STORYLINE

My Day With an Expert: Auntie Oki

An expert is someone who has a special skill or knowledge in a certain area that nobody else has. There are many experts on the island. Some are really good at finding water, knowing what the animals are going to do, or fixing things that break. Sometimes people argue about who’s the best expert at certain things but when it comes to shark-toothed weapons everyone agrees. Nobody is as good as Auntie Oki. When I learned that we had to spend a day with an expert for this assignment, I knew right away that I wanted to spend a day with her.

Oki and her sister Pana run the armory. Before the fracture the armory used to be a museum. Lots of people would come to look at all kinds of old stuff, not just weapons. Since the accident, the sister’s family have made it the best place to buy the equipment you need to protect yourself and keep you alive if you’re out exploring.

Leiomano is an old Hawaiian word that means “lei of the shark”. Today it’s a word that means any kind of shark-toothed weapon and it is Oki’s specialty. She says that making leiomano is a form of art and she tries to make each of her weapons as suitable for framing on the wall as they are at slicing through a Nightmarcher.

Every morning Oki puts on her beach hat and sets out just before sunrise to look for shark teeth. “You find the best ones right at dawn,” she says. Oki prefers tiger shark teeth but says you can use any heavily serrated species like dusky, bull, or even great white teeth. Even though the pointy teeth of the different kind of reef sharks look cool, Oki says they don’t cut very well so she only uses them for decoration or toys.

She carries the teeth back home in specially made bundles of hau tree cloth and palm fibers to avoid the teeth cracking or becoming dull by rubbing against each other. In her workshop, Oki lays out all the teeth, grades them, and decides what color schemes, patterns, and weapon types each tooth would be good for.

Oki says that every tooth, tusk, and antler she finds has a place and that there are a numerous opportunities in every home to “tastefully weaponize the decor”. She is almost as well known for her nontraditional creations as she is for her leiomano work. Every night Oki teaches a class on creative armament design for anyone interested in the subject. She says her exclusive line of boar-tusk brooms are, “easy to use and are as deadly as they are elegant.” But when it comes to shark teeth she does things the old way.

Oki treats the teeth with a special process handed down through her family to make them hard and less brittle. Even though I asked politely, she wouldn’t tell me what it was. She only uses koa or milo wood in her weapons. She says that they are the most durable and fit in well with almost any color palette.

Some people say that the best way to secure a tooth to a weapon is to lash it without drilling holes or use a strong epoxy or glue. Oki says those methods are lazy and can lead to tooth or life loss in battle, as well as a missed opportunity to add exciting accent features to a weapon. Auntie Oki uses a small laser drill to score her treated shark teeth before punching a hole with a handmade sandalwood awl. She says you can’t make beautiful weapons unless you’re using beautiful tools.

The ancient Hawaiians believed a lot of weird things about teeth. They believed that shark teeth could protect you from shark attacks and made warriors more brave. They also believed that if you took a molar from a fallen enemy and inlay it in a club, the mana from the slain warrior was transferred to the weapon, giving its owner more spiritual power. Owning a shark-toothed weapon was a great honor and would make its wielder almost impervious to harm. But Oki says her creations are for display and devastation purposes only, not for spiritual protection.

If you are looking for: a Koa axe, a niho knife, a hoe leiomano paddle, or just a simple shark-toothed club, there is no better place to look than the armory. My mom says that I’m still too young to get a pololu spear, but when I grow up, I know Oki will make me a beautiful one that will match my favorite boots.

Akamai Mahelona
4th Grade
Pu`u School Lahaina

STORYLINE

The Story of Miki the Helpful Menehune

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The Kanaka don’t teach their kids in the same way we do here in Pu’u. They use stories. Since they didn’t plan as well as people like my grandpa and his friends, they didn’t have safe places to live, food, water, and printers to make things like the Thrivers do here. Instead, the Kanaka had to rely on each other and their families to survive the big accident. They know that they have to count on everyone in their village if they’re going to make it, even if someone doesn’t always do a good job every time. Miki the Helpful Menehune is a story about not giving up on someone even when they disappoint you.

