A Fish Out of Water: Chapter 15

Chapter 15 

A Day of Lessons

 

The need to go potty woke Keoni up a bit earlier than usual. He crawled out of bed, and toddled out of the bedroom and into the hall on his way to the bathroom. Kapena hadn't left for work yet.

However, by the time Keoni was done in the bathroom, Kapena had already headed off to work. With no grown-ups around, Keoni thought that now would be a good time to add some more variety of color to the hall rug.

That is, until his grandmother caught him.

Fortunately for the troublemaking tot, Leimomi wasn't a particularly harsh disciplinarian, and they hugged it out.

Then Leimomi went to the kitchen, poured a bowl of cereal, and placed it on the tray of Keoni's high chair. Then she picked Keoni up and carried him to the high chair so that he could have breakfast. While he ate, she mopped up his mess before the paint could permanently stain the rug.

After Keoni finished breakfast, Hokulani came out of her bedroom and into the kitchen. "Good morning, Leimomi," she greeted her sister's mother-in-law with a yawn. "Good morning to you too, kiddo." She lifted Keoni up out of his high chair and set him down with his feet on the floor, and then she poured herself a bowl of cereal. Malie came out of the bedroom too, and she took Keoni's empty bowl off the tray and brought it to the kitchen sink to wash it. Keoni watched Malie closely as she washed the bowl and then poured some breakfast cereal for herself. Then he returned to the bedroom for a friendly chat with Beach Bear.

After checking in with the big teddy, Keoni went back out to the hall, toddled over to his toybox, grabbed a toy triceratops from inside it and began to play. Malie and Leimomi kept watch over him as he made the dinosaur stomp around the room.

Eventually, Malie decided to transition from playtime to a teaching moment. She had Keoni put his toy back in the toybox, and then she knelt down on the floor in front of him and started in on the lesson. "Keoni, if a dinosaur stomped through Grandma's garden by accident, that would make her feel very sad, wouldn't it? So, what should a good little dinosaur do to make it right?"

"Umm..." Keoni was stumped.

"He should say he's sorry." With that, Malie launched into another lecture on the importance of a sincere apology in resolving conflict. By the time she finished, Keoni felt fairly secure in his own ability to make things right again after accidents and arguments, just like a good little dinosaur.

However, lesson time wasn't over just yet. After Malie got up, it was Leimomi's turn to kneel down on the floor in front of Keoni. "Also, a good little dinosaur uses his manners and says 'please' and 'thank you' when he asks for something..." With that, it was time for another lecture.

Meanwhile, Hokulani left the house just as Kapena returned. After Leimomi finished giving Keoni a lesson on good manners, Kapena picked the toddler up. "Looks like I got home from fishing just in time to catch a little minnow! Time for your bath." However, as he was carrying the toddler to the bathroom, his phone rang. "Just a sec," he mumbled as he balanced Keoni against his side with one arm and tried to fish his phone out of one of his many pockets with his free hand. He picked up the phone and answered it. "Hello? ... Sure, feel free to come over. ... Okay then, see you soon. Bye." He hung up the phone, slipped it back into his pocket, and readjusted his hold carrying Keoni. "Alright, back to business." He carried Keoni into the bathroom and got the eager toddler into the tub for a bath. After bath time was over, Keoni was so happy to have gotten a chance to splash around in the water that he started to boogie down right there in the bathroom. Kapena smiled at his son, and then he went back outside.

Keoni left the bathroom to find no grown-ups in sight. That meant another opportunity for re-decorating -- and this time he decided to make the floor match the rug instead of adding more color to the rug, so he "borrowed" flour and ketchup from the kitchen for the grand and noble purpose of realizing his creative vision.

However, Keoni had to cut his artistic endeavor short when Malie, Leimomi and Hokulani re-entered the house and caught him. Luckily, though, Malie was just as much a follower of the hug-it-out school of discipline as her mother-in-law.

While Malie cleaned up Keoni's mess, Leimomi sat him down and had him work on flash cards.

When they finished flash cards, Keoni got up and toddled into the bedroom to check on Beach Bear. Then he did another little happy dance. He went back out into the hallway to find that there was a stranger in the house, which put him on his guard. Malie greeted her son warmly and went in for a hug, but this time, something felt 'off' to Keoni, and he shied away.

