East Meets West
They both stepped into the rental car terminal at the same time. He let her pass through first. It was an empty terminal and no rush. He stood several feet behind. She was wearing jean shorts and had a rather large sun straw hat on and a gigantic, black backpacking bag stuffed to the brim, strapped on tightly to her back and bulging beyond her shoulder.
“Ah, fellow backpacker roadie,” he thought to himself.
He once was that. But now he had grown smarter (and older) and needed to preserve his back. Even if it did look funny he always traveled with a roller bags these days.
When she approached the counter he pulled out a foreign passport, handed it over to the service agent and in a jiffy the gentleman pulled up her booking.
“One-way, one week reservation?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Where ya’ headed to?”
“San Fran,” she said in a British accent.
“Ah. Have fun!” the man responded. “You’ll find your vehicle in the small car row at the end of the lot. Feel free to choose from any car in that row.”
“Thank you,” she said as she trundled out of the building.
After she had grabbed the car keys and departed he then stepped up to the counter from behind the stanchioned ropes, providing his driver’s license to the staff person.
“I have a one day reservation to LA.”
The agent grabbed his driver license and began entering the details into the computer.
“Ah sir, but your license is expired.”
“What? Oh no!” He exclaimed.
“Yes, it expired a few days ago.”
“Oh I must have forgot! I booked it before my birthday but it did just pass... Man, I forgot about my birthday. Well, can we proceed with the reservation since I booked it before my birthday?”
“Unfortunately no sir. You need a valid ID to drive.”
“So what can I do then?”
“Well you can go to the DMV and apply for an extension.”
“But it’s a Sunday!”
“Oh then for that I’m sorry.”
He paused and quickly thought of his options for travel. How was he to get from San Diego to LA? He couldn’t book any cars. Amtrak was a steady stalwart and that would be a beautiful ride up the coast. But when we had gone to book train tickets prior to coming to San Diego he discovered that the tracks were broken and there was no train service between San Diego and Irvine. He quickly ticked off all the possible options in his head. No car, no train. What other means?
The girl! She was driving up to San Francisco. Surely she would be passing by LA. And Europeans were always known to be much more inclined to road trips and hitchhiking.
He quickly picked up his suitcase and ran outside the building, scrambling up the escalator to where the cars were. Maybe he could still catch her before she left and ask her for a ride. He recalled the agent telling her she could pick any of the small cars. Once at the top of the escalator he scanned the signs for the small car row and headed directly for that section. He passed by a row of black SUVS, and luckily, the next section was a row of very small cars. There she was, standing behind a small hatchback.
With zing he approached her.
“Hi. I heard you were going up to San Francisco?”
“Yes.”
“Taking Highway 1 through LA to San Francisco?”
“Yup.”
“So…” he began. “I meant to book a car. And I did. But my driver’s license expired. I was wondering if I could grab a ride with you. Up to Los Angeles. And you could drop me off anywhere there.”
“Ah perfect!” She exclaimed without hesitation. “I’ve always wanted to travel California with an American. Please! Join me!”
She moved her bag aside in the trunk to make space for his luggage.
“Are you sure?” he asked. It seemed almost too easy for him.
“Yes! I’ve always dreamed of a California road trip. Now we can go together and you can show me all the places in Hollywood and where all the stars eat!”
Okay, he thought to himself. That likely wasn’t going to happen, a Hollywood star encounter, but maybe the stars were aligning and at the very least she was receptive to the idea of him joining her.
With a little surprise blurted, “Oh thank you so much!”
He put his bag in the trunk, closed the trunk and then stood there, still dumbfounded at his luck.
“Would you like to drive?” She asked, her right arm outstretched, the keys dangling from her hand.
“Oh no. I can’t my license expired.”
“Oh right. I was hoping someone could drive and then I just could be a passenger and look out the window,” she said with a slight blush. “Well, come on now. You can still tell me where to drive. Don’t be a toad. You can tell me all the wonderful places to drive,” she said with a smile.