Lohi’s grandfather was one of the elders in her tiny village. Having lost her parents to Night Marchers when she was only two, her grandfather raised her as his own daughter. He thought it was important for Lohi to go on walks with him so she could learn the ways of the forest and see its dangers firsthand. It was on one of these walks that the pair heard a horrible noise coming from the ruins of some old houses.

Carefully they approached to find the scene of a shrig attack on a menehune den. One of the scintillating shrigs lay dead, surrounded by the bodies of many menehune. It looked like the creatures had killed each other and there were no survivors. Just as they were walking away they heard a shrill cry from behind them, and saw a very young menehune standing there. Lohi’s grandfather said it was too young to survive without its parents and they should leave it there, and let the jungle judge its worth, but Lohi couldn’t help but feel bad for the tiny thing.

As they walked home, Lohi noticed the menehune following them as best as it could. Its little legs were barely able to keep up, and it struggled up ravines and over logs, but it never gave up. She asked her Grandfather if they could take it to the village and help it until it was big enough to fend for itself. One look in her eyes, and her tutu knew it was no use in arguing with the girl. “If we take this menehune to the village it won’t learn what it needs to survive, and you will have to take care of it for the rest of its life. It will become part of the family. Do you understand,” he asked? Lohi shook her head yes. She named it Miki, and hugged her grandfather saying she would look after and feed it every day.

Many were not happy when Lohi and her grandfather returned with Miki. He screamed nonstop the first few weeks until Lohi found that he’d stop for a while if he could hold a set of old tools. He only screamed half the day after that. Feeding him was hard too. His teeth hadn’t come in yet and she had to feed him poi, and boiled fish every few hours to keep his hunger screams at a bay. Still Lohi never gave up on Miki and the two grew very close. But menehune grow up faster than people, and it wasn’t long before Miki started causing trouble in the village.

The menehune was fascinated with anything mechanical, especially anything that ran on electricity. Overhearing one of the hunters talk about how the village guns were in desperate need of repair one day, Lohi got an idea. She’d sneak out after bed with Miki and they’d fix all the guns. The others would be so happy when they saw what she and Miki had done, they’d stop shooing him away from the houses, and saying bad things about him. She asked Miki if he could do it and his little body shook in excitement. He screamed with joy, but things didn’t go quite as planned.

Miki took everything apart at lightning speed, but he didn’t seem to know what to do next, and neither did Lohi. Her grandfather grounded both of them, and it took days to put the village armory back together again. But Lohi didn’t give up. When she let Miki try to upgrade the village’s solar panels a few weeks later, he covered them in paint and they both had to tend to the composting pile for a week for punishment. When Miki ruined half the village’s batteries while trying to charge them, and accidentally electrified the front door, Lohi’s grandfather had enough. He took away Miki’s tools and told Lohi that she would have to get rid of the menehune if he got into any more trouble.

Everyone in the village was already upset because of a long drought, and Miki’s “help” was not appreciated. Many, including Lohi’s grandfather, were worried because they didn’t have enough water to irrigate the crops, and it looked like a long hungry winter was on the way. When the village well dried up, panic struck the Kanaka. Getting through a season of poor crops was one thing, but they couldn’t survive without water. The people had to think about the possibility of braving the dangers of the forest in search of water and moving the entire village.

But Lohi had a plan. Even though her grandfather told her Miki wasn’t supposed to try and fix anything again, she knew that if they got the old desalinator working again they could stay where they were, and they might even save the taro. She got Miki’s tools from where her grandfather hid them and asked the menehune if he could fix the machine. Miki threw his screwdriver he was so excited and screamed with confidence.

