Chapter seventeen Trapped in a greenhouse prison.
Imagine you had been strolling through the park and you happened to pass by the park bench with two elderly men seated on it that day. The first thing you would have noticed is they looked like identical twins though they did act very differently.
One was playing, a bit like a child, with a bottle containing a ball in it. You probably would not have noticed the printed picture of the lands and oceans of Earth on the ball because it was now very faded. He seemed to be brimming with enthusiasm and kept asking the other one questions. For some reason he kept a plastic bag full of litter by him a bit like some small children carry their teddy bear everywhere with them.
One sat scowling and grumpy. Every time the other one asked him a question he seemed to look more hot and bothered. He had not seen to know how to answer the questions and instead he swatted them away just like you might swat away an annoying wasp that keeps trying to land on the honey sandwich you trying to eat. Sometimes he muttered, “mumble… grumble … the Mahoe children…nuisances…grumble…”
If you were near them in that moment when a great gust of wind came through the Park you might have heard the one with the bottle asking, “Which story is more true? The story you tell me or the story my body tells me? Who is right?” These questions seem to make the grumpy one mumble and grumble even more about the Mahoe children.
The grumbly one actually looked happy for a moment when the great gust of wind came through the park. You might be asking why. We can probably never know the true reason. However it could be he welcomed any excuse not to have to think about the questions. However we can know what happened after the great gust of wind came through.
All the trees in the park, which had been delicately dancing to the gentle breeze, now flapped and flailed in a frenzy. The wind formed little whirligigs of twigs and leaves that raced in giddy circles across the park. Little waterspouts spun atop the park pool.
The great gust even sucked some of the litter out of Dave the Cleaner’s plastic bag and sent it flying. He shouted, “Hold on to your story”, tossed the bottle with the Earth ball in it to Dave the Cleaner, leapt to his feet and raced across the park trying to catch the pieces of paper and plastic.
“Dogonne it, the blasted wind has come-up just like I feared and its brought clouds with it to ruin my day. Oh poop!” grumped Dave the Cleaner, huddling the bottle to himself to keep warm as he sat on the park bench.
” Yahoo, hey what fun this wind is,” yelled Dave the Cleaner as he zigzagged around the park chasing the spinning whirligigs running away with his precious litter. He arrived back at the park bench joyful and laughing. “See, saved all our stories from being blown away. What a great day. And yes, its specially pleasing to save the magazine page with the important story about Global Warming. Remember our great discussion?”
Dave the Cleaner did not wish to remember it. He did not like thinking about the terrible day the sunlight got so hot that he imagined even the trees were on fire and then the sunlight got so dim he nearly froze to death. “Bah! Stop pestering me with your questions…” he began to say when another huge gust of wind roared past, whisking his words out of his mouth.
While he waited for this blast of wind to quieten down he realized he was still holding the bottle. It gave him a better idea and he instead announced, “Bother and blast! This rotten wind is set on completely ruining my day. I am going somewhere to get completely away from the weather, somewhere calm, somewhere still, somewhere quiet where I can hear myself think, somewhere my hair won’t blow away, somewhere completely and utterly away from it all! You can stay all day on the park bench in your blasted wind! I’m out of here!”
With that, Dave the Cleaner stood up to leave. Much to his annoyance he noticed out of the corner of his eye that Mahoe Dave the Cleaner clutched his bag of litter and also stood up. This made him feel so grumpy he failed to look where he was going and stepped right in the dog poop. “Oh, Woe, There goes my Clean Clean Image! Its all your fault. Look what you made me do!”
He stomped off down the path, thumping and banging his shoe. In fact he was so busy trying to shake the dog poop off he clean forgot he was still holding the bottle with the Earth ball inside it.
He refused to look behind. However he sensed Mahoe Dave the Cleaner was probably trailing him like an especially annoying shadow. He felt sure of this because he thought he could hear him singing in the biggest gusts of wind. He could not be totally sure because sometimes in the biggest, most noisy gusts it seemed it was the wind singing deep inside his head.
“When warming is cooling and cooling is warming
I am good, good, good
When I’m not warming the same as I’m cooling
I am gone, gone, gone.”
