"It has everything I own in it. Carried it all over New Zealand."
"Yeah? Both islands? What do they call them?"
"North and South," Max said, smiling.
"Right, right. Always wanted to go there, supposed to be a great place."
"The Kiwi's, man . . . awesome!" Max was short with wide shoulders and large dark brown eyes. He had filled out since his school days, but he had the same earnest expression. Max had gotten through the University of Vermont, studying this and that, anthropology mostly, but he'd gone walkabout instead of buckling down to graduate school. Joe had been glad at the time, and now he could see why: Max was calmer, more sure of himself after a couple of years of knocking around.
"Let's go get some breakfast."
"Lunch," Max said.
At the coffee shop on King Street, Joe asked, "Remember that week we spent on Kauai? That was a good time."
"Yeah, the Na Pali coast," Max said.
"Some place," Joe said. "The whole damn island should be a world park."