KAHONUA ISLAND
by
Todd Kelsey
SMASHWORDS EDITION
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PUBLISHED BY:
CFTW Press on Smashwords
Kahonua Island
Copyright © 2010 by Todd Kelsey
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Social Responsibility: All proceeds are going to CFTW, a nonprofit organization, whose mission is to develop free learning material in different languages.
Credits: a special thanks to Chuck Isdale for some of the pictures; to Alexandra Constantin for all the wonderful 3D art; and to Ken Bado at Autodesk for donating some software. Many thanks to all the people who have influenced this book. You can find the story of how this book came about as well as further acknowledgements, at: http://www.kahonua.com
* * * * *
KAHONUA ISLAND
* * * * *
- Act One: The Fish -
Rachael was feeling sleepy, and she decided to go to bed. Before she went to bed, she made sure to feed her fish.
But after Rachael went to bed, a fish woke her up, by saying:
“Pssssst! Hey! Rachael, Rachael, wake up! You’re late!”
And Rachael jumped out of bed, and hit her head, and said:
“I’m late for what? I must be asleep, I’m talking to a fish.”
But the fish said, “Hurry! I have a magic code that will only last for a little while longer. You need to enter it into your phone!”
And Rachael’s eyes opened wider, as she was very attached to her phone.
“My phone?” she asked.
“Yes your phone. This code will make it a magic phone,” said the fish.
So Rachael grabbed her phone, and asked “Ok, what’s the code?”
And the fish said, “The code is 02550”.
“That’s it?” asked Rachael. “That’s it!” said the fish.
And Rachael didn’t think to ask the fish what would happen when she did enter the code. But she had a hungry mind, hungry for adventure that is. So she entered the code, and . . .
Rachael disappeared from the room.
- Act Two: Mr. Green -
Suddenly Rachael found herself dizzy, out of breath, and lying on the ground somewhere, in a not altogether uncomfortable place. There was soft green grass, and a distant familiar scent wafting through the air.
But most importantly, she immediately realized that this magic code had used up all the remaining electricity in her cell phone. And much worse, there was no cell phone coverage in the area!
But she noticed the sound of humming coming her way, and she looked up and saw something coming down from the sky, and it looked like a giant gerbil was driving.
And awhile later, after the flying gerbil landed, along it came, which nearly made Rachael laugh out loud, just from the sight of its green pin-striped hat, and its shabby little coat, and its respectable looking cane.
The gerbil bowed, and started to talk.
But she didn’t understand, and asked, “What did you say?”
And the gerbil snapped its fingers, and handed her a little book, and motioned to its mouth, as if to suggest the absurd idea that she should eat the book.
Rachael looked at the book.
Rachael looked back at the giant gerbil, who proceeded to nod its head vigorously, and motioned to its mouth and then began moving its paw around its tummy in a circular motion, and began to make a loud sound that sounded something like “Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.”
So Rachael tasted the book, found that it was sweet, and she slowly ate the book. When she was finished, she felt different.
“Ah!” said the Gerbil. “You can now speak Gerban, my language. Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Mr. Green!”
And Rachael then began to cry, because she was tired, and sad that her cell phone didn’t have any charge, and sad that she was far outside the coverage area for her cell phone plan. When she returned, she was determined to find a better phone company.
“Oh! Don’t cry, don’t cry,” the gerbil said. “Just tell me. What’s the matter?”
“I’m lost and my cell phone has no electricity left,” Rachael said, and sniffed, and began to smile in spite of herself, because she was talking to a giant gerbil.
“Are you hungry?” asked Mr. Green, with a thoughtful look on his face, as he began to ruffle around in his pockets, and scattered what seemed like seeds or husks of some kind in every direction.
“Well, come to think of it” said Rachael, with a thoughtful look on her face, “I seem to feel a significant hunger, but I think it is my mind that is actually hungry. How can that be?” she asked, for this was an unusual thing. She had been curious before, but her mind had never quite been hungry.
“Ah!” said Mr. Green, and stopped ruffling around in his pockets. Some seeds fell out on the ground, and some flower petals, and a few pine cones.