And
“Yes, everything is warming
Yes, everything is coolingYes anything is warming even as its cooling
and that’s how it is…”
The worst, most annoying song that really stuck in his head was:
“You tell me this story
I feel other story
Which is true story?
Remember what you said
The story of your bottle
The story of my body
What’s the true story?
Gotta get it right in my head”
The last song made Dave the Cleaner super grumpy for some reason. “Bah!” He growled to himself, not even noticing he was shaking the bottle in his hand at the sky in his annoyance. “Bah! All these pesky questions from pesky Mahoe Dave the Cleaner just make my brain hurt. And I hate hearing his cheerful whistling behind me. I wish he would just vanish. And I hate this weather, and especially this annoying wind.”
So he was extremely happy when he saw a sign reading, “This Way to Park Greenhouse” and soon after he saw a large building shaped like a big circus tent. However there was one big difference. Circus tents are designed so you cannot see what is going on inside. This building was designed so you can can see right through it because all the walls and roof were made of glass. Even the sunlight could shine in one side and out the other, making it easy to see from the outside that it was filled with all sorts of green plants with bright coloured flowers.
Dave the Cleaner was even more pleased when he reached the greenhouse and found the door was unlocked. Indeed the Park keeper had even left the key in the lock. He was so pleased to step into the calm and get out of the weather he quite forgot to shut and lock the door behind him. Before he knew it, Mahoe Dave the Cleaner was inside and standing beside him.
They stood together gazing at the scene. It was like stepping into another universe.
Outside the trees creaked, cracked and waved wildly in the gusts. The roar of the gusting gales of wind could be heard long before each blast arrived with another hail of leaves and small twigs on the glasshouse. Dave the Cleaner quickly shut and locked the door to shut out these annoying sounds.
“Yes, at last!” he said with great satisfaction.” Stillness! stillness! Huh! Huh! Peace and quiet at last. We human beings are very, very, very clever that we can build a world like this. Go on, admit it.”
“Hmmm… Well…Why does it feel a bit weird and unreal? How is it the air in here smells kind of thick and stale and fuggy like Mahoe Classroom on a rainy day when all the students are stuck in inside all day.”
“Bah! Stop being so negative and looking for problems all the time.
See! Some of us humans are so clever we smelt rocks and build great iron frames like this.
See! Some of us humans are so clever we can melt sand to make the great sheets of glass that can completely cover huge buildings like this.
See! Some of us humans are so clever we can grow plants from all over the world all year round just like there is no summer and no winter and no spring and no autumn.
See! Some of us humans are so clever we can create oceans inside our buildings anywhere in the world and grow giant water lilies and tropical fish like this.
You never, ever see birds and bees and ants and elephants constructing such great clever, clever buildings such as this! No! Sometimes I cannot get over how clever some of us human beings are.”
There followed a long silence, a long, very still silence. It was like one of those long, still silences that occurs when your kid brother or sister is secretly up to mischief. Only much later on do you discover they have been busy in that silence taking your favourite toy entirely to bits or covering your best drawing with their scribble.
Dave the Cleaner and Dave the Cleaner gazed together at all the strange life in the greenhouse. There were branches and leaves, seeds and flowers of every shape and colour reaching up to the roof.
Soft, glowing green mosses as big as bean bags seemed to say “Come, relax in me”.
Leaves as big as teachers’ mats floated on the large pond and seemed to say “Come, walk on water with me”.
Rainbow coloured fish flashed like falling stars in the deep, still, green waters beneath the pond leaves and seemed to say, “Come, make a wish on me.”
Those fleeting flashes of rainbow were the only movement. No leaf stirred. No branch danced. No waves rippled. Only silence.
Finally Dave the Cleaner stretched his arm and waved the bottle triumphantly as though it was his golden cup for being champion of the world. “See, Mahoe Dave the Cleaner, see how clever some of us are. These plants come from all over the world and none of them could live in the cold winds and frosts here in New Zealand without our clever thinking. I told you how sunlight and air work together to warm-up this ball in the bottle. Now see! Sunlight and air work together just same in a greenhouse too!”