The next morning while everyone was gathered to talk about what they were going to do, Lohi showed up with a glass of water, and Miki yelping in delight behind her. She said, “They may disappoint you, by not always doing the right thing, they may even make you angry sometimes, but a Kanaka should never give up on their family. Even though you all did, I never gave up on Miki and now he’s fixed the desalinator. We don’t have to go anywhere.” Everyone cheered, and from that day on he was known as Miki the Helpful Menehune, even though he probably went on to break a lot more stuff.

Akamai Mahelona
4th Grade
Pu`u School Lahaina

STORYLINE

Lawai’a and the Whale

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Even though many of them are sick from the big accident, the Kānaka are really good hunters and fisherman. They are also great storytellers. They use their stories to help remember people who have died and to teach lessons. One of my favorites is the story of Lawai’a and the Whale. It is probably based on a real person but parts of it seem a little fishy to me.

The Kānaka have a long history of being excellent canoe builders but none of them were as good as Lawai’a. His long canoes were just as straight and strong as the short ones, and they could handle even the biggest waves. Nobody wants to go far out to sea, but if you had to, you wanted to be in a canoe that Lawai’a built.

Lawai’a took pride in his creations, but what he really wanted was to be a good fisherman. You see, while he was easily the best canoe builder on the whole island, maybe ever, he was a terrible fisherman. In fact, Lawai’a had never caught a fish or crab in his entire life. Even when he was asked to collect limpets from the rocks he came back with the smallest basket. All of the fishermen wanted one of his canoes, but none wanted to go fishing with him. As far as they were concerned he was cursed. He would spend every day the same way, building canoes in his shop by himself, and dreaming of becoming a fisherman.

The fracture didn’t just kill things on the land, it devastated the waters too. After the accident most of the big fish disappeared and the Kānaka had to live on crabs, small reef fish, and the occasional big prize that would swim too close to shore looking for food.

One spring the fishing was particularly bad, and the people worried that they might not get enough food to make it through the summer. What little hope they had disappeared when they saw the whale. Nobody had seen one since the day everything stopped working. The villagers knew that the whale would eat all the little fish they depended on. They were scared and didn’t know what to do. But Lawai’a said he had a plan.

He said he had an old harpoon that he found in the ruins of the whaler’s village to the North. He would take his biggest and strongest canoe out past the reef and kill the whale. The fishermen thought he was crazy but they didn’t have a better plan. The villagers wished him luck, and had a big party before sending him off. Nobody expected to see him again.

It didn’t take Lawai’a long to find the giant beast. He watched it herd the fish into tight balls before diving beneath and engulfing the whole school with its gigantic mouth. The closer he got the more he shook in fear, but he knew that everyone was counting on him so he tried to be brave. He finally got close enough and let the harpoon go. Lawai’a very first throw was true and it hit the whale mid-tail. The big animal sped off out to sea and the coiled rope hissed at it spun out. In less than a minute the rope went taught and the canoe lurched forward knocking Lawai’a down. He was speeding out to sea.
Lawai’a stayed attached to the whale for 3 days. They went around islands and over reefs. The whale tried diving deep and sinking the canoe but Lawai’a had brought enough rope for even the deepest spots. They swam through a storm but even crashing down the biggest waves wasn’t enough to loosen the harpoon. Finally the whale was getting tired and asked Lawai’a why he had stabbed him.

Lawai’a told the whale about how hungry the Kānaka were and about how bad the fishing had become. The whale listened to Lawai’a and offered him a deal. If he promised to remove the harpoon, the whale would promise to not come back to the Kānaka’s fishing grounds, and he would teach Lawai’a how to find and catch fish. Lawai’a thought about it, looked at how little water he had left to drink, and agreed.

The first day, the whale showed Lawai’a were the black crabs lived now and how to catch them. Lawai’a filled a third of his canoe full of them. He told the whale how he chose which trees would make the best canoes. He talked about which chisels he liked best and how to make lacquer while they looked for crabs.

