The Mastiff in the White Truck

 

A large dog, and I mean a really large dog, was hanging out of the passenger window of a white truck, outside the Volcano Store. I stopped to take a photograph, noticing a long mala hanging from the mirror, when a wiry man with a white goatee and white twisted pony tail emerged from the store, carrying an armful of anthuriums, and got into the truck. He had another mala on his wrist. He hailed Brent Clough, Beth Yahp and me, launching into immediate conversation. His mastiff was one of 15; she was five months old and nibbled on Beth's hand. He has 150 acres, with cattle, nearby and when there's an intruder, he doesn't shoot them with a rifle, but sends his dog out. Just last night he drove his four wheeler and found this dog sitting on a man in the field. "You can leave now," he told the man, "or you can stay and have the dog eat you." Intruder gone. Other intruders over the years had left with broken arms and legs, his dogs were so heavy.

 

He had another few thousand acres near Waimea, he said, and two houses in England, one in London and the other in Surrey, to go with his two places here. "Where are you from?" he asked. Sydney, my friends said. He used to own a house in Vaucluse, but he started to find the people there dull, so moved to Palm Beach, also near Sydney. One son is still there. He's 75, he said twice, and has 29 grandchildren.(Brent doesn't believe he was 75, but believes everything else; I believe he was 75, but nothing else.) Something about an ambassador to Australia in the 60s or 70s. Brent told him our names, and asked for his. "Dr. Ward," he said.

 

We left to buy beer and eggs in the store. He drove away. I said I didn't believe a word of what he said. Brent said he was sure the guy was real; he knew Sydney really well, after all, and had the trace of an English accent. I started googling. We found a cattle ranch on the Big Island called Ward Castle, which looks amazing and weird. Then we looked up ambassadors to Australia and found one James Ward Hargrove, who served in the Gerald Ford administration. His obituary indicated that he was a wildly successful businessman from Houston, very religious, and that among his descendants was one James Ward Hargrove, Jr. Dr. Ward, I presume?