“Ok, so maybe we can feed your mind with fun!” said Mr. Green, and began to quiver with excitement, standing on one foot, and then the next.
“Let’s play some word games!” he said, and clapped his hands.
And Rachael decided that she wanted to leave.
“Yuck! I dislike word games in the extreme,” she said, with her nose held a bit up, folding her arms. “I got enough of those at school from Ms. Rote.” And she sniffed. Mr. Green’s face was downcast for a moment, and then changed into a huge grin, which stretched from ear to ear, just like . . . just like . . . well it was a huge grin.
“Ah! Ok, I see what we need. Well, with Ms. Rote, maybe it wasn’t fun because it wasn’t right words. So we need to play Acronymic! Just one round, and then there’s another friend to be found.”
And Rachael raised an eyebrow, because she’d never heard the word acronymic before, but she decided she might as well be polite.
“Ok.”
Mr. Green clapped his hands and said, “Ok, round 1. What is red, and green and blue, and it’s three letters, and it’s not a shoe!”
Rachael thought that she may have fallen into some kind of riddle world, and since she was not very good at riddles, she was on the point of giving up, but she gave just one guess.
“A bug?” she said, and raised one of her eyebrows artfully.
“Good guess!” said Mr. Green, and clapped his hands. “But an acronym is a string of abbreviated letters, and in this case, the acronym is RGB, which stands for Red, Green and Blue. Woohoo!” And Rachael imagined the letters in her mind, and she understood.
Rachael smiled, not because she was pleased at having been shown a thing or two by a giant gerbil, but because of his sheer enthusiasm. It was a bit hard to imagine that any game involving words could be fun, however.
“Ok, ok!” said Mr. Green. “The next game will be . . . . daisychaining!” and he began to quiver again with excitement.
Rachael was about to roll her eyes, because she had tied daisies together when she was younger, but then she was curious, because this was, after all, a word game.
“How do you play?”she asked.
“Just pick a word!” said Mr. Green.
She thought for a moment about her poor cell phone.
“Electricity, I guess,” she said.
“Ah! Electricity!” said Mr. Green, and then looked thoughtful for a moment, quivering his whiskers, and holding his chin, and tapping his green striped hat.
“Ok! The answer is . . . electricitywide!” and he grinned. And then he proceeded to write down the word on a scrap of paper.
ELECTRICITYWIDE
“To play the game, you add a word, and overlap the letters.” He explained, whilst sketching busily on the piece of paper. Rachael found his enthusiasm infectious, if somewhat silly.
“You said ELECTRICITY, and I added WIDE. So how many words does that represent? How many words did we make?” he asked, and it seemed to Rachael like he was implying that they were working together, and this felt a bit unusual, since usually you play against each other in games.
And then she understood. The phrase CITYWIDE jumped out at her, when Mr. Green wrote it like this:
electriCITYWIDE
electricitywide
“And so I should add a word?” she asked, and the gerbil nodded, and she thought, and then added a word, and took the pencil, and wrote it down:
Electricitywidepart
“Ah! Depart!” said Mr. Green, and gathered up the papers, and began to hum a song.
I love I love I love my sunflower seeds
Oh yeah, sunflower seeds
I love I love I love my sunflower seeds
Oh yeah, sunflower seeds
And suddenly Rachael realized that Mr. Green was not altogether unrelated to the regular sized gerbils that she had once seen in a science class.
And she remembered how they seemed to go crazy for sunflower seeds, with a delight that surpassed anything she had seen before.
And before she knew it, Mr. Green was headed off.
“Wait!” she said, and hurried after him.
And the day was pleasant, the breeze was still blowing lightly, and the scents were wafting through the air, seemingly from different flowers, and possibly a taste of salt, as if the ocean were somewhere in the area.
And when they came to stop at a river, she asked him “Mr. Green, I nearly forgot to ask. Just where in the world are we?”