On the second day, the whale explained how smart the octopus had become since the fracture. He taught Lawai’a how to disguise his traps with shells the same way the Kānaka still do today. By that evening another third of the canoe was filled with food. Lawai’a told the whale about his family and the first girl he loved. He talked about how his father taught him his craft and how he still dreamed of his mother’s cooking.

The third day, the whale explained that a deep canyon had formed after the accident and that the butterfish now swam there. He took Lawai’a to a good place to fish for them, and before long they had caught a dozen. Unfortunately, the canoe was becoming so full that there wasn’t much room for the Lawai’a. The whale saw this and offered to help again. He told Lawai’a that he could keep fishing until his canoe was completely full and he could sleep on the whale’s back that evening. Lawai’a agreed.

That night as the whale swam back to the village Lawai’a sat and looked at his full canoe in the moonlight. He wondered if it would be enough to get invited on fishing trips in the future. He told the whale how all the other fishermen thought he was cursed. The whale told him about his life and the secrets of the sea. All through the night the pair shared stories.

As the sun rose they saw people already casting nets in the surf. The whale told Lawai’a that its name was Hilina`i and that if he ever needed help again to paddle out to where they met and call his name. Lawai’a thanked him and plunged his harpoon into the whales blowhole.

The villagers could barely believe their eyes. Not only had Lawai’a killed the whale, but he had ridden him into shore with a canoe full of food behind him. Lawai’a told them what he had learned. The Kānaka divided the whale and all the rest he brought in the canoe. From that day on Lawai’a was known as the best fisherman on the island.

For the rest of his life Lawai’a would go out every week to the spot where he had met the whale and call the animal’s name. While he got his wish and was now also known as the greatest fisherman of all time, he still wasn’t invited to go on trips. The other fisherman were scared he would show them up or worse, they’d have a bad catch while fishing with the legend he had become. Lawai’a hoped that one day Hilina`i’s spirit would answer his call for help. He longed for those days they spent together fishing and talking. Lawai’a learned that what he had really wanted all those years wasn’t to be known as a good fisherman, it was to have someone he could call a friend.

Akamai Mahelona
4th Grade
Pu`u School Lahaina

STORYLINE

Little Lili and the Lava Flow

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Right after the big accident people like my grandpa had to work hard to find enough food, water, and medicine. It was tough, but they made it. By working together people survived by getting the generators working again, fixing some of the machines, and making guns to protect themselves. But machines breakdown and guns need new parts. At first it was easy to find parts or find things to recycle to fix the generators, but eventually all the good parts got used. Even the Kanaka were running short on batteries. It was then that people started digging for metals and minerals to make parts and fix things. One of the best places to look was also one of the most dangerous, the active lava flows. This is the story of one of the best mineral collectors ever, a Kanka boy named Little Lili. It shows that everyone can contribute, and that sometimes the things you think are bad about yourself can actually be really good.

Little Lili grew up with his mom in a village near Black Rock Beach. Lili’s dad was killed by a green lady before he was born, and his mom worried all the time because he was always sick. They didn’t have much because the medicine he needed was expensive. Lili felt bad because his mom worked so hard, and almost everything she made, traded, or found went to take care of him but she always smiled and said, “there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for my little Lili!”

When he got older he decided it was time to go out and pull his own weight, so his mom wouldn’t have to struggle. But Lili was barely bigger than a child, and Kanaka work is hard. First he tried fishing but he could barely lift the nets. It took all of his strength just to push them out of the boat. When a big wave came Lili fell in the water and got tangled. The fishermen laughed and brought him home caught up in the net. As his mom cut him out, he apologized, but his mom just said, “there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for my little Lili!”

Next he tried hunting, but he was too little for that too. The bow was bigger than he was, and he could only throw a spear a few feet. When he was checking one of the pit traps he fell in and was too short to reach the safety rope. The other hunters laughed, and left him there. It was hours before his mom showed up. He said he was sorry that she had to walk all the way out to help him but she just said, “there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for my little Lili!”

