Great Stories Entry #1 - Only One Amazing Part of the Best Summer of My Life, A Hawaiian Tale Some of you have probably heard about this, but here it is. Also, I am writing an abbreviated version because I don’t have that much time!

It all started on another day in paradise. I watched the proverbial sunrise, coming up over the pacific and, you might think I’m losing my mind, but I will shy away from the specifics...*

With my best friend, on the beach just as the sky was turning the pale orange shade that comes before the height of its beauty, strolling in the wet sand in the cool breeze, the out-going tide playing tag with our toes, I was inspired. Suddenly, I had the urge to vainly attempt to capture the beauty of the Master's painting in the sky, reflected on His seemingly infinite mirror. So with my very convenient paint kit, I quickly set up my easel and tried to imitate the masterpiece before me. It was a hasty painting, one simply done for the amusement and joy it provided to me, but a fellow stroller in the sweet morning air was enthralled. They watched me until I had finished, and then proceeded to beg me for the painting, though I wasn't very inclined to sell it. But when they suddenly threw out an offer, I realized how badly they wanted it! They were offering ten grand!!! Of course I didn't think it was worth that, but they insisted and I eventually concurred, reluctant but ecstatic! And my pal, Megan, took a picture of us shaking hands right there on the beach, which would have more meaning than we could then know.
We proceeded to have a lovely day, eating ice cream, lounging on the beach, reading, and to top it off, in the late afternoon we found a hole on the beach, and could not resist turning it into a fort. That day we sang the entire song of 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall as we dug and sculpted, as people laughed at us in passing. It was a perfect day. And we ended it by going to a restaurant called the SeaWatch, for its spectacular views of the ocean. It was not supposed to be a very fancy restaurant, we went in shorts, but when we arrived we found that there were three wedding parties going on! There were several people of note there that I am not at liberty to mention by name, but let me just say famous and rich. Every person at the restaurant was dressed to the nines, and the waiters even placed our napkins in our laps (awkward…)! So there we sat with a menu before our unbelieving eyes with appetizers in the $20 range and on up, dressed in shorts, surrounded by beautifully dressed people before such a breath-taking sunset that everything else was forgotten. So forgotten, perhaps, that it caused my friend to spill her ice water all over herself, the table, and the ground! And of course, it was cleaned up from before her by a very cute waiter. But none of that mattered to us four girls, except to add to our abundant, sweet laughter. We sipped lovely drinks, mine being an amazing virgin Lilly Coy, as we watched the sun explode in brilliance over the ocean.
As we sat around the table after our meal, laughing and enjoying one another’s company, with a sweet, mutual feeling of being blessed, we heard some nice tunes. As we listened, we realized that it was Jack Johnson! For the entire last week and a half Jack Johnson had had a permanent section of our brains reserved for his tunes to be stuck in, and I kid you not we were almost constantly singing about being Better Together and wondering, Where’d All the Good People Go? We even had jokes being made up that I’m sure no one but me and Meg would get about songs stuck in our heads like a screen saver…anyways, back to the story.
So as we listened, and yes, sang along with the faint music coming from some part of the lawn where a wedding reception was going on, we heard another song by good ol’ Jack. And we came to the only logical conclusion, it must be Jack himself! Of course! He does live in Hawaii, most likely Maui after all. How lucky were we?! So of course we went to scope it out, Meg and I, with the camera along. We wandered around, down the staircase into the lawn, in the dusk, and we found the wedding party. We hid for a few minutes, checking it out.
Sure enough, there was Jack Johnson on the guitar, with his band, on the other side of the dance floor. We could hardly believe our luck! They ended a set, and said they would take a break and be back, and sure enough, he came right toward us. We stood up and of course asked for his autograph, and as he signed “To Megan” and “To Faith” on scraps of napkin, he stopped and suddenly asked, “Are you Faith Franklin? THE Faith Franklin?!” And I was like, “Well yeah, that’s my name.” He broke into a grin and started going on and on about how fabulous my art was and how inspiring it was, how whimsical and peaceful it was, and how long had I been painting?
