A Fish Out of Water: Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Keoni's Home

It was another fine, sunny, Sulani morning, and Keoni was awake. Malie came into the room to check on him, and when she saw that he'd crawled out of his toddler bed, she picked him up and carried him to his high chair, where a fresh bowl of breakfast cereal was waiting for him. Keoni's father, Kapena Ka'aukai, was seated at the opposite side of the family dining table, a recently emptied bowl resting on the table in front of him. Malie gently placed Keoni in the high chair.

As Keoni scooped up a soggy handful of cereal and prepared to shove it into his mouth, Hokulani arrived and sat down in the chair next to him. "Good morning," Kapena greeted his sister-in-law.

"Morning," Hokulani replied.

After the brief exchange, Kapena got up from his seat, watching Keoni as the toddler wolfed town his breakfast. Once Keoni was done eating, Malie picked him up from the high chair, set his little feet down on the floor, cleared the empty bowl from the high chair and washed it in the kitchen sink. Meanwhile, Keoni's grandmother, Leimomi Ka'aukai, sat down and began to eat a bowl of breakfast cereal as well. Kapena went into the bathroom, and a few minutes later Keoni heard water running as his dad began to take a shower.

Leimomi finished her breakfast, got up from her chair and picked Keoni up. "Let's get you ready for the day!" she proclaimed as she began to help the toddler change out of his pajamas. Shortly afterward, with Leimomi's help, Keoni was wearing a red and blue shirt with a bright yellow sun on it, dark blue shorts, pale blue socks, and blue sneakers with little red cherries all over them. Leimomi then placed Keoni back down on the floor.

Kapena came out of the bathroom and started to clear the empty bowls off the table, and Malie took her turn to shower. Meanwhile, Keoni felt ready to see what might be going on elsewhere, and he started to wander around the house. He wandered down the front hallway past his mother and aunt, who were giving each other a sisterly hug. He wandered right out of the front door, but no sooner had he crawled down the steps of the Ka'aukai home's small front porch then Leimomi came after him and scooped him up in her arms. "Where are you going, little minnow? It's time to start your potty training."

Leimomi brought Keoni back into the house and placed him in front of a strange little bright blue chair with a big hole in the middle of the seat. Keoni sat down on the potty chair, and Leimomi began to instruct him in the ways of using the potty.

After Keoni had finished his business, he toddled off to his bed for a morning nap.

Keoni woke up, crawled out of bed and headed towards the door to the bedroom, revved up from his nap and ready to play. However, no sooner had he entered the house's main hallway when Leimomi went through the front door, greeted someone on the porch, and let a whole bunch of people Keoni didn't know into the family's home! Luckily for Keoni, The Purple Pursuer was ready to defend against all potential threats, including strangers.

While Keoni continued to play, his parents and grandmother each filled a cup with an odd liquid from a wooden bowl that the strangers had brought with them, and they chatted amicably with the strangers as if all of them were old acquaintances.

Eventually, Keoni decided that The Purple Pursuer had done enough world-saving for now. He put the toy back in the toybox and, feeling pretty playful after The Purple Pursuer's imaginary adventure, he decided to show off his creativity to the visitors.

Unfortunately, the only thing Keoni's creative efforts earned him was an exasperated "Keoni, would you please not make a mess?" from his mother.

Keoni returned to the bedroom to escape the strangers and settled down for another nap.

When he woke up, he could still hear the strangers' voices from outside the bedroom door, intermingled with the sound of his family members' voices as they continued chatting with each other, so he decided to have a "conversation" with the big blue teddy bear at the head of his bed instead of going out and interacting with the strangers.

Suddenly, Hokulani entered the room and picked Keoni up. "Come on, little guy. I made a PB&J for you!"

Hokulani brought Keoni out to the dining table and set him down in his high chair, where sure enough, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich was waiting for him. He nommed on half of the sandwich while Hokulani kept on talking with one of the strangers. Then, when he went to pick up the other half of the sandwich, he discovered that not only were peanut butter, jelly and bread a yummy combination, but squishy and fun as well!

Keoni finished his mid-afternoon snack, and Hokulani cleared the plate from the high chair tray, then she went to pick up and clean the empty cups from whatever the grown-ups had been drinking. Another stranger came and sat down at the dinner table, and Keoni managed to work up the courage to attempt to communicate with them. He babbled something that he figured might've been a greeting.

The stranger who'd been talking with Hokulani earlier seemed to be confused, but the one who'd just sat down gave Keoni a friendly smile. "Nice to meet you, cousin! I've heard so much about you from your parents and your grandma. My name's Makoa Kealoha, and my little girl Nani is just about the same age as you! You and your folks can come over for a play date sometime, okay?"

Before Keoni had a chance to try to continue the conversation, Leimomi picked him up out of the high chair and set him on the ground. When Keoni turned around, he noticed something hanging from high up on the wall -- something that looked kind of like a picture of a fish's tail. He took a few faltering steps towards the thing on the wall and then stared at it for a little while, fascinated, wondering what it could be.

When Keoni's attention span had had enough of the fish-tail picture, he went into the bedroom to stack some blocks into a tower. However, before he had time to position the blocks in just the right way to make them balance on top of each other in a majestic tower, Kapena entered the room and brought Keoni into the bathroom for another round of potty training. Under his father's guidance, Keoni began to feel as if he was gradually unlocking the secrets of the potty... Well, maybe not quite. He still needed to work on his aim, and by the time he was done, there may or may not have been a puddle on the floor.

After that incident, Keoni went to stare at the fish-tail picture again, but he was interrupted when Kapena brought a bowl of peas to the high chair and then put Keoni in the high chair to eat dinner. The grown-ups ate fruit salad that Malie had made. By this time, Keoni was a sleepy tot, and after he finished eating his peas, he nodded off in the high chair. However, he was awakened after several minutes by Kapena reaching down to let him out of the high chair. "You'll get better sleep in your own bed, son."

Kapena set Keoni on the floor, and Malie picked him up, carried him into the bedroom, and helped him into his pajamas. Keoni snuggled in under the covers, and Malie picked up a book. "Once upon a time, there was a little duckling who didn't look like the other ducklings in his nest. He tried to make friends with the other animals in the barnyard, but no one wanted to be his friend because they all thought he was so ugly..."

Keoni drifted off to sleep sometime around the part when the poor little duckling was lost and alone during the cold winter. Fortunately for Keoni, he wasn't alone like the duckling; he had a home and an 'ohana that cared for him.