Chapter sixteen: Message in a bottle, Bottle is the message
“Rise and shine, it’s a great day for the race today.”
.
“What race Dad?”a sleepy voice asked from in the bed.
“What race Dad?”a sleepy voice echoed from under the bed.
“Why, the human race of course.”
A chuckle came from in the bed.
A groan came from under the bed.
Dad heard the groan that seemed to follow the chuckle. “Cheer up, boy, hohoho, we are all in the race together.” he chortled. “Why, of course, we are all on course in the course, of course. All the human race is swimming in a race that is running through us all, on course, of course.”
A long silence occurred in the bedroom after Dad went back to the kitchen.
“Clonkety, Clonkety, Clonkety Clonk”. That was the sound of Mum’s large wooden spoon on the sides of the porridge pot as she scraped it into the bowls.
“Hoho, well, I am not sure if our boy David enjoyed waking up to jokes today. ” That was the sound of Dad.
“Maybe we can give David a special little breakfast treat this morning to help.” That was the sound of Mum.
Back in the bedroom:
“Wow, how wise was that? Hahaha. What was Dad really saying? Seems a great joke, all right. Hahaha,” laughed Dave the Cleaner.
“Bah! I don’t see anything funny about it. Riddles like that just make my brain hurt!” grumped Dave the Cleaner. He reached up off the floor and banged the underside of the bed. “Oi, you, get going, go out and join your confounded human race that you find so funny. I want my breakfast and I need Mum’s treat for me now!”
So it was that in the twinkle of an eye, both Dave the Cleaners were up, dressed and one vanished out through the bedroom window while the other was seated with his bowl of porridge at the breakfast table with Mum and Dad. He did not start eating immediately. For some moments he sat with his porridge spoon poised in the air looking around for his treat.
“Hohoho, I think someone must have tricked our boy, David, and tied his shoe laces together today so he can’t run in the race properly hohoho.”
“Now, now, we can all take a while keep going in the morning, can’t we. Here is a special treat today to help you along, David.”
Dave the Cleaner stared at the glass jar full of preserved peaches she placed by his porridge bowl. “Doh! This is not my idea of a treat,” he scowled to himself. “These are just ordinary, boring old peaches jammed in an ordinary, boring old glass jar!”
“Hohoho, cheer up, boy these are no ordinary peaches. Your Mum and I picked them off our tree together. She sweated and cooked them herself. You can’t buy golden peaches like this, you know.”
“Yes, David, your father is right. This bottle of peaches has a wonderful story to tell. We planted and have cared for the peach tree ourselves since you were a boy. The weather was just right last spring when the flowers blossomed so bees could come from miles around to collect its pollen. The beautiful golden colour of the peach flesh speaks of the lovely hot summer sun that ripened it. I have reused that same glass jar every year since before you were born to store the autumn fruit harvest so we can eat it as a special treat in the winter and spring.”
Dave the Cleaner spooned some of the peaches into his porridge and took a mouthful. “I admit these peaches do taste rather yummy, thank you.” he said though he was not really tasting them because his mind was busy elsewhere. He was worrying, “ Bah! I wonder what new mischief Mahoe Dave the Cleaner is getting up to today. Ug! I just don’t seem to be able to get rid of him. Always asking pesky questions like he’s a five year old!. Follows me around like a bad dream!”
He was so busy worrying that he did not notice he said all this out aloud and Mum and Dad were now looking at each other with most puzzled looks on their faces.
“I sometimes wonder if I’ll ever understand what our boy David goes on about. He seems to be sleepwalking today. Will he ever wake up?”
“Now, now. We can all get a little bit absent-minded at times, can’t we. It’s good that he cares about his job as a school cleaner and we know the little children in the Mahoe classroom have a special meaning to him for some reason.”
“Well, the dishes certainly won’t sleepwalk their way into the kitchen sink and wash themselves, will they,” laughed Dad as he stood up and began clearing the breakfast table.
“And I better polish off all the fairy dust that has fallen from dreams in the night onto our shelves and our ornaments,” smiled Mum as she tied on her apron and went out the kitchen door. A moment later she popped her head back in and said in that special, comforting way Mums can have, “It’s a beautiful day out there, David. Why don’t you go for walk in the park. The lovely Sun will surely wake you up.”
” Yes, its a bonza bottler day out there. Don’t worry about us, boy. Go out and enjoy the good weather,” added Dad as he cleared David’s empty porridge bowl away and carried it to the sink.
Dave the Cleaner did as he was told. He went out for walk in the Sun. He headed to the park. “I bet trouble-maker Mahoe Dave the Cleaner will cause me more trouble today. Bah, he never stops being a nuisance!” he grumbled to himself.
Sure enough, it was just as he feared. He saw from a distance the figure of Mahoe Dave the Cleaner sitting on the park bench and he was clearly unpacking his confounded plastic bag full of park litter. Worse, he could hear him whistling a tune and it was a song he knew well. It was “Message in a Bottle” by a singer with the strange name of “Sting”. As he walked nearer to the park bench, he began to hear snippets of the annoying, childish songs Mahoe Dave the Cleaner seemed to love making up.
“Message in a Bottle
The bottle is the message
Which way will it float?
When will we know it?
How’s it going to save us
From our litter and mess?
Who is going to see it ?
