“Aha! I suppose we must speak Mantian now?” and smiled, as Mr. Green and Grondlet stared at her with wide-eyed gazes of wonder.
“Impressive!” said Mr. Green.
And then they smiled, and Mr. Green handed her another edible book.
Rachael chewed somewhat hesitantly, while wondering about what exactly praying mantises eat. But the book tasted a bit like spearmint. She burped, excused herself, and they were on their way.
- Act Four: Mr. Mantis, a Mathematician -
After crossing the bridge into Mantis territory, Rachael was not surprised to see more insects and bugs of various kinds, and she also noticed the sound of crickets once in awhile.
And suddenly, a large, buzzing, flying thing came out of nowhere, and knocked them all over in a bundle.
And after they had dusted themselves off, and recovered, Rachael realized that she had just been knocked over by a giant praying mantis, who also seemed to enjoy wearing hats. But unlike Mr. Green, it had a pencil and a book, and a bowtie, and it also had six legs.
“Hail and well met, Grondlet and Mr. Green!” said Mr. Mantis, bowing, “and who do we have here?”
And try as she might, Rachael did not feel the least bit squeamish in the presence of a large praying mantis. She was comforted by the fact that it did indeed seem to be a mathematician.
She curtsied. (And bowed, for good measure.) And this gave them all a good laugh.
“Mr. Mantis, I am Rachael, new to these islands, and I desire to seek your expert opinion on a mathematical matter,” said Rachael, in her most scientific sounding voice, which seemed to do the trick. Mr. Mantis peered at her, and had an expression of genuine curiosity, quivering with anticipation.
“A code, perhaps?” said Mr. Mantis.
“A code.” said Rachael. And Mr. Mantis didn’t exactly dance, but his eyes danced, and came alive, and he twitched and twittered a bit, and adjusted one of his sets of shoelaces on his six shoes that had come undone. And then he opened his little book, pencil held ready.
“And the code is?” asked Mr. Mantis.
And Rachael said, “The code is 02550, given to me by a fish, and it resulted in me coming here, but it only seems to be a one way ticket, so I need to know the code to get back!”
“Ah!” said Mr. Mantis, and he swiveled his head back and forth, peering in a friendly way at Mr. Green and Grondlet, as if to include them in the conversation. And then, Mr. Mantis winked.
And much like the conversation with Grondlet, they discussed math, or rather Mr. Mantis discussed math, but it was a math Rachael had never heard of, because it was based on color, and after a few rounds of discussion, after which they were all stumped, for some reason Rachael thought of the game they had played before.
“Mr. Mantis,” Rachael said, as if they were all professors at some important school, “do you suppose that this might have anything to do with an acronym, like RGB?”
And Mr. Mantis cocked his head, thought for a few moments, and jumped up with glee.
And when praying mantises jump up, it’s important to get out of the way, because of the six pairs of legs, and the wings that come out.
So they all jumped out of the way.
And when Mr. Mantis came back to the ground, after flying joyfully around and stopping at a few places to engage in what looked like munching on whatever it is that praying mantises eat, he responded.
“Why yes! It’s wonderful that your mind somehow made this connection!” said Mr. Mantis, who then proceeded to bring out some pictures, and he exclaimed “RGB!” and then began to recite a poem, but paused and looked at Rachael, so that it became a conversation.
RGB, RGB
But what does this number mean?
It might mean green
But how do I get back?
Get back to black?
What do you mean?
Three zeroes are black, maybe they’ll take you back
Red plus green plus blue is white
It was all rather silly, and they ended up dancing, and after awhile they returned to the conversation, where Mr. Mantis explained that RGB is a system for describing color with numbers, and he got one of his favorite paintings out that Grondlet had given him as a gift, which showed all the RGB colors, from red togreen to blue, in the shape of a sunflower.
“So I realized that the code means green,” said Mr. Mantis, scribbling on his notebook:
0-255-0
“Because RGB is a system to describe color with numbers.” And he scribbled some more notes:
R=0
G=255
B=0
“So the code your fishy friend gave you is green, and that got you here!” said Mr. Mantis.
“And what is the code to get me back?” asked Rachael, getting the feeling that it must have something to do with color. And they contemplated this, all stroking their chins for a moment.
“Ah!” Rachael said, remembering that fishes are in water, and often that the water is blue. “Perhaps the code is blue?” and Mr. Mantis offered her the paper and pencil, and she began scribbling.
R=0
G=0
B=255
00255
And they all gazed at the code, and decided that this must be it.
“But first, before you go, let’s sing a song,” said Mr. Green, and it seemed that the singing of songs, and the playing of games, and the making and reciting of poems was a way to be friendly.
“Oh! I’ve got one!” said Mr. Mantis, and began to sing about crickets.
And Rachael remembered science class, and how the praying mantis watched for movement with its large eyes, scanning for crickets or any other bug.
Crispy, crunchy crickets
Crunch a bunch for lunch
Crispily, crunchy crickets
Crunch a bunch for lunch
Crispily crunchily munchily bunchily
Wrinkly crinkly crickets
Crispily crunchily munchily bunchily
Wrinkly crinkly crickets
Oh, it’s not fun for the crickets
But it’s a lunch for us! Hey!
Yes, it’s not fun for the crickets
But it’s a lunch for us! Hey!
