mention the pain and the long road to recovery on recovering the mental pain and emotional pain everybody are going through actually in real life. [No, I wasn't joking--I have endured this pain hence why I am reading on 'Love for Imperfect things' by Haemin Sunim.
And yes I do recommend this book for everybody.
https://melwritessparkstides.tumblr.com/
The next day; just recently after breakfast—we decided to take the white bicycles for a ride; as we got changed into clean clothes additionally we wear our favourite pair of slippers on our feet: Austin ask me to wait outside the Villa by the pier additionally he will try to take out both of the white bicycles from their original place while I watched him; leaving the task to Austin—Austin takes out one of the white bicycle carefully.
Although I have seen many of the guests uses it as either couples; solo travelers or even families with kids—they pull out the white bicycles so brilliantly which makes me want to ask a question on ‘How do they pull out the white bicycles without a scratch or even falling into the turquoise crystal-clear water?’ Oh well, I guess everybody does make mistakes at first on their first attempt yet day by day; they are learning to pull out the white bicycles properly by learning their mistakes.
Plus this is Austin’s first attempt to get them out for us to give it a test ride.
However one of the disadvantage I didn’t like about the bicycle are there are no hand brakes to stop the bicycle therefore guests have to attempt to either slow it down or to stop by using their foot.
“Come on,” calls Austin to the bicycle while pulling the first bicycle out just as when he is either talking to it as is either the bicycle is a living object (*No, a bicycle is non-living thing) or is he talking to one of his dogs back at home in Oahu.
I tried not snicker, but it is too funny to watch it unfold!
“Oh come on, girl—please?” He ask while pulling the first white bicycle out without pulling the second one out as carefully as possible because if he pulls the other one out as well—disaster.
He managed to get the first white bicycle out however he accidentally the back wheel pull too close to him which it feels like when someone stepped on another person’s foot while dancing for the very time plus he yelps an ‘Ouch!’ Which makes me laughing even much more harder.
Oh boy! I felt bad for Austin having to do this task all by himself whilst all I can do is observe and watch him pulling out the first white bicycle from their original parking position.
As Austin grumbles about the pain on his foot; he managed to pull the first one out to me; now he has to do the second one which isn’t going to be as easy as everybody else thinks.
I get the bicycle and said “Thank you” But he is too busy grumbling about how his foot got crushed by the bicycle back tyre.
“You okay?” I called to Austin.
“Um . . . yeah—I’m okay; just having a painful foot from pulling out the first bicycle and please don’t ride it first—I want to test it out on stable ground.” He replied adding a reason on why when we are cycling towards the island—we need to push it first.
“Okay,” I called with a smile.
As he pulled the second bicycle; it goes on without a hitch and thankfully there wasn’t any more crushed foot from either pair of the white bicycles.
“Let’s push it first then we can ride it later as a test drive.” He confirms while I watched him leading the day as usual.
I obeyed his command on pushing the white bicycle first until we reach the island; however even though there are butlers and workers who are working at the resort can actually cycle on the pier however their first experience wasn’t always great.
Luckily by the time when they got the hang of riding it without the *handbrakes, they managed to ride it carefully.
[*Really? Come on, those bicycles does need handbrakes on all of the white bicycle therefore when we need to stop; we didn’t need to rely on our foot to either slow down the bicycle or to stop riding. I am just giving a constructive feedback to Anantara Kihavah as this is one of my favourite resort in Maldives.]
Finally, by the time when we arrived to the mainland on the island—we start riding the white bicycle however one of my huge concerns about riding it have something to do with either stopping the bike or to slow it down ever since it didn’t have a pair of handbrakes for me to stop it or to slow it down.
However it is also a concern to Austin as well ever since we are the two who decided to ride those kind of bicycle without a pair of handbrakes.
“Okay, so are you ready to ride it?” He ask me, feeling a mixture of fear and excitement inside him hence why both of his hands are shaking; both of his foot are now feeling numb except he isn’t feeling nervous at all; his pair of colour changing eyes are twinkling with excitement plus his smile says it all just to be excited to test out the white bicycles from Anantara Kihavah Resort.
I on the other hand, kind of feeling excited on the inside however not so much on the outside.
