An Excerpt

This is an excerpt from a book I wrote but never published. At the time this take place, Paul is an old patriarch, having been shipwrecked many years before in the South Pacific.

I started the book as a boy, finished it as an adult. When I started, there was still enough undiscovered or poorly mapped areas in the world that one might believe this could happen.

Alas, no more.

A half dozen little children then came running to them, collecting around Paul, producing in the old man an unrestrained grin. Two of the littlest fought for a place on his lap, eventually finding a comfortable seats on each knee. The others stood close, pulling on his cloak and ponytail, mixing their island dialect with pleas of “let me, let me.” ...Paul smiled... drawing the children into a semicircle and putting a finger to his lips.

“Shhhhh…You want to hear a story, don’t you?” They all nodded. “Now, what kind of a story do you want to hear?” he asked hushedly, as if he’d been scolded for talking too loudly, turning his head slowly to meet the eyes of each one in turn.

“A new story!”

“No! An old story!”

“And you, Onoo, what would you like to hear?” asked Paul. Little Onoo, face smudged with mud, knees dark and scraped pink, sat cross-legged and quiet, twisting his mouth below a crinkling nose.

“Do you want to hear a story about a little mouse, Onoo?” Onoo nodded that he did. “Well, it so happens that I know a wise old jungle mouse named Onoo, just like you.”

“You do?” said them all.

“Oh, my, yes. I’ve known old Onoo the mouse for years. He was my first friend. Why, I met old Onoo before I met Hivoa-Hiti. And you know that I’ve known Hivoa-Hiti for a very long time indeed.”

“How long?”

“Oh, a long time, since before any of you were born. Well, you must know that old Onoo had a cousin named Aloysius, who lived right here in your village, and one day he invited Aloysius to his modest home beneath a banana tree in the jungle for a fine feast; why, they had all the fallen breadfruit and bananas that they could eat, those two mice, and they ate and ate and ate until they could eat no more, finally rolling back on a banana leaf and patting their bellies. But Aloysius the village mouse was not happy. `Is this all you have to eat?’ he asked. `In the village we have roasted boar, and fish, and so many nice things that you can’t get in the jungle.’ And so Aloysius invited Onoo over for a feast, and they made plans to meet here, in your village, this very night. Well, they did meet here tonight, and Onoo was just amazed at all the delicious things that Hivoa-Hiti had prepared for you and me. Now just as the two of those mice were about to dine, Mahana chased them into the jungle with a club, old Onoo narrowly avoiding the loss of his tail. Onoo shook Aloysius’ hand and bade goodbye. `You’re leaving so soon?’ asked Aloysius. `Why, we haven’t begun to eat yet.’ `Thank you, cousin,’ said old Onoo, but I much prefer bananas and breadfruit to bludgeons and boar,’ and he left.”

“Really?” asked the children.

Paul swept his arms forward, turning their heads, and pointed to a woman waving a stick at a pair of mice nibbling at her fruits and vegetables; the green switch, usually reserved for the bare bottoms of children, whistled to a silent stop in the sand and sent the mice scampering into the thatch of a nearby hut. The woman called to the children. They said good-bye to Paul and scattered and collected around her like a school of tiny darting fish.

From Straying into Paradise, Charles Cairns

Started: 2012-07-25