And so, with the slightest of hesitation but full of wonder, wondering about his luck, he hopped inside the car with her and closed the door. They were only strangers, the both of them headed to Los Angeles. No ships passing at night but passengers from the same airport. What a coincidence, he thought to himself. Can’t fight this feeling. Can’t let this opportunity go. The stars had aligned! Pull yourself together man. Be the cool Californian! Quit it with these lyrics! Once he buckled up, she started the car and they left the airport, proceeding onward with him directing her where to drive.
San Diego was beautiful to her. The nice, curving roads through scenic vistas, atop mesa bluffs, below valley floors, alongside lagoons which reflected the morning sun. The drive was not merely his attempt to impress her, though of course the whole point of a road trip was to take the scenic route. And he did know all the backroads along the coast and up and down and throughout the lagoons. She was of course expecting also him to be the expert on all things California. Yet with this leisurely route and time in the car now he had to think of exciting places where he could take her so he could justify his presence on this ride to her and make his weight in the car worth it.
The ride up the coast was beautiful. It was the picture postcard view of California she had always dreamed of. And she got to experience it with a local Californian to boot. She was a bit timid flying to California alone. She had never done this kind of trip before. With all the work she had put in and all that had gone in the world, the first opportunity she had to break from her job she wanted to take to traveling. All of her friends had talked about traveling but no one had actually taken her up on her offer when she brought up the idea of travelling in autumn. The world was just too dangerous and uncertain a place to travel right now, her friends bemoaned. Besides, they had other obligations at home which precluded them from traveling at the moment, despite those constant notions of wanderlust during their weekly, virtual tea times.
And so, after a summer of these tea time chats, she decided not on a whim but with a deliberate choice, that she would book a weeklong trip to California for herself . After a summer’s worth of these conversations she knew this was only idle chatter from her group and dreams of future time yore. They were perfectly content operating within the confines of their homes where there was safety and predictability. She too had been like that, yet after two summers stuck on the island, she thought it better to take the first open opportunity to travel. So off to California it was. She splurged and booked a business class ticket from London to San Diego and then a basic one-way ticket back from San Francisco to London. She would have booked a first class ticket out to San Diego but it seemed no airline flew first class there so, alas, business it was. But it was still quite the fantasy splurge for her.
She was amazed that already at the beginning of the trip, not steps off the airport pitch, she had encountered another friendly traveler her age. She had been told that Americans could be rather rough for the wear. “Watch out because they might have some ulterior motive!” they said. These cretans might be trying to sell some pernicious thing like drugs or sex.
But this gentleman seemed friendly enough. He was wearing a bright, pressed yellow polo shirt, zipped off cargo shorts, wore hiking boots like herself, and a rather nice little cowboy which sat atop his head, slightly akilter. After a brief thought she realized the cowboy hat wasn’t that small - it just wasn’t as large a cowboy hat as she might have expected. If this didn’t smack quintessential American then she wasn’t quite sure what did. A chance encounter with a true American cowboy. Nevermind if he was Asian and wasn’t wearing any cowboy boots, jeans or a big belt and seemed to be dragging what was a rather large, almost oversized piece of Samsonite suitcase. For her, it was still a fortuitous circumstance to be starting her holiday, a precious guide with local knowledge joining her.
The both of them were truly excited at their luck. She hadn’t been expecting a travelling companion but happily relished it when it appeared.
He needed a ride to Los Angeles and wasn’t expecting to find one, and was quite surprised when he did find one.
The day went by extremely smoothly for the both of them. They wound their way around San Diego, taking tacos and breakfast on the beach. They both kicked off their boots after eating to walk along the ocean’s edge. After a bit of time he mentioned that they ought to get going back to the car. They had already walked a mile now and there likely would be traffic heading up to Los Angeles.
She wanted the moment to go on longer. This was what she had wanted when she bought her tickets. To walk on the beach and bask in the California sun. This was something she would tell her friends about when she got back. Maybe she would get another opportunity to catch the sunset on the beach in Los Angeles. In the meantime, he probably did know best and she recognized she wouldn’t even have gotten the chance to see or experience this beach and the wonderful food without his presence and knowledge. So she turned around and they headed back to the car.
On the drive up she mentioned that she had always wanted to go to Disneyland. It was her attempt to see if he wanted to go Disneyland with her. She hated to admit it to any of her friends but that was the one thing she didn’t want to do by herself. And he was so adventurous, with such courage to approach her and ask her for a ride (and really, who did that these days?). Maybe he could continue this magical adventure with her at the Magic Kingdom. It would be a dream come true.