It is scary to experience it firsthand ever since you might know you would fall down from it either on the grainy ground of the white powdery soft sand or either into a bush (This is the experience I got really nervous about especially you may not know, the bush you might fell in are something to watch out for—bushes of poison ivy or something with razor sharp thorns on the stem of the bush; I am not joking—I mean it for real in real life on the experience), or into the crystal clear water in shades of turquoise, teal and blues.
Jokes aside, just don’t ride it when you are drunk from drinking the alcohol beverage! (**I am not an alcoholic drinker but I just want to warn you as a serious warning on this note.)
“Uh, yeah—I guess.” I answer; feeling more nervous about the falling part on either into a bush of a thorny plant or a bush of poison ivy [Not cool, not cool at all] which is one of the scariest thing I ever heard from others or even falling into the crystal clear turquoise water which makes it a lot less painful but still, you got to be aware because there might be strong waves: currents; riptides and powerful undertows which can take you out to the open sea or it could drown you which sounds genuinely serious yet scary as well hence one of the rules back in Hawaii on ‘Never turn your back on the ocean’ with drowning accidents.
Thankfully Austin is a strong and powerful swimmer therefore it is easy to know why he always watch out on me as well as his friends and family on any danger which we have to be aware of yet we have to take the words of warning seriously plus doing activities such as hiking, scuba diving: swimming in the ocean or even surfing at the more difficult area yet fiercely protected by locals to retain their long-time local traditions back at home in Hawaii. (*Not just on the island of Oahu but the other islands as well on Maui, the Big Island of Hawaii and Kauai additionally Maui’s two younger island on Molokai and Lanai.)
“So shall we get it started?” Ask Austin while he starts paddling on his bicycle with one of his foot still throbbing from earlier on how he didn’t realise he pulls it too close which crush on one of his foot.
“Yeah . . . yeah; okay.” I answered while both of my foot start paddling on the pedal of the bicycle; trying to catch up with Austin.
Oh boy, this is going to be a very long ride on the very nice white bicycle.
~
While we ride the bicycles quietly, we have to look at front on where we are actually heading in which direction therefore we can know which path are we heading for.
We don’t know either where are we going or have a fixed destination ever since we are on an island (It is more like an atoll ever since Maldives are made up by many atolls plus some are inhabited by either the native locals or it can be one of the expensive yet well-loved, high rating resorts from a company such as Shangri La, Anantara resorts or others—some of the atolls are uninhabited.
Thus this is reason why, we just go around the island on one of their white bicycles just for a ride as a test drive.
“Can we talk about something?” Ask Austin while breaking the silence between us.
For me, I didn’t want to say anything not because I am having a fight with him but because I need to watch where I am going plus Austin also need to watch where he is going ever since we may not know there might beach carts (They use golf carts but I call it beach carts ever since they use it for either to transfer tired guests or disabled guests to their villas; to send something which requires a beach cart instead ever since a bicycle can hold an item or two but more items means it requires a beach cart on either heavy goods, suitcases or more than an item or two goods to carry) getting in our way plus we have to watch out for bushes or even falling into the water while cycling on the way back to the water villa.
Just a few minutes later, I piped up to Austin as a reply to earlier question on “Can we talk about something?” On: “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to stay silent although we have to watch where are we going plus to look out for beach carts, other guests on either by foot or riding the same white bicycle we are now riding, falling into a bush or even when we reach the beach or going back to the villa—on falling into the water. However I would love to talk to you about something therefore what we can talk about?”
“Well, I don’t know—what do you think we need to talk about?”
“I don’t know either, Austin.”
As I place my left foot down on the ground to slow down the bike; I called to Austin “Can we count the leaves on the bushes?”
He calls back as to reply “What?”
“To count the leaves on one of these bushes.”
“Oh,”
We tried counting the number of leaf on a bush however we completely give up ever since there are too many to count the number of leaves on the bushes thus we have to try to talk about another topic except it has to be something interesting yet light as well.
“Well . . . that was a good attempt but too much leaves for us to count.” I moaned, remembering why so many guests attempted to make it as a joke however it is less of joke and more of ‘What are we thinking?’ Kind of idea.
“I guess so, so what do you think of here—Kihavah; your favourite resort in Maldives?” He ask me on changing the subject.
