Integrating Citations Into a Journey Narrative Example

                  Laura and I stood at the ticket counter, somewhat daunted by what we had just heard. Our plane back to Salt Lake was delayed for at least five hours. We were simultaneously disappointed to be stuck at the Los Angeles airport and thrilled that this trip - our first together - would be extended.

                  “I guess we’d better call Summer,” Laura said. Summer was her best friend, and had agreed to pick us up after our trip to see Jimmy Buffet play at the Hollywood Bowl for our first anniversary. We set off in search of a pay phone.

                  It wasn’t long before a young man stopped us, inquiring where we were from. When we told him, he said, “Ah, yes - Shawn Bradley. He is very, very tall.” All I could do was nod - BYU’s starting center was, at seven-foot-seven, very tall indeed. That seemed to comprise the young man’s total knowledge of Utah. He went on: “You want to buy book? I am Hare Krishna - here you buy this book.” He handed something to me and I fumbled in my pocket, pulling out a bill, which he took from me and disappeared back into the crowd.

                  “What just happened?” I asked Laura. “I think I gave that freak twenty dollars!” We sat down and started to leaf through the book, which appeared strange and unfamiliar. “Great,” I said, tossing it aside, “there’s money I’ll never get back.”

                  We got up and continued searching for a phone, and every Hare Krishna I saw looked like a shyster who would pick my pocket given half the chance. It wasn’t until much later that I came to understand that, as Yann Martel writes in Life of Pi, “Hindus, in their capacity for love, are indeed hairless Christians, just as Muslims, in the way they see God in everything, are bearded Hindus, and Christians, in their devotion to God, are hat-wearing Muslims” (50). All I knew at that moment was some bald dude took the money I wanted to spend on pizza.