A Fish Out of Water: Chapter 16

 Chapter 16

Finned and Fantastical

Keoni woke up, crawled out of his bed, left the bedroom and toddled across the hall on his way to the bathroom. Leimomi was already up, eating breakfast at the dining table.

When Keoni finished using the potty and left the bathroom, Leimomi was waiting for him. "There you are," she commented. "I thought I saw you leave your bedroom earlier. Time for breakfast!" Leimomi picked Keoni up and carried him to the high chair, where a bowl of cereal was already waiting for him. Leimomi placed Keoni in the high chair, and then he started digging in.

When he was done, Leimomi released him from the confines of his high chair, and then she took his empty bowl to the sink. Keoni watched her as she washed the bowl. Then she turned around and spoke to him again. "Now it's bath time!"

"Yay!" Keoni exclaimed.

Leimomi picked Keoni up, carried him into the bathroom, and gave him a bath. When bathtime was over, they went back out into the hall so that Kapena could have his turn in the shower, and Keoni gave Leimomi a big hug. Then Leimomi gave her grandson another lesson on the importance of saying 'please' and 'thank you.' Kapena came out of the bathroom and started watching the lesson from the sidelines, then Malie went into the bathroom for her turn in the shower. Finally, Hokulani came out of her bedroom, went to the kitchen and poured herself a bowl of cereal.

Leimomi finished telling Keoni about good manners, and then Kapena picked Keoni up and spun him around in the air!

Kapena flipped Keoni onto his back, then picked him up and spun him around again! Meanwhile, Malie left the bathroom, and then Hokulani finished her cereal and went into the bathroom for her turn in the shower.

When playtime was over, Malie gave Keoni another lesson on the importance of a sincere apology. While she was talking, Hokulani left the bathroom, looking at something on her smartphone. Several minutes later, she put her phone away and started watching the lesson from the sidelines. Kapena left the house through the front door. Not long afterwards, Hokulani also left the house through the front door.

Malie finished her lesson, and Keoni decided it was time for a little dance break. Then Malie knelt down on the floor with him again and started showing him flash cards. When they were done with that, Leimomi went up to Keoni and launched into a story. "Let me tell you about the days of old when pirates invaded our islands, plotting to steal the treasures of our people..."

Leimomi recounted the tales of battles that their ancestors fought against the plundering pirates, but in spite of their warriors' best efforts, the pirates made off with priceless jewelry and other rare items. "But the pirates' greed made the ocean angry, and she rose up in a great storm that shipwrecked some of their galleons," she continued. "Even to this day, those who are lucky might find a piece of our ancestors' craft-work washed up on the shore, or caught in the tides, or hidden in the depths of a watery cave. However, the true treasures of our people are our home and each other, and these are not as easily stolen as some silly trinkets."

"Wow," Keoni commented, "dat sounds wike da stowy of Doffin Man!"

"Dolphin Man?" Leimomi asked. "That's a story I'm not familiar with. I'd like to hear it from you, Keoni."

"Okay... Um..."

"Doffin Man is a supahewo," Keoni began his story, making it up as he went. "He can swim weawwy fast wike a doffin, and he fights piwates and mean shawks and ovver bad guys. One time, some piwates stowe a tweasuwe, but Doffin Man found out, and 'cause he was a bwave supahewo, he went to the piwates' ship..."

 "And den Doffin Man fought aww the piwates and made dem walk deiw own pwank, and he took da tweasuwe back. The end."

"Aww, what a nice story," Leimomi said with a smile. "I hope you'll tell me more about the adventures of Dolphin Man sometime."

"Okay. But I gotta teww Beach Beaw about Doffin Man too."

"All right, then. Go ahead."

Keoni toddled into the bedroom, repeated the story he had just told his grandmother to his oversized teddy, and then gave Beach Bear a hug. Making up that story had gotten the tot into a creative mood, so he grabbed some flour and ketchup from the kitchen and then he went outside to express himself artistically on the beach.

Unfortunately for Keoni, he forgot to take into account the fact that his dad was right there.