There was another long silence. Dave the Cleaner clutched his bag of litter. The world in the greenhouse did not feel right. He did not know what to say in reply. He was lost for words. Then the bag of litter seemed to rustle and crackle in his hands. “Of course, of course, how did I forget you?” he whispered, “ Please help me, children of the Mahoe tree, what’s the true story about sunlight and air?”
Dave the Cleaner heard his whisper and again he waved the bottle in it around just like one of those extra bossy, know-all teachers. “I keep telling you. Those Mahoe children know nothing. They are just kids. Pay attention to me! I don’t want to have to tell you again.
A greenhouse is a huge glass bottle with its lid on so air cannot come in or out. Just understand this: sunlight can travel through the glass and it heats up some special gases in the air inside. The glass of the greenhouse stops the heat from getting outside again and so everything inside is much warmer. I have a special name for those special gases. I call them Greenhouse Gases. Now you know! A greenhouse shows perfectly how sunlight and air work together!”
“Ummm. Ummm” Dave the Cleaner stretched his head in a most puzzled way.” OK, so gases in a greenhouse that are called “greenhouse gases” keep everything in a greenhouse warmer than it would be if there were no greenhouse gases inside the greenhouse? So what happens in all the air blowing around the world outside a greenhouse?”
For some reason the questioning made Dave the Cleaner grow red with rage. He waved the bottle around with such anger that “BONK!!!” He bonked himself on the head with the bottle. This made him even angrier and for a moment it looked like he was about to hurl the bottle right through the glass ceiling of the greenhouse. He managed to stop himself and instead stood there tossing the bottle from one hand to the other while he furiously tried to find the words to reply.
There was another very long silence in the stillness of the greenhouse. No leaf stirred. No branch danced. For a moment there may have been the faint sound of rustling in the bag of litter.
Dave the Cleaner glared at the bag as though telling it, “Be quiet this instant, Mahoe class!”
Dave the Cleaner cocked his ear and listened with great interest as though asking it, “Hey, what’s the true story, children of the Mahoe tree?”
We can never know from whence the sound of distant singing came from. Perhaps it was the distant sound of the Mahoe children singing? Some times people hear distant memories of songs they sang long ago when they were young. Whatever, Dave the Cleaner and Dave the Cleaner seemed to hear the songs at once.
“The wind blows far
The winds blows high
The window is
The wind’s own eye.
The wind blows near
The wind blows low
Just open wide
Your closed window.
Wind blow less
Wind blows more
Just open wide
Your breath’s own door.
Feel the wind
Its never the same
Listen to the wind
It calls your name.
Yes, The answer, our friend
It’s blowing in the wind
The answer is blowing in the wind…”
One smiled, one scowled.
“Wow, did you hear that? Yahoo woopy do. Do you think its possible the true story is blowing in the wind?”
“Doh! Of course not! And you heard what I heard, they were just nonsense bits of songs that children make up. Listen to me. Just forget them!”
“Ummm… Ummm… Hey, lets have some fun. Why don’t we open up the door and let the wind inside here so we can hear its story?”
“Bah! Nope! Blasted wind. I’m not letting it in here because it messes everything up all the time. And I can’t think straight for the sound of the wind. Hah! That’s why I have locked the door to keep it out.”
“Umm, well, okay, can’t we are even open the door for one wee tiny moment so we can listen and feel just a tiny breath of wind?”
“Nope and here’s why!” With that Dave the Cleaner took the key to the greenhouse door out of his pocket, held it up in the air, laughed and said “Kiss goodbye to the key forever” and, “GULP!”, with a triumphant flourish he swallowed it.
There followed another very long, very still silence inside the greenhouse. Somewhere outside leaves shimmered and rustled in the breeze, flowers bibbed and bobbed their heads, clouds drifted by, waterfalls made rainbows with their spray, icicles glistened in the sun, snow flakes floated down and painted the land glowing white, children laughed and played with kites while at night countless stars twinkled in the clear air.
Dave the Cleaner smirked in a smug, self-satisfied way and clapped his hands on the bottle with glee.
Dave the Cleaner smiled in a kind, sad kind of way and patted the bag of litter with trust.
End chapter seventeen
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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 Seventeen
Idea: Pending 30 May 2020
Question: Pending