And Mr. Green thought to himself, “Well I suppose this has been a surprise to her, so I won’t ask what I was about to ask, which is what world are you referring to.” But instead, he said:
“Ah! I’m forgetting myself.” And he bowed, and took her hand.
“Welcome, you have arrived at Kahonua Island!” he exclaimed, and got out a map.
At first the map seemed empty.
But then a faint image faded into view, and hovered there for a moment.
And then it faded away again.
Mr. Green then turned to the river.
“So Rachael, we will be crossing over into another part of the island, where we need to speak Solaran.” And he ruffled around in his pockets, and took out another magic book.
And Rachael thought about it carefully, and ate the book. It had a banana flavor, with a touch of butter, and something that might be a sunflower taste.
- Act Three: Grondlet, a Sunflower -
After the book was eaten, they crossed over the river, on a bridge that had been inspected recently by the appropriate authorities. And the bridge was not too unstable, but it did sway back and forth just enough to provide a sense of adventure.
And the green fields around them began to change a bit, and things got a bit more hilly, and Mr. Green continued to sing about sunflower seeds. And at last, as they rounded a curve on what Rachael realized must be a grass-covered road of some kind, the came up to a giant sunflower. And Rachael blinked.
“Hail and well met Mr. Green!” said the sunflower, and bowed, and asked, “And what is your name, Fairest Lady of the Island? My name is Grondlet.”
And in spite of herself, Rachael curtsied, even though she’d never curtsied before, and barely knew what it meant, but had spent enough time reading old tales of adventure to have some idea of what was going on. She remembered a diagram in a book, and this reminded her how hungry her mind was.
“Pleased to meet you, Grondlet, my name is Rachael.” And she curtsied, and felt amazed that she had just done this.
And Mr. Green bowed, and began to say some words, and it sounded like a sentence, but it also sounded like a poem; something formal, yet playful. And it seemed to Rachael like this must be the way that important things were communicated, for the sake not only of getting your point across, but also for fun. And the fact that words could be fun was something new.
Grondlet
we’ve come seeking your advice
because of Rachael’s device
which had been working nice
but now dear flower
it is out of power
And Grondlet thought for a moment, and replied:
Mr. Green
Your thoughts are keen
We shall speak of the sun
And how to have fun
When the power is gone
and the phone is not on
And Grondlet seemed to Rachael like more of a scientist of some kind, for they spent the better part of the morning talking about the sun. Grondlet liked to collect pictures, and showed several pictures of sunflowers, naturally, and described how they grew from little seeds. This reminded Rachael of some very tall sunflowers she’d seen one time, and she tried to picture them in her mind.
As Grondlet talked about sunflowers, and how they follow the sun, Mr. Green nodded enthusiastically, and at various times, seemed like he was about to break into song. But he seemed to be intent on being polite, which was all the more impressive, because he was quivering.
Rachael smiled when Grondlet got to the point of talking about sunflowers seeds, because she could see that Mr. Green had to sit on his hands to keep from jumping up from sheer excitement. She remembered seeing some sunflower seeds drying, and she remembered the spiral pattern.
And the most interesting part to Rachael was when Grondlet described the bees.
Bees do as they please
And search for sweet nectar on the breeze
And little do they know
When they go to and fro
That they also take pollen
Unless it has fallen
“What’s pollen?” Rachael asked, and could tell that Grondlet was pleased that she had asked the question.
“Pollen helps flowers to flower, and when the bees fly back and forth, they carry little bits of it with them, and it is like a magic dust,” said Grondlet.
“Like magic fairy dust?” asked Rachael.
“Like magic fairy dust,” said Grondlet, with a thoughtful look, and Grondlet then seemed to drift away into a sort of trance, with a faraway look.
Each pollen grain is a haploid
unicellular mass of protoplast
with a single nucleus
surrounded by a thick wall
differentiated into two layers
the outer thick exine
and the inner thin intine
And Mr. Green leaned over and whispered in Rachael’s ear, “Don’t mind it; Grondlet sometimes lapses into scientific language,” and then he gave Grondlet a little nudge, who shivered, blinked, and continued the discussion. One thing led to another, and Grondlet helped Rachael to charge her phone with solar power from the sun. She began to realize that because she liked Mr. Green and Grondlet, she started feeling like it might be polite to try a rhyme.