Malie went away into the kitchen looking slightly disappointed. Keoni stayed and listened to the story that Leimomi was telling to their visitor for a while, and then he went into the bathroom to use the potty. When he finished, he came out of the bathroom and noticed that everyone seemed busy, so he sneaked into the kitchen, "borrowed" the flour and ketchup again, and set about redecorating the hall rug. Nobody would notice as long as he used colors that matched the rug, right?

However, Keoni got caught once again. "I'm disappointed in you, son," Kapena said with a shake of his head. "You shouldn't make messes, especially not on a carpet that was crafted according to the traditions of our people."

Frustrated at having his artistic endeavors thwarted every time, Keoni toddled into the bedroom and curled up on his bed to take a nap.

When Keoni awoke, he crawled back off his bed and toddled out to the dining room table, where Leimomi and Hokulani were having a lively chat. Keoni joined in the conversation, and then Malie arrived. She prepared a bowl of peas, placed it on the tray of the high chair, picked Keoni up and put him in the high chair. Keoni ate his dinner as each of the the grown-ups got a serving of the dinner that Leimomi had cooked for them, and they all shared a meal together, seated around the dining room table as a family.

There was a knock at the front door, and Leimomi went to answer it. "We heard you could use some food, so we thought we'd drop by," Keoni heard one of their neighbors saying from the other side of the doorway. "We have plenty to share."

"Well, I appreciate the kind gesture," Leimomi responded, "but I'm not sure where those rumors came from. Even so, come in anyway -- we can serve that delicious-looking mua kalua pork you brought alongside the fish I just cooked and have a dinner party!"

Keoni was glad to see the familiar faces of Makoa and Lilliana Kealoha among the other neighbors who he didn't know quite so well. He toddled up to Makoa, hoping that this time he would be able to live up to the standards of Sulanian hospitality now that some of the strangers visiting his home weren't strangers anymore. "Hi!" he greeted Makoa. "Dis is my family's house. Lemme show you awound."

"Sure thing, little cousin. I'm looking forward to the grand tour." Makoa had visited the Ka'aukai household plenty of times before, but he wasn't about to stifle their normally shy kid's attempt at socialization.

Keoni led Makoa and one of their other houseguests through the nearest door. "Dis is Auntie's woom," he proclaimed proudly.

"Very nice," Makoa commented. "Nani would love that hibiscus pattern on the bedspread."

Keoni showed his guests around the rest of the rooms in the small house, and then they rejoined the rest of the gathering. Keoni was still chatting away to Makoa. "I wuv twi-sewa-tops, and T wex, and all da dino-sores. But I wuv sea turturs even mow."

"Yeah, sea turtles are great," Makoa agreed. "Did you know that there have been sea turtles living in the oceans since the dinosaurs roamed the earth? Even when the dinosaurs went extinct, the sea turtles survived."

"Egg-stink?" Keoni asked, confused.

"Extinct," Makoa explained. "It means that that kind of animal isn't around anymore. The dinosaurs are all gone. But it's my job to help make sure that doesn't happen to the sea turtles or any of the other animals that live in the oceans around Sulani. I work hard to protect them."

"Wow!" Keoni exclaimed, feeling a newfound sense of admiration for his neighbor. "You'we wike a supahewo!"

Makoa laughed. "I wish! But no, I'm just an ordinary guy who loves the ocean and the creatures that she gives a home."

"To the point of getting a little paranoid about her well-being," Kapena interjected.

"It's not paranoid to want to protect our world," Makoa replied.

"This world has been taking care of itself for ages. It doesn't need our protection."

"There's no need to argue," Malie added. "Our neighbors have their way of honoring our home, and we have ours. Now, let's get this toddler tucked in for the night."

Malie picked Keoni up, carried him to his bed and helped him into his PJs. He crawled into bed and got under the covers, and Malie read him a bedtime story -- Keoni thought that the story wasn't bad, but he would rather have heard about the adventures of his neighbor Makoa, the sea-turtle-saving superhero. Even so, he drifted off to sleep eventually.