When he walked to the Kapu Kuialua Dojo, and told them that he wanted to be one of the elite Koa warriors they just laughed. But one of the masters was kind, and offered him a job cleaning up around The Mission. It barely paid enough for dried fish and clean water, but it was a start. It was there, surrounded by the old books, and listening to the old stories, that Lili came up with a plan that would change his life.

Lili learned that the Earth produces minerals just like plants produce fruit. One of the best places to find metal and mineral deposits was where the ground is the newest, the lava fields. But there was a reason not many ventured out near the active flows. Not only did you have to worry about the heat, but it was filled with fissures, and hills with thin crusts leading into deep lava tubes. It was dangerous but it was filled with nickel, zinc, copper, and other metals that were very valuable.

While his size kept him from being a good hunter or fisherman, it was perfect for getting around near the flow. He was light enough not to fall through the thin crust around the magma bubbles, and small enough to slip into fissures and climb into tubes where nobody else could reach. Before long he was one of the most successful mineral hunters on the island. What he couldn’t trade to the Kanaka, he would sell to the people of Pu’u, and he became very wealthy.

Months later, his mother received a message that Lili needed her. Figuring that he was in trouble again, she hurried to The Mission. When she arrived she was met by finely dressed Kanaka who took her to a large house. It was beautiful, with intricate wood carvings, roasting pits filled with boar, and bowls of fresh fruit. As she looked around Lili came up beside her. She asked who could afford such a lavish house. Lili just smiled and said, “We can.” She could hardly believe her eyes, or her ears, when he explained what he was doing. Her eyes filled with tears of gratitude for her son, but said she could not allow him to keep doing something so dangerous for her. Before she could protest anymore Lili hugged her tight and said, “there’s nothing your little Lili wouldn’t do for you.”

Akamai Mahelona
4th Grade
Pu`u School Lahaina

STORYLINE

The Story of the Veil Stop Farmers

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Everyone makes mistakes, and my grandpa says it’s ok to make mistakes as long as you learn from them. One of my favorite stories about learning from your mistakes is the story of the Veil Stop Farmers. It teaches kids and adults that you always have to be cautious, even if you think everything is ok, and that you should to listen to legends even if you don’t think they are completely true.

Frank and Dawn Aikola worked with my grandpa and many of the other Pu’u founders before the big accident. Dawn was one of Veilcorp’s best engineers. My grandpa says she was one of the smartest people he ever knew, but that didn’t matter when the fracture happened, nobody was smart enough to stop it.

Dawn was outside in the garden when the ground started shaking and the explosions started. Frank ran out to get her and said they had to go to the emergency shelter. They ran out to the road and saw lots of other people running to where the shelter was. Then Dawn stopped and said she forgot her ring and ran back to the house. Frank tried to stop her but she ran fast. It’s a good thing she went back. When they came back outside they saw that the road had split apart and the people fell into a deep crevice. After that they called it her lucky ring, and Dawn never took it off.

The Aikola’s where one of the founding families of Pu’u. Along with my grandpa and others, they got the power working, fixed the water purifiers, and built the walls. There weren’t many machines that Dawn couldn’t fix, but after a while the macadamia trees stopped making nuts, and the taro started to die. Nobody knew how to fix them, not even Dawn. The Kanaka gave us different kinds of taro plants and medicine for the trees but the people of Pu’u couldn’t wait, they needed food now.

Then one day Dawn was looking at an old Veil Stop station near the school and had an idea. Before the accident people used the veil station to travel across the world, but soon they got really lazy and decided they wanted to travel all over the island without walking too. There were only a few Veil Stops at first, but eventually they made a whole bunch of them because people wanted them everywhere. Dawn remembered that one of them was just North of the Hana taro farm.