My phone was done
But now has power from the sun
This was fun
And it feels like the day has just begun
And she was pleased to see how much pleasure these words seemed to give the two creatures that she had been spending time with.
And then she realized that she was still lost. Or that she felt at home, but still had another home to get back to. Or something.
“Mr. Green, Grondlet, the fact that we charged the phone is great,” she said, and had to stop her self from continuing:
And now I don’t feel irate
But it’s not as if they would have cared. At any rate, she continued, “but I’m not sure how to get home, or what to do about this code?”
“Ah!” said Mr. Green, and shot up with his finger in the air. “Now we must away, and in order to solve this code, we must go to see Mr. Mantis!”
And as if there was nothing at all unusual about going to search for a praying mantis, they found themselves as a group of three, trundling off towards another part of the island.
And in this part of the island, it seemed to have a bit more shade, with trees that swayed slightly back and forth in the breeze. And the sun was still out, and Rachael thought she might just be able to hear the bees buzzing, and it was glorious.
And when they came across another river, and Mr. Green started ruffling in his pockets, Rachael said:
“Aha! I suppose we must speak Mantian now?” and smiled, as Mr. Green and Grondlet stared at her with wide-eyed gazes of wonder.
“Impressive!” said Mr. Green.
And then they smiled, and Mr. Green handed her another edible book.
Rachael chewed somewhat hesitantly, while wondering about what exactly praying mantises eat. But the book tasted a bit like spearmint. She burped, excused herself, and they were on their way.
- Act Four: Mr. Mantis, a Mathematician -
After crossing the bridge into Mantis territory, Rachael was not surprised to see more insects and bugs of various kinds, and she also noticed the sound of crickets once in awhile.
And suddenly, a large, buzzing, flying thing came out of nowhere, and knocked them all over in a bundle.
And after they had dusted themselves off, and recovered, Rachael realized that she had just been knocked over by a giant praying mantis, who also seemed to enjoy wearing hats. But unlike Mr. Green, it had a pencil and a book, and a bowtie, and it also had six legs.
“Hail and well met, Grondlet and Mr. Green!” said Mr. Mantis, bowing, “and who do we have here?”
And try as she might, Rachael did not feel the least bit squeamish in the presence of a large praying mantis. She was comforted by the fact that it did indeed seem to be a mathematician.
She curtsied. (And bowed, for good measure.) And this gave them all a good laugh.
“Mr. Mantis, I am Rachael, new to these islands, and I desire to seek your expert opinion on a mathematical matter,” said Rachael, in her most scientific sounding voice, which seemed to do the trick. Mr. Mantis peered at her, and had an expression of genuine curiosity, quivering with anticipation.
“A code, perhaps?” said Mr. Mantis.
“A code.” said Rachael. And Mr. Mantis didn’t exactly dance, but his eyes danced, and came alive, and he twitched and twittered a bit, and adjusted one of his sets of shoelaces on his six shoes that had come undone. And then he opened his little book, pencil held ready.
“And the code is?” asked Mr. Mantis.
And Rachael said, “The code is 02550, given to me by a fish, and it resulted in me coming here, but it only seems to be a one way ticket, so I need to know the code to get back!”
“Ah!” said Mr. Mantis, and he swiveled his head back and forth, peering in a friendly way at Mr. Green and Grondlet, as if to include them in the conversation. And then, Mr. Mantis winked.
And much like the conversation with Grondlet, they discussed math, or rather Mr. Mantis discussed math, but it was a math Rachael had never heard of, because it was based on color, and after a few rounds of discussion, after which they were all stumped, for some reason Rachael thought of the game they had played before.
“Mr. Mantis,” Rachael said, as if they were all professors at some important school, “do you suppose that this might have anything to do with an acronym, like RGB?”
And Mr. Mantis cocked his head, thought for a few moments, and jumped up with glee.