She pulled up some gumption and inquired about Disneyland and how much time was necessary for it and if the queues were really as long as the tiktok videos showed. Unfortunately, he said he couldn’t spend the day at Disneyland because tickets were quite expensive and one would want to spend a full day there. It was already 11 a.m. by the time they left the beach.
Though he wouldn’t admit to her, he never liked Disney and didn’t quite get what girls saw in those princesses. He opined Disneyland was a wonderful place to spend both day and night, and that perhaps after today she might want to consider exploring Disneyland for herself an entire day. But in the meantime they could drive to Hollywood in LA and see the Walk of Fame. She thought that a great alternative. After all, he wasn’t planning to go to Disneyland to begin with, even if it was in LA, and he had already been so kind enough to treat her to breakfast on the beach.
After more driving their next stop was for lunch in Los Angeles, Koreatown. This hadn’t been on her itinerary. She was shocked by the amount of Korean on the streets. Not rather being spoken by the people (for there seemed equal amounts of Blacks and Mexicans walking around) but on the signs overhanging buildings and aloft street poles. But she supposed it made sense that the two of them would be here together as he was Asian.
He told her they would have Korean barbecue, to which this also surprised her. It wasn’t like any American barbecue. There was more food and more types of food. It wasn’t just all meat either. She’d had good steak filets before but the meat here was altogether different and came with more flavor, not just grilled or seared. It was like there was soy sauce on everything. But then there were small appetizer dishes, extremely spicy hit jobs in tiny bowls which went the opposite spectrum of those sweet Korean barbecued meats. This Korean barbecue of his was nothing like the American barbecue she had expected. But then again he didn’t look quite the standard American cowboy either. Still, she rather enjoyed the experience, especially with him cooking for her. She thought he probably chose this specifically to show off his cooking skills and ability to navigate a hearth. No room for that back in the kitchen back at her flat.
She ate her fill of food - enough to cover dinner with no room left over for dessert. All the lovely meats combined with the endless platters of appetizers. It was a concoction she had never dreamed of back in England. This was one tea time she would be writing home about. By the time they exited the restaurant it was well past 4 p.m.
From there he navigated them to the Walk of Stars. After driving around a few times for what seemed ages, looking for parking, she found the pavement somehow even grittier when she stepped out than when they had been slowly circling the streets looking for open kerb space. She clung to him as they stepped onto the kerb. It was more out of fear and a sense of security that she clutched his arm. Even though she had only just met him in the morning he seemed a pillar of certainty in this new, dark world full of people in strange costumes, some people in garbs she couldn’t even tell if they were in costume or if it was what they wore on a day-to-day (and night) basis. It was a strange place. The glitz from the street lights was there but the glamour she had expected on the Walk of Stars seemed somewhat dull.
She looked closely at the ground as they walked along Hollywood Boulevard, not so much for the stars etched in the pavement but rather to see if she was stepping on anyone or anything of an unsavory nature. It was just a mess of people. This part was quite unexpected. Oh of course she had planned to walk down the Walk of Stars at some point on her trip but she hadn’t expected it to look like this. Though neither had she thought she would have her arms linked with a person she had only just met in the morning.
As the day wore on she felt him less and less a stranger, a kindred spirit. Just another brother in arms as it were, fellow travellers exploring the city together.
Autumn had come to town and, surprisingly, it seemed some leaves did change color. It was almost like home, in that sense at least, with leaves beginning to turn a light yellow. It was also unexpectedly cold but not a muggy cold like home. The air here was… different. She couldn’t describe it. Not muggy air, not crisp, and not not fresh but certainly… well there we go. Some corners had the smell of urine. But it wasn’t pervasive. But maybe that’s what tinged the air with its unique aroma. Nevertheless, with her arm in his it made for quite the romantic stroll, notwithstanding the aloofness of the bums and locals and the rather odd built environment at play.
He couldn’t believe it. What were the chances, he thought. That he would be hitchhiking with a random gal and by evening she would be wrapped around him in his arms. That the day would start with a walk on the beach with a lovely British chick and night would bring her into his arms.