Even though the farm is only a little over a mile away, nobody had tried to start another community there. It’s dangerous to go outside of the walls, even a little. The Kanaka have lots of legends about dangerous places, but they consider Hana farm one of the worst and warn everyone not to go there. But the people were desperate and needed food. Dawn’s plan was to see if she could get the Veil Stop near the farm working again, so they could use the farm to grow food and not have to walk through the dangerous forest.

Dawn’s team made it to the farm and found the Veil Stop. It wasn’t too damaged and in a couple hours Dawn had it almost fixed but they needed a little piece of wire. Instead of trying to walk back, she had an idea. She slipped off her ring and wedged it where she needed the wire. Back in Pu’u the Veil Stop sprang to life. Dawn and her group appeared; her lucky ring worked again! She grabbed the wire she needed and some seeds and they all went back.

Over the next few months, the people of Pu’u got Hana Farm running again. Eventually people started staying out there everyday and just sending the vegetables in big baskets through the Veil Stop. Dawn was out there a lot fixing things and working on an irrigation system, but she came back every night because Frank was worried that something would happen.

After a while there was a rumor that a big boat had beached on the other side of the island, so Frank had to leave with some other scouts to check it out. He told Dawn that he’d be back in a week or two and told her to be careful. The next few days Dawn spent almost all her time at the farm, and by the end of the week she was staying out there overnight. It was the peak of the harvest so all the farmers were staying at the farm until all the crops were picked. It seemed like the baskets got bigger everyday. Eventually one of the baskets came with a note that they needed more help, so three more volunteers went through the Veil Stop to the farm.

The next day the same thing happened, and a few more people went to work. Nobody who had left came back, but the baskets were so big that nobody thought anything was wrong. Then Frank came back one evening and found that Dawn was gone. He got worried when the people told him that she’d been working at the farm for days without coming home. Before he could walk through the Veil Stop another big bunch of baskets came through. Again there was a note that the farmers needed more help, but this time Frank noticed something, one of the baskets had a spot of dried blood.

When Frank and the other scouts finally got to the farm the sun was coming up. They didn’t see anyone in the fields or hear anyone or anything. All the birds were quiet and the fields were covered in fog. They searched the big house and found clothes but no people. They looked in the barn but that was empty too. Finally, when they walked out to the Veil Stop they found something. It was Dawn’s lucky ring, lying in the dirt.

The scouts spread out and hid all day waiting to see who was sending the vegetables but nobody showed up. They were just about to leave when they saw someone pushing a cart through the field. For a minute Frank thought it was Dawn, but as the woman got closer he saw that she was covered in leaves and vines. Just as she was getting close she stopped and began to look around. Frank stood up and yelled at her to stop. The woman let out a loud hiss and the plants around her began to move. It was a green lady. She ran at one of the scouts while everyone screamed and shots rang out. She reached the scout before he could escape, and the others watched as she fled into the forest dragging the screaming scout behind.

They never found her, the scout, or any of the others, including Dawn, and when they searched the cart they found another note. My grandpa says the green lady had been ordering up people like pizza, but he says lots of weird things. Even though they missed Dawn and all the others, what happened to the Veil Stop Farmers taught the people some important lessons: Our scouts now make face-to-face contact with outposts every few days. Everyone who goes outside the wall gets a password you have to remember and include in anything you write, and we’re careful of places that scare the Kanaka. One day I want to get rid of all the green ladies. I won’t end up like the Veil Stop Farmers because I learned from their mistakes.

Akamai Mahelona
4th Grade
Pu`u School Lahaina

STORYLINE

The Legend of Floppy Finn and the Bone Garden

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The people who first came to the island brought a lot of things with them like food and tools, but they also brought the idea of sacred places. Long ago there were all kinds of springs, creeks, and mountains that were supposed to hold powers or let you talk to spirits. The big accident destroyed a lot of things from the past like the roads and buildings, but the idea of sacred places survived. Today lots of people hold places like Black Rock Beach or the Augustinian Cliffs sacred. They are places that teach us about the people who came before us and life lessons. This is a story about one of the scariest, the Bone Garden, and a carver who broke the rules of this scary sacred place.