Why’s it such a secret?
What’s it got to tell us?
Where’s it going to take us?
Message in a Bottle
The bottle is the message”
Mahoe Dave the Cleaner did not even notice him arrive and sit down on the other end of the park bench. He was totally focused on his struggle to stuff a little rubber ball into the bottle for some childish reason. Dave the Cleaner tried hard not to watch the ridiculous struggle going on at the other end of the park bench.
He stared at his cell phone.
“Bah, battery flat! Dead as a door nail! Woe is me.”
He stared at the sky.
“Bother, here come some clouds already to ruin my day!”
He stared at the trees.
“Dogonne it, branches starting to move. Its going to be a blasted windy day again.”
He stared at the ground.
“Oh poop! A fresh dog poop! I will sure have to take extra care of my Clean, Clean Image today! I was so embarrassed yesterday.”
However, try as he might, Dave the Cleaner could not resist watching Mahoe Dave the Cleaner struggle to stuff the rubber ball in the bottle. He noticed it had a faded map of Earth printed on it. Finally he could not stop himself becoming involved. “I know best, you fool,” he said, “Hand that to me and I will put the ball inside the bottle no trouble.”
He reached over and grabbed both the bottle and the rubber ball. He pricked a hole in the ball with the pin on his trouser belt buckle, squeezed the air out of it and pressed the ball into the bottle. Once in the bottle, it popped back into shape though it now looked somehow a bit sad and flat.
“Huh! See! Clever. Smart. Quick. I use my brain. I know how to think. There you are. Job done!”
“Hmmm. Isn’t this a wee bit sad? The ball now has a hole in it. How will it ever bounce again like its meant to? Its, well, kind of dead now. How can children play games with it like they did before?”
“Doh! Who cares! Most important thing is it still looks like a ball and it is now inside the bottle like you wanted. Bah! Stop complaining. You are never happy!”
Mahoe Dave the Cleaner carefully screwed the lid back on bottle. He smiled back in a kindly way and replied, “Aha, sometimes we learn and live and sometimes we don’t. After all, we are all human beings, aren’t we.”
Dave the Cleaner did not know what to make of this reply. He crossed his arms tight and frowned to himself, ” Bah! Another of his confounded riddles. Just nonsense!”
Dave the Cleaner sat in grumpy silence.
Dave the Cleaner sat holding bottle with the ball in it up the air, humming to himself.
“Message in a bottle
Bottle is the message”
Yes, suddenly both Dave the Cleaners burst out singing this song as though in the same breath.
One scowled and bit his lip.
One smiled and laughed.
“Ah, aha, we humans are funny old beings, aren’t we. We tell ourselves all sorts of trickster stories eh.”
“Bah, speak for yourself. We adults know better than that. Make-believe games and fairy tales are just for kids. A rubbish bottle is just a rubbish bottle. A ball in a bottle is just a ball in a bottle. End of story!”
“Hmmm, and why then do so many adults imagine the planet we all live on kind of works like a ball in a bottle?”
“Doh! Simpleton. It is just a nice and easy way to show kids how sunlight warms up the air to keep us alive. Everything would get super hot and super cold if there wasn’t any air to trap just the right amount of heat. See -it is just like we live in a bottle or a car with the windows closed or a greenhouse.”
Dave the Cleaner still looked puzzled. He held the bottle against his cheek as though he was listening to it for an answer. He looked more and more puzzled. He then held the bottle in his lap and twisted his face sideways so it appeared he was now listening to his cheek.
He repeated this a number of times and each time looked even more puzzled.
Once or twice he even held the bottle against the tip of his ear.
Other times he licked the tip of his finger and first pressed it on the bottle, then on his cheek.
Sometimes he even wrinkled his nose and went cross-eyed as though he was listening to the air coming up it when he breathed in.
It was the turn of Dave the Cleaner to start laughing. “Bah! Ha ha haha. I think you have clearly lost your senses, Mahoe Dave the Cleaner, you don’t even know your sense of smell from your sense of hearing. Just use your sense of sight and see the bottle in front of your eyes. That’s all you need to do to know how air keeps us warm! End of story!”
” Ummmm, why doesn’t the idea we all live in some sort of bubble or bottle or greenhouse seem to make real sense to me? Why doesn’t it feel right to me? Why does the air trapped in the bottle feel warmer on my cheek while the air all around us feel cooler on my other cheek? Which story is more true? The story you tell me or the story my body tells me? Who is right?”
Dave the Cleaner had been becoming rather hot and bothered by these pesky questions. He was just about to say he so wished those pesky children in Mahoe classroom had kept Dave the Puddle sealed up in the bottle in the freezer when a huge gust of wind blew through the park.
End Chapter sixteen
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Please note: this is a first draft script (Jan 2020) and prototype format of How the Children of the Mahoe Tree Saved Our World. I plan to create illustrations to complement each chapter as soon as possible.
Please enjoy tolerance – my diplopia means I struggle to read what I write.
This story is based on a true event. A class of five-year olds created the central plot. In the process they showed young children, unlike many adults, retain the vital spirit of inquiry and comprehension of the fundamental thermodynamics required to care for Earth’s atmosphere.
Some grand ideas and questions from Chapter Sixteen
Idea: Pending 24 May 20
Question: Pending