“I have to say I love it, especially I remembered for so long I talk about the place happily yet when Charlie decided to do a lucky draw kind of debate by writing the place we had to choose to them [Josh Walker and Austin’s sister; Gabriella ‘Gabi’] then place it into the hat or a container—later when after they shake the hat or container a few times then we had to pick up a paper on which place we are choosing; however we can get a second round if we got the result we didn’t want!”
“Exactly, you know it may sounds like a ‘pick your lucky number’ debate but he [Charlie] decided to do it anyway ever since he is hoping we can get the answer on what we actually want!”
I laugh and added “Exactly, I’d think this is very beneficial for many because firstly they can choose what they want based on their choice on just about anything!”
We both laughed, then he called to me on a man who is riding his bicycle who is going to run into us as we have to split up on either side: knowing he is going to knock both of us out.
“Paula, watch out!”
I let out a scream while going to the left side while the man suddenly gasp in astonishment; I stop with my left foot however I fall off my bicycle and land on the ground while the bicycle falls to the right.
“Sorry!” Calls the man who did pass by us in the opposite direction on anticlockwise while we were riding around in a direction of clockwise.
“It’s okay! Apology accepted!” Calls Austin to man before going to take a look on me on whether am I hurt or not—wow, sometimes riding a bicycle without a pair of handbrakes is truly scary in real life.
Especially when you don’t have the protective gear on protecting yourself on a helmet, a pair of elbow and knee guards to prevent any injuries.
I groaned while I holding my left knee which is now bleeding.
“Paula, are you okay?” He ask, feeling breathless.
“I’m okay but not my knee.”
“Oh no,” he replied while shaking his head, looking my skinned left knee.
“It’s okay, I’m okay.” My reply while getting up additionally pushing the bike back up in position.
“Yeah, come on; let’s go back to the villa—I’d think this is enough for today.”
“Oh, you don’t want to continue?”
“No, not when your knee is scrapped on the rough ground.”
“Okay.” I replied meekly, feeling guilty about how Austin feels concerned about me especially after earlier incident occurred on how the other guest [We are talking about the man I mentioned on riding the bicycle around the island anticlockwise.] is too busy riding the bicycle on a speed limit.
He looks around for other guests on cycling the white bicycle as well but there are none other than the man who gasped very loudly when realised he is going on us.
“I’ll see if I have a plaster to recover the knee and to stop the bleeding.” He said, this time his voice is more softly than earlier on how he checked up on me and the scrapped left knee.
“Really? You’re so sweet, Austin.” I replied to him a sad small smile.
“And maybe I’ll push both of the bicycle therefore we don’t have to continue riding it ever since I don’t have the motivation to ride the bike after the small incident earlier.”
“Yeah, good idea.”
We both walk back to the villa very slowly—ever since we are still shaking from the small incident between the man who ride the bicycle and us.
~
After we both gone back into the villa additionally he parked both of the white bicycles outside the villa back into the original position.
I sit down on a bench, leaning against the wall and breathing slowly yet quietly.
It feels scary to experience something like this however when you fall down from a bicycle or a horse; you learn to get back up for the eighth time.
[“Fall down seven times, stand up eighth time”]
Austin is now at the wardrobe area, searching for a box of plaster from one of the carry on bags we brought with us.
By the time when he got it, in my eyes—tears starts to form on the corner of my dark brown eyes.
When he got out, he ask me “You okay?”
“Yeah,” I answered however I am feeling just as when I am about to cry.
After placing the plaster on my scrapped left knee; Austin looks up and understand now I am crying to let out all of the pain I have been carrying inside me.
He gives me a hug while I cried silently, letting all the tears out to wash away the sting of the pain I am now suffering.
It may hurt to get a skinned knee but it hurts even more just when you carry the pain within you internally for so long until now all of the sudden, you do realize the pain you carry within you does hurt a lot internally than externally.
It wasn’t just physical pain, however it also applies to emotional pain you endured for a long time additionally mental pain too as well.
“I”m sorry.”
These are the two words Austin whispers to me in my ears; feeling guilty on what has been on going between me and my family additionally my life as well.
“It’s okay.” I whispered back to him softly.
It maybe painful however it will only take a few days to recover from the skinned left knee. But for emotional pain? There are just no cure additionally it may take years to speak it all out towards the ones who are listening to us yet non-judgmental about listening to our story on how we did endure the mental pain and emotional pain.