And by this point the gathering had descended into a wild form of dancing, which reminded Rachael of a dance she’d seen where you stay low and stick your legs out, and a lot of legs were sticking out, since Mr. Mantis had six of them. Grondlet hopped out of the flower pot and jumped about on roots, and Mr. Green had his own sort of giant gerbil dance, which involved bumping into everyone else and flinging sunflower seeds everywhere.
And after they’d recovered, and noticed that the sun was starting to go down, Grondlet started to yawn, and they decided it would be best to call it a day.
“Rachael, would you like some eggs to take with you?” asked Mr. Mantis, who held out a little stick with something small and foamy looking on it, which looked like an oversized nut, or a tiny brown wrinkled dried apple.
“No thank you, I’m not hungry,” said Rachael, and she was surprised to see Mr. Green spit out the sunflower seeds he had been munching on, and she saw Grondlet laugh out loud for the first time. And then she saw that Mr. Mantis was sniffing, but in a good-natured way, and Rachael remembered from science class that praying mantises come from eggs. And she realized Mr. Mantis must be offering her an egg case so that she could try growing praying mantises back in a tree somewhere.
No, no, not to eat
but put the egg case on a tree
and maybe in a month you’ll see
a hundred manti crawling out
and then the crickets should watch out!
“Certainly!” said Rachael, and bowed, and took the stick and egg case gently in her hand.
And Grondlet gave her a small bag of sunflower seeds, and with a sense of fun, decided not to tell here that these were magic sunflower seeds. Rachael was invited to plant the seeds in the ground when she returned, to see what would happen. Grondlet reached
down and hugged Rachael, and at this point, with the soft green leaves and stems wrapped around her, she began to feel a lump rise in her throat, and realized that she’d made some friends.
And Mr. Green had a handkerchief out, and was dabbing at his eyes, and gazing at her with an expression of pride. And he reached into his bag, and gave her a book.
And Rachael looked down at the book through her watery eyes, and laughed.
“Why Mr. Green, but I already talked to the fish!” said Rachael.
“No Rachael, that was just a dream.” Mr. Green said, grinning. “But wouldn’t you like to tell your fish friend about the fun you had?”
And Rachael figured, yes, why if she could talk with the fish now, then it would probably enjoy hearing of her adventures.
“Everyone likes hearing stories,” Rachael said. “And making them too!”
And it was then that she realized how friendly the Kahonua Islands were, and she also knew that she could come back anytime she liked to fill her hungry mind; that Mr. Green, and Grondlet, and Mr. Mantis would always be there.
And somehow she also had the sense that as she grew older, she’d still think fondly of her friends, as she planted her sunflower seeds, or set a mantis egg case on a tree limb to see what happens.
Rachael had indeed noticed the grin on Grondlet’s face as the bag of sunflower seeds had been passed her way, and it had been a playful grin, so she wondered if it had something to do with the seeds. She thought to herself, if a phone can be magic, then seeds could be magic as well . . .
Rachael smiled, as she entered the code in her phone.
00255
- Act Five: What Happens Next -
Rachael was not surprised to find herself back in her room, with the fish looking at her expectantly, and swishing its tail back and forth slowly.
“Welcome back, Rachael!” the fish said. “What did you learn?”
I got some seeds for flowers
And learned about the sun
I got some eggs from a mantis
And had a lot of fun
I learned about some colors
And played some silly games
I learned the code of RGB
And now you need a name
And if fish could clap, then the fish would have clapped, because this is what it had been waiting for, hoping for beyond all hope: that it would get a name.
Rachael described the magic map, and they agreed that the Kahonua Islands must be located somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, near Hawaii.
And sure enough, when Rachael looked in a Hawaiian dictionary for the word Kahonua, she found the definition:
Kahonua - “globe of the earth”
And she searched for a word that meant “blue”, and got very distracted by all the different words for sky, and ocean, and water, and sun, and the words for love, and other words. And she wrote her favorites down, and it was then she realized that there were in fact five islands, and that she was part of the story, and making it up as she went.
Kahonua - "globe of the earth"
Laulauna - "friendly, sociable"
Hanaola - "job, life, livelihood"
Lonopuha - "the art of healing"
Lehopulu Island - "earth clinging rainbow"
And finally she decided on a word for the fish. And this word was uli, Hawaiian for “blue”.
Uli – “blue”
And Uli was henceforth a very happy fish.
--
The End
*******
To learn more about Kahonua, and to explore ideas about things like growing sunflowers or raising praying mantises, please visit https://www.kahonua.com - you can also sign up to receive updates about future editions. Feedback is welcome, and it would be great to hear what you think, especially if you liked it. If you know of a student, independent artist, production company or publisher that might be interested in helping to develop further material, such as books, animation, or games, please get in touch.
About the author: Todd Kelsey, PhD (ABD) is an author and educator with an interest in sustainability. During his PhD study, he did some volunteer work for One Laptop Per Child, and also started growing sunflowers. One thing led to another, and the idea of inviting kids of all ages to grow sunflowers turned into the Sunflower Club, which has grown from year to year, as member pass their seeds along and trace the ancestry back on a sunflower family tree. Then he started wondering about how to take a balanced approach to social responsibility, thought about color coding, and the RGB Project was created. Todd has appeared on television as a featured expert and has worked with a wide variety of corporations and nonprofit organizations. He is author of the new book Social Networking Spaces, which introduces readers to social networking. Todd’s research has included work in social media; delivering content in different languages; sustainability; and helping people to capture, preserve, and share their life stories.
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