A day or two later, Mr. Simmons was out on another beautiful sunny day in Hawaii. He'd recently been at the beach with that young woman he had just met. He thought today was a good day to take a nice walk and see what else he could find. He had a thought just now. Why not send his former students a little souvenir they all could share? The more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea.
He didn't have any idea what that souvenir would be, but he would come up with something. He wouldn't bring it home to Hillwood on the flight home, so it made sense to him he would mail it to Arnold's address at the boarding house. He decided to treat himself to have some pineapple, so now sounded like a good idea.
So he walked some more to find a grocery store or a tourist area to have some. Pineapple was one of his favorite furits. He really never had much of it back home, but it always was high on his list. Now that gave him an idea: Why not send his former students some pineapple for them to enjoy? He thought that would be the most special gift for Arnold and his friends.
He thought he'd wait to do this before his trip to Hawaii ended. He was able to find the closest grocery store and purchased some fruit.
"Is this all, sir?" the young cashier asked him when he came by to pay.
"Yes, ma'am," Mr. Simmons answered.
She looked to be in her college years, but he was never good at guessing people's ages.
He handed the young woman whose name happened to be Cynthia, the exact change.
"Have a nice day, sir," she told him.
"Same to you," he said.
He walked out of the store. He didn't bring a knife with him to cut the pineapple, but he thought he would find a knife back at the hotel he was staying. He was about to find out for himself that the pineapple would give him food poising.