And when praying mantises jump up, it’s important to get out of the way, because of the six pairs of legs, and the wings that come out.
So they all jumped out of the way.
And when Mr. Mantis came back to the ground, after flying joyfully around and stopping at a few places to engage in what looked like munching on whatever it is that praying mantises eat, he responded.
“Why yes! It’s wonderful that your mind somehow made this connection!” said Mr. Mantis, who then proceeded to bring out some pictures, and he exclaimed “RGB!” and then began to recite a poem, but paused and looked at Rachael, so that it became a conversation.
RGB, RGB
But what does this number mean?
It might mean green
But how do I get back?
Get back to black?
What do you mean?
Three zeroes are black, maybe they’ll take you back
Red plus green plus blue is white
It was all rather silly, and they ended up dancing, and after awhile they returned to the conversation, where Mr. Mantis explained that RGB is a system for describing color with numbers, and he got one of his favorite paintings out that Grondlet had given him as a gift, which showed all the RGB colors, from red togreen to blue, in the shape of a sunflower.
“So I realized that the code means green,” said Mr. Mantis, scribbling on his notebook:
0-255-0
“Because RGB is a system to describe color with numbers.” And he scribbled some more notes:
R=0
G=255
B=0
“So the code your fishy friend gave you is green, and that got you here!” said Mr. Mantis.
“And what is the code to get me back?” asked Rachael, getting the feeling that it must have something to do with color. And they contemplated this, all stroking their chins for a moment.
“Ah!” Rachael said, remembering that fishes are in water, and often that the water is blue. “Perhaps the code is blue?” and Mr. Mantis offered her the paper and pencil, and she began scribbling.
R=0
G=0
B=255
00255
And they all gazed at the code, and decided that this must be it.
“But first, before you go, let’s sing a song,” said Mr. Green, and it seemed that the singing of songs, and the playing of games, and the making and reciting of poems was a way to be friendly.
“Oh! I’ve got one!” said Mr. Mantis, and began to sing about crickets.
And Rachael remembered science class, and how the praying mantis watched for movement with its large eyes, scanning for crickets or any other bug.
Crispy, crunchy crickets
Crunch a bunch for lunch
Crispily, crunchy crickets
Crunch a bunch for lunch
Crispily crunchily munchily bunchily
Wrinkly crinkly crickets
Crispily crunchily munchily bunchily
Wrinkly crinkly crickets
Oh, it’s not fun for the crickets
But it’s a lunch for us! Hey!
Yes, it’s not fun for the crickets
But it’s a lunch for us! Hey!
And by this point the gathering had descended into a wild form of dancing, which reminded Rachael of a dance she’d seen where you stay low and stick your legs out, and a lot of legs were sticking out, since Mr. Mantis had six of them. Grondlet hopped out of the flower pot and jumped about on roots, and Mr. Green had his own sort of giant gerbil dance, which involved bumping into everyone else and flinging sunflower seeds everywhere.
And after they’d recovered, and noticed that the sun was starting to go down, Grondlet started to yawn, and they decided it would be best to call it a day.
“Rachael, would you like some eggs to take with you?” asked Mr. Mantis, who held out a little stick with something small and foamy looking on it, which looked like an oversized nut, or a tiny brown wrinkled dried apple.
“No thank you, I’m not hungry,” said Rachael, and she was surprised to see Mr. Green spit out the sunflower seeds he had been munching on, and she saw Grondlet laugh out loud for the first time. And then she saw that Mr. Mantis was sniffing, but in a good-natured way, and Rachael remembered from science class that praying mantises come from eggs. And she realized Mr. Mantis must be offering her an egg case so that she could try growing praying mantises back in a tree somewhere.
No, no, not to eat
but put the egg case on a tree
and maybe in a month you’ll see
a hundred manti crawling out
and then the crickets should watch out!
“Certainly!” said Rachael, and bowed, and took the stick and egg case gently in her hand.