"Keoni, I'm disappointed in you," Kapena chided his son. "Things like ketchup and flour might make good food for us, but the fish can't eat it, so if it gets on the beach and then washes into the ocean, that would hurt the family business."

"Aww!" Keoni exclaimed in frustration that his artistic endeavors had been thwarted yet again.

Kapena tried to mop up as much of the flour and ketchup out of the sand as he could while Keoni went back inside to have another chat with Beach Bear. As Keoni went through the front door, he noticed that Leimomi was having a chat with some stranger who'd dropped by. Keoni just hurried past them on his way to the bedroom -- he figured that his family's hospitality wouldn't be a problem for him if he just stayed out of the way. Keoni went into his bedroom and talked to Beach Bear for a bit, and then he gave the teddy another big hug. Then he toddled over to the other side of the room, sat down next to his nesting blocks, and investigated the letters written on some of their sides closely, trying to figure out if he could spell any words with them.

Keoni thought maybe he'd almost figured out a word, when he realized he had to go potty. So he stopped what he was doing, got up, and went into the bathroom. After he finished doing his business, he went to check in with Beach Bear again. Then he returned to the bathroom and watched Leimomi wash her hands.

Leimomi turned around to see Keoni, and then she picked up the toddler and went out to the dining room table, where Hokulani, Kapena and Malie were having a conversation with the stranger who was visiting them. "You wouldn't believe the odd job I worked at today," Hokulani was telling the others. "The job ad was posted by this weird dude named Vladislaus Straud, and he said he had gotten himself a fin suit and he wanted a good photographer to help him make 'proof' that mer-people exist. So I met up with him, and then he downed some kind of weird cocktail, slathered on way too much sunscreen -- although, to be fair, this guy was suuuuuper pale -- and put on the fin suit, and then I snapped photos of him lying on rocks and swimming underwater. He was happy with the photos and thought the media would eat his story up; I'm not so sure about that, since he made a really ugly merman, but at least I got paid."

"I hate to interrupt, but I have an idea," Leimomi proclaimed, "let's take Keoni to the beach down the street! Of course, you're welcome to come with us, Mr. Kibo -- we wouldn't just leave a guest behind."

Leimomi took Keoni back into the bathroom and helped him put on his swim diaper and floaties, and then they all left the house and took a short walk to the Ohan'ali Town Beach. Once they got there, Keoni made a beeline for the water, sat down in the shallows and started splashing merrily away as his imagination wandered to topics like Dolphin Man and merfolk.

Malie, Kapena and Leimomi were so focused on watching Keoni and making sure he stayed safe in the water that they paid no attention whatsoever to anyone swimming further out in the lagoon. Which meant that they didn't notice anything out of the ordinary at all.

When Keoni finally finished playing in the water, he looked up the beach and saw Hokulani trying to convince their visitor to join her in building a sand sculpture, but he seemed to be more interested in his phone. Keoni toddled up to her. "I'ww hewp you, Auntie!"

"Thanks, kiddo, that's sweet," Hokulani replied. With that, the two of them set about building a sandcastle.

When they finished, Keoni surveyed his and his aunt's handiwork proudly, and then he went back down to the shore to watch his father chat with their guest. Then, Leimomi came over and picked Keoni up again. "Thank you for coming to visit us," she said to the newcomer, " but we should be getting back home now."

"Thanks, Mrs. Ka'aukai," their guest replied. "I'm happy to meet you and your family."

"And we're happy to meet you as well -- especially Hokulani, it would seem. Well, never mind, just enjoy the rest of your stay in Sulani!" With that, Leimomi turned around and carried Keoni back down the beach towards their house.

The Ka'aukai family arrived back home, and Malie got Keoni a bowl of peas for his dinner, and then placed the tot in his high chair so that he could eat. The rest of the family got leftovers from the fridge and sat down at the dining table together. After dinner was over, Malie brought Keoni into the bedroom and helped him into his PJs. Keoni crawled into bed, and Malie read him a bedtime story until he drifted off to dreamland.