Hellwaii: A Memoir

By Sharrae Vaughn

Sharrae and Diamond quickly become the best of friends after meeting at an interview, but then they lose contact with each other for ten years.
Fate ultimately reunites the two friends, but its not the happy reunion Sharrae would have expected: She finds out that Diamond is apparently suffering from a terminal illness.
When Diamond finds out that her illness isnt deadly, however, the two decide to celebrate her new lease on life by heading to the beautiful tropics of Hawaii. After all, theres nothing like a near-death experience to make you realize that life is too short not to be enjoying it to its fullest.
Things take a turn when Diamonds family crashes their two-girlfriend trip, and while Sharrae is initially upset with their intrusion, she eventually welcomes the added fun they might bring to their journey.
But shes in for a rude awakening: Once they arrive in Hawaii, everything goes dreadfully wrong.
Find out if Diamond and Sharraes renewed friendship is strong enough to survive a disaster vacation or if they will turn into the worst of foes in Hellwaii.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Dec 17, 2015
• ISBN: 9781491782903

Sharrae Vaughn

Sharrae Vaughn, a native of Chicago, Illinois, earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Chicago State University and an associate’s degree in secretarial administration from Robert Morris College in Chicago. She is also the author of Wounds of Love; Memoirs. She lives in Calumet Park, Illinois, with her three sons.

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Copyright © 2015 Sharrae Vaughn.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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ISBN: 978-1-4917-8291-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-8290-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015919683

iUniverse rev. date: 12/15/2015

Contents

Dedication

Epigraph

Preface

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1 When Sharrae Met Diamond

Chapter 2 Hawaii

Chapter 3 Kailua Beach

Chapter 4 Malik’s House

Chapter 5 Dinner Is Served

Chapter 6 The Friendship-Ending Argument

Chapter 7 Excursions

Chapter 8 The Final Destination

Afterwards

Conclusion

Dedication

I want to give Praise to God! For without him, nothing is possible.

To my parents; I love you and miss you both tremendously. I am who I am because I am you.

To my three handsome sons; you are my God-sent angels. You are the reason why I breathe, live and write.

Epigraph

I know that I am not the first or the last person that has gone on vacation with someone and lived to regret it. And I’m quite sure that there are numerous of individuals that has encountered a similar situation like this or are considering going on a trip with a new or anew friend that might find this book to be of informational value.

Hawaii is one of the most beautiful places to go on vacation, but if you go with the wrong people, and it can turn into The Vacation From Hell!

Preface

Hellwaii is about an actual experience that I encountered while vacationing in Hawaii with a long lost friend. It taught me a valued lesson. It taught me that sometimes we make the mistake of labeling people as friends, when maybe we should just call them acquaintances or associates. Especially if you haven’t seen or been around them for a long time. But because you had fond memories of that person, you just want to jump right back into it, and pick up from where the friendship left off; not taking into consideration or realizing that people do change.

That saying "You haven’t changed one bit," is just a metaphor. I do hope that as older and mature individuals we have learned to changed and evolved with time; preferably for the better. Unfortunately, some of us have changed for the worse. I know that our experiences in life makes us who we are. But we have to take into account and acknowledge that people may have gone through life changing situations such as loss and gains, joy and pain, ups and downs, trials and tribulations, and good and bad experiences. So the people that you once knew are no longer that same person. It could quite well be that you really never personally knew them. You only generally knew the surface and that superficial side of them; the only side they wanted you to see.

I am guilty of wanting my friendship with my long lost friend to pick up from where it left off. But only to be rudely awakened by the realization that it was just a fabrication. Because while we were both living our separate lives, life gave us different meanings of what true friendship really was.

I ask God to remove all my enemies from my life, then I started losing friends. (Author Unknown)

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank:

Th e entire staff of IUniverse

My entire family and all my friends! I thank each and every one of you for your continuous love and support, and for believing in me.

A very special thanks to Sweet-P for the tireless and endless conversations that you bestowed in critiquing my book. I couldn’t have done it without you!

Introduction

After all this time, I ran into Diamond. Seeing her smile and hearing her accent had taken me ten years back down memory lane. I found myself reminiscing on the fun we used to have back then. I really missed her and our friendship. I knew it had been a long time since we’ve interacted with each other but, I was happy to have this opportunity for a second chance and to rekindle our friendship.

It’s okay to open your heart to new or anew friendships but, we must also remember to guard our hearts and to always be aware that people change. Some people are not who they claim to be, or who you think they are.

I thought I knew Diamond, but in Hawaii, I got to know who she really was and that I didn’t know her at all.

CHAPTER 1

When Sharrae Met

Diamond

I met her for the first time years ago while working for the State Child Protection Agency. The State of Illinois was doing a mass hiring, and my caseworker referred me to apply for one of the positions. The new applicants had to go to a hotel downtown to be interviewed. There were