And Grondlet gave her a small bag of sunflower seeds, and with a sense of fun, decided not to tell here that these were magic sunflower seeds. Rachael was invited to plant the seeds in the ground when she returned, to see what would happen. Grondlet reached down and hugged Rachael, and at this point, with the soft green leaves and stems wrapped around her, she began to feel a lump rise in her throat, and realized that she’d made some friends.
And Mr. Green had a handkerchief out, and was dabbing at his eyes, and gazing at her with an expression of pride. And he reached into his bag, and gave her a book.
And Rachael looked down at the book through her watery eyes, and laughed.
“Why Mr. Green, but I already talked to the fish!” said Rachael.
“No Rachael, that was just a dream.” Mr. Green said, grinning. “But wouldn’t you like to tell your fish friend about the fun you had?”
And Rachael figured, yes, why if she could talk with the fish now, then it would probably enjoy hearing of her adventures.
“Everyone likes hearing stories,” Rachael said. “And making them too!”
And it was then that she realized how friendly the Kahonua Islands were, and she also knew that she could come back anytime she liked to fill her hungry mind; that Mr. Green, and Grondlet, and Mr. Mantis would always be there.
And somehow she also had the sense that as she grew older, she’d still think fondly of her friends, as she planted her sunflower seeds, or set a mantis egg case on a tree limb to see what happens.
Rachael had indeed noticed the grin on Grondlet’s face as the bag of sunflower seeds had been passed her way, and it had been a playful grin, so she wondered if it had something to do with the seeds. She thought to herself, if a phone can be magic, then seeds could be magic as well . . .
Rachael smiled, as she entered the code in her phone.
00255
- Act Five: What Happens Next -
Rachael was not surprised to find herself back in her room, with the fish looking at her expectantly, and swishing its tail back and forth slowly.
“Welcome back, Rachael!” the fish said. “What did you learn?”
I got some seeds for flowers
And learned about the sun
I got some eggs from a mantis
And had a lot of fun
I learned about some colors
And played some silly games
I learned the code of RGB
And now you need a name
And if fish could clap, then the fish would have clapped, because this is what it had been waiting for, hoping for beyond all hope: that it would get a name.
Rachael described the magic map, and they agreed that the Kahonua Islands must be located somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, near Hawaii.
And sure enough, when Rachael looked in a Hawaiian dictionary for the word Kahonua, she found the definition:
Kahonua - “globe of the earth”
And she searched for a word that meant “blue”, and got very distracted by all the different words for sky, and ocean, and water, and sun, and the words for love, and other words. And she wrote her favorites down, and it was then she realized that there were in fact five islands, and that she was part of the story, and making it up as she went.
Kahonua - "globe of the earth"
Laulauna -
"friendly, sociable"
Hanaola - "job, life,
livelihood"
Lonopuha - "the art of
healing"
Lehopulu Island - "earth clinging rainbow"
And finally she decided on a word for the fish. And this word was uli, Hawaiian for “blue”.
Uli – “blue”
And Uli was henceforth a very happy fish.
--
The End
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To learn more about Kahonua, and to explore ideas about things like growing sunflowers or raising praying mantises, please visit http://www.kahonua.com - you can also sign up to receive updates about future editions. Feedback is welcome, and it would be great to hear what you think, especially if you liked it. If you know of a student, independent artist, production company or publisher that might be interested in helping to develop further material, such as books, animation, or games, please get in touch.
About the author: Todd Kelsey, PhD (ABD) is an author and educator with an interest in sustainability. During his PhD study, he did some volunteer work for One Laptop Per Child, and also started growing sunflowers. One thing led to another, and the idea of inviting kids of all ages to grow sunflowers turned into the Sunflower Club, which has grown from year to year, as member pass their seeds along and trace the ancestry back on a sunflower family tree. Then he started wondering about how to take a balanced approach to social responsibility, thought about color coding, and the RGB Project was created. Todd has appeared on television as a featured expert and has worked with a wide variety of corporations and nonprofit organizations. He is author of the new book Social Networking Spaces, which introduces readers to social networking. Todd’s research has included work in social media; delivering content in different languages; sustainability; and helping people to capture, preserve, and share their life stories.