There was no doubt about it, Finn was born to be a carver. Before the fracture, Finn’s tutu was a famous artist and people came from all around to buy her carvings. She passed this talent down to Finn’s father and eventually to him. They say Finn made his first machete handle before he could even walk. But he wasn’t just good at making weapon grips and before long people started to notice.

Finn started out working with wood but eventually, he learned that he was meant to work with bone. He could carve a totem as big as one of the Kanaka warriors out of a whale rib in an afternoon. He could make a fishing arrow out of a deer leg in minutes and his bear bone carvings looked so realistic people said you could hear them roar. Everyone wanted Finn to carve them something and the orders started to pile up. That’s when the trouble began.

Finn was really good at carving but he was also very lazy. Bones are hard to get. Deer are fast and wary. Wolves and bears have good senses and are dangerous to hunt, and the only way to get whale bones is to wait for one to beach itself. It wasn’t long before Finn had used up all the bones he could find on this part of the island but he still had lots of things to make. That’s when he got the idea about looking for bones in the Bone Garden.

Every group of people has their own way of saying goodbye to a loved one after they die. The Kanaka believe that dead people should be returned to the water and bury each other at sea. We Thrivers recycle the dead in machines, but a long time ago they used to bury people in the ground or burn them up to ashes. One of the biggest problems for people who lived through the big accident was what to do with all the dead people. There wasn’t enough room or time to bury them all, and there weren’t enough trees to burn them all up. It wasn’t healthy to have dead people everywhere so everyone decided to put them in a nearby valley.

The people put their loved ones and neighbors there and anything else that reminded them of the way the world used to be. It wasn’t long before the plants and vines started to grow around the bodies. They say that first spring the most beautiful flowers the island has ever seen grew amongst the memories and the lost. They named the valley the Bone Garden. People said you could hear the spirits there if you listened closely and that the Night Marchers tended the flowers at night. It became one of the most sacred places on the island and everyone treated it with respect, everybody that is but Finn.

With all the bones piled up there, Finn figured that he’d be able to find all the knife handles and materials he needed. He thought a few femurs would work great to fill orders and he could probably even use a humerus or two. His friends were horrified when he told them his plan and they tried to warn him, but Finn wouldn’t listen. He headed out to the Bone Garden the next morning and came back before noon with a bag of bones to carve.

That night his neighbors heard drums and shouting from the jungle. When they looked out they saw lights moving in the Bone Garden and they knew the Night Marchers would discover that Finn had disturbed the sacred place. As the drums got louder and the lights got closer they all ran inside hoping the marchers would leave them alone. It wasn’t long until they could hear footsteps outside and then Finn. His screams lasted all night.

Finn was still alive when they found him in the morning. The garden’s protectors had taken his carving knives and removed all the bones in his arms and legs to replace the ones he took. When he died a few minutes later the people laid his remains and all of his tools in the Bone Garden to make sure the spirits didn’t return.

After that day, parents would tell their children the story of Floppy Finn to make sure they knew to respect the island’s sacred places, and never take anything from the Bone Garden. I’d never get in trouble like Finn because I know that polycarbonate is stronger and makes better handles than bone. I also think touching an old person’s bones is gross.

Akamai Mahelona
4th Grade
Pu`u School Lahaina

STORYLINE

How Tiki Idols Helped Everyone Work Together

In the past, before my grandpa and his friends made everything safe on the hill, people would carve tiki idols to help them remember people or stories. Some of the idols were even gods. Nobody in Pu`u think the idols are gods anymore, but they still help us deal with the people down below and remember the way things used to be.

A long, long, time ago people on the islands didn’t have cameras or books so when they wanted to remember something they’d carve an idol. The idols would be a way for the people to remember all of their grandparents or explain how something happened, like how people were made. For a long time people would learn about their history or religion with the help of the idols.