As they walked further along the boulevard he could feel her pressing closer to him. It was getting a little colder. He thought it better to get to Los Feliz sooner and up the mountain before it got too cold for her. And perhaps they’d still be able to make sunset from the observatory. The sun had already dropped behind the buildings on their walk along Hollywood boulevard. Yes, he thought to himself, it was better to leave these streets before all the hooligans emerged from the shadows and scared her away. That would totally ruin the night. He quickened his pace and mentioned that it would be a good time to go up to the Griffith Observatory and watch the sunset from there and she wholeheartedly agreed.
By the time they wound their way up the mountain by car and reached the viewing platform the sun had already set. Day’s light was still grasping from beneath the ocean horizon, tuggling with the city above as its lights began to flicker on. In the blink of an eye the last vestiges of sunlight disappeared and the city was teeming with strobing arcs of neon and blinking lights dotting the landscape below. There was a moment of silence as they both watched the city come to life, far more romantic than being down in the city itself.
It was a most unexpected journey for him. And for her it was everything she had dreamed about but not even expected in reality. For the most part the trip was a dream come to life. As if out of a fairy tale, she had found this noble man to come alongside her at the beginning of her travels. She hadn’t made it to Disneyland but it was quite the magical trip and California Dream indeed. With her arm still locked in his she looked at him. He was staring out into the expansive city below. The lights of the city gleaming off his eyes. There was nothing more she could do than kiss him. And that she did. She placed a soft, sweet kiss on his right cheek. A magical moment, a wonderful way to cap this fairy tale of a day indeed.
He blinked. Had he really been so fortunate as to spend the entire day with this beautiful British girl? And was that the touch of her lips he felt? A peck he felt on his check? A kiss from her lips?
He blinked again. The twinkling of the city lights seemed to blend into one bright, all encompassing fluorescent light.
“Sorry. I prefer to drive alone.”
He shook his head. Startled.
It was just the two of them in the rental car lot.
“I’m actually not going to Los Angeles.” She said. “I’m driving to Irvine.”
“Oh,” he responded, a little bit shocked. “Well Irvine is on the way to LA and I’d be fine with a ride anywhere and you could drop me off anywhere in Irvine.”
“Sorry. I prefer to drive alone on this stretch and then I’m syncing up with my friend in Irvine to stay at her house. Good luck though.”
The conversation ended summarily.
He turned away and plopped himself on the bench next to the ticket booth and slumped down. How was he going to get up to LA? He sighed and looked away.
She quickly dumped her bag into the boot of the car, slammed the boot, and hurriedly opened the door. Damn it. Wrong side. She closed the door and quickly moved around the bonnet to the other side and got in the car. She sat down and inserted the keys in the ignition. Thank goodness. It was an automatic transmission - she could make a quick get away. She turned the key, hit the drive button, pushed on the pedal, and accelerated out of the parking stall. These crazy Americans thinking they could hitchhike with anyone.
She was looking forward to getting to Irvine. Her friend told her it was near Disneyland and safe. She had booked everything in advance. There would be no hiccups or space for detours on this short seven day trip. Disneyland was a magical place, so much magic she read you needed two days there to experience the entire Kingdom. As she drove off she adjusted the rear view mirror and looked back. The guy dressed so weird. Company like this chap would only lead to a dark path away from the castle. Better to stay on the yellow brick road. Too many unknowns off the yellow brick road. Leave him behind in the rear view and quickly move on. That’s the safest way to do it.
Poof!
The car came to a deflating halt. She pressed on the accelerator again but the car went nowhere and smoke started emanating from the front tyres. She got out to see what the problem was. Somehow she had ran over some ninja stars plunged into the pavement. Who would place spiky strips across the pavement where cars drive? She looked up for help but spotted no staff. Just that Asian bloke sitting on the bench. She stood with her hands on her waist and stared at the tyres, befuddled and wondering what had just happened with the car. Maybe this American knew how to get out of this American parking lot…
With a deep breath she turned around and walked back towards him. She better put her best face forward.
“Hi. Would you be so kind as to help me with my ride? I seem to have gotten myself into quite a pickle.”