I was very confused, as you might guess, but as he explained, I realized that the owner of the SeaWatch restaurant was the person who had bought my painting that morning, he had gotten in framed, and it was hanging in the lobby! Johnny (that’s what we call him) had seen it on his way in, and was wondering if he could possibly contact me about doing his next CD cover, since he hadn’t been too pleased with the last one. He was actually a really nice guy, really down-to-the-beach and completely humble, as though he was unaware of his fame and how much people loved his music across the country and even abroad. We fell into an easy conversation, talked about life, his music, Hawaii, surfing, and I can’t remember what all else. Soon he had to go back to playing (it was a very famous person’s wedding reception), but he invited us to go surfing with him that Saturday. We, of course, said yes, and Megan snapped one of her now-famous self-shots of the three of us “hanging loose”. It had been a great day.
So we had a fabulous Thursday and Friday, gallivanting about Maui, being beach bums, shopping, hiking, snorkeling &c. At one point Johnny left a message on Meg’s phone, something about was it ok if he brought a few of his friends that were going to be in town? And he knew that we would have a great time, he wanted them to meet us. Of course it was fine by us. So Saturday came around, and we almost forgot about our surfing date because we had stayed up all night eating ice cream and talking and watching movies, then we had gone to the beach to watch the sunrise and just decided to stay and play in the waves all day. But we remembered and ended up only being about a half hour late, and it was cool. But when we saw his “friends”, I’m not gonna lie to ya, we pretty much freaked out. IT WAS JOHNNY DEPP AND ORLANO BLOOM!!! Not to mention Kierra Knightly and Elijah Woods! (At least, those are the names they go by in show biz). It turned out they had all been friends since elementary school, and they just planed an impromptu weekend together. So we surfed all afternoon, and Jack and Meg taught us the ropes. It turned out most of the group was even worse than I was at surfing, and Meg and Jack left us all in their foam. Everything was just fabulous until about the time the sun was starting to set. Everyone but Meg and Orlando had gone back to the beach and were just chillin out.
Suddenly, she went down! We waited…and waited…but she didn’t come back up! Orlando was riding a wave, but he jumped his board and dived in after her. For what seemed like hours, there was nothing we could see except the never ending, relentless waves. But they finally came up, Meg passed out and Orland swimming with her as fast as possible toward the shore. By know Jack and Johnny had reached them, and soon enough they were back on the beach, carrying Meg, who was bloody. Orlando was bloody too, looking like a hunk had been torn out of his shoulder. But they listened to her heart beat, and started washing her off as someone called 911. But she woke up, spitting out water and gasping, but OK. She said she was fine, though of course she wasn’t, and the ambulance eventually got there. I rode with her to the hospital, and she talked to me and told me what had happened.
They had been attacked by a shark. She said it was the scariest thing that had ever happened to her, but Orlando had rescued her. He had hit the shark repeatedly over the muzzle with her board, and it had released her leg and had swam away as fast as it could, just trying to get away from that relentless muzzle-smacking. So, a few stitches and a few days later, we all had dinner together to talk over our amazing story.
Now get this. So all of those guys had really gotten together because they were writing a new movie! After hanging out with us, they decided they absolutely needed Meg and I in it, and at dinner they begged us to consider it. So we did. And we got back to them and said that we were in, but only if we got to make up new names, get agents, and would receive our rightful share of the profits. Of course they agreed, because they are just cool like that, and they filmed the movie while we were there. It should be coming out in 2008.
Basically, we are all extremely rich now, and we decided to use our money to buy the most awesome castle in the world and convert it to an orphanage mission. It rocks. And all this happened on one fateful trip to the Hawaiian islands. Pretty much awesome.


A true story by Faith Franklin, October 9, 2006.

*Who I Am Hates Who I've Been, ReliantK