Some of the idols were made of stone but most were carved out of wood. The idols could be bigger than a person sometimes, but most weren’t. Some of the idols had lots of patterns carved into them or even bright colors. Even though some of the idols were supposed to be people they didn’t look very realistic, but they would usually have something special carved into them so you could tell who or what it was supposed to be.

When people got smarter and stopped believing that birds could talk, or that people were made of dirt, they stopped praying to them. They still carved the idols because they were cool to look at but people could look at pictures of old people to remember them. They had science to answer questions about where people came from so they didn’t need the idols anymore.

When the veils broke everyone was really scared. Only smart people like my grandpa had things that worked because they were prepared. The people got together in groups to help each other and protect themselves from Night Marchers and Green Ladies. The people on the hill all worked together but the people below fought a lot and would try to steal if you didn’t watch them. The worst were the people who got sick and ugly. They would usually fight and they would always try and steal things, especially guns.

Rai stones helped all the people get along better and some of the fighting stopped but things were still bad. Everyone on the hill wished that the people below would be better and act right but they didn’t know what to do. Then someone thought about how tiki idols helped people remember rules and learn about things.

The people on the hill talked to the people down below including the ugly people about what rules would be best for everyone. They made idols that had little bits of everyone, even sharp teeth for the ones who got sick. They agreed that the idols would be a symbol of getting along. The people on the hill told the dumber people that the idols were watching everyone and would punish anybody not following the rules. After that, things were much better.

Tiki idols help us keep the people down below from being bad and help us remember how hard working together used to be. Even though we lied about the idols watching over everyone, it was a good lie like when you tell your mom that your room is clean so you can practice shooting. I’m glad that someone remembered tiki idols and that all the people down below believe in them.

Akamai Mahelona
Pu`u School Lahaina

4th Grade

STORYLINE

Why We Use Rai For Money

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A long time ago there were no Tourist camps to trade with or Night Marchers, Menehune or even Green Ladies in the jungle. Everything worked everywhere not just up here on the hill. Everyone used money that was paper or on little plastic cards, but a long time before that people used things called Rai stones.

The Rai stones were carved out of limestone and they looked like wheels. Sometimes they were bigger than people but sometimes they were small enough to carry. Big ones or ones that looked good were worth more than others. There were even ones that were so big that they were really hard to move so people just had to remember who they belonged to.

When the Veil fractured lots of things changed. There were smart people like my grandpa who worked hard and knew that they couldn’t count on anyone to help them. They had lots of batteries and good strong fences. When things stopped working people like him kept things running up here so their families could have good lives but it wasn’t easy.

Some people down below weren’t careful so lots of them died. Some people were traveling and they got really sick and ugly but they could still speak if you talked to them. Some of them turned into monsters and started living in the jungle. That’s why it’s important to never go outside the fence unless you’re with an adult.

Everything went fine on the hill for a while but soon they started running out of food and they needed stuff to recycle to fix things or make new guns to kill the monsters. My grandpa and his friends knew where to find things down below but the Kanaka were always fighting with them or asking for guns that they couldn’t be trusted with. Nobody knew what to do.

Some people still used the paper money on the hill but lots of people just used it for starting fires outside the fence. The plastic cards didn’t work because everyone had to agree what they were worth and nobody could agree. Then someone remembered Rai stones. It was easy for people to agree on what the stones were worth and they were hard to lose and wouldn’t get wet in the rain. Even the Kanaka agreed.

Now when we clean the Kanaka’s water or give them things they want but can’t get into trouble with, we subtract it from the big stone next to their camp and when they give us food we add it. Everyone here on the hill uses little Rai stones when we buy things and so does everyone on the island. Rai stones helped people not fight and agree on things. Rai stones are an important part of our history. When I’m older I want a lot of Rai stones.

Akamai Mahelona
4th Grade
Pