Filmer is my Hero

My car-that-won’t-start story had a happy ending as you may have guessed. I’m not still down there sleeping on the beach and stealing food from tourists all the while hoping that someone will read my blog and send help.

I know very few people on this island but in my hour of need I remembered that my co-worker Mike had a friend who worked on cars. I had Mike’s number in my cell phone’s memory. I assumed I would have to get the truck towed and that I would have to wait until the next day. But I thought I would get a jump on my car repair by calling Mike that night. Mike put me in touch with his friend Filmer who told me that he would rather come and work on my car that night because he had to work the next day. Filmer works at a hydroponic lettuce farm.

One of the other very few people I knew on the island happened to live a very short distance from where I was surfing. He came down in his huge truck and took me and my surfboard to his house where he and I watched Fast Times at Ridgemont High while I ate fruit salad and waited for Filmer to call me back.

Filmer had brought a couple of spare batteries with him but neither of them would work in my truck so he removed the battery from his own car, used it to start mine then removed it and replaced my old battery while the engine was still running. I rolled on home and parked on a hill so I could push start my car in the morning. The next day I bought a new battery.

I didn’thave any money with me to pay Filmer. He said the he would charge me $25 dollars and that I could pay him later. I’ve left him several messages offering to come and pay him cash but he has not returned my calls.

“What is the point of this story?” you may be asking yourself about now. “Why am I reading a blog about a guy’s car repair when I could be learning about all kinds of new and fascinating things on Wikipedia?” The point of the story is that Filmer is a really nice guy. I thanked him repeatedly when he started my car and he just said that he was glad he could help. That, my friends, is Aloha. It’s not just something cooked up by the Hawaii tourism bureau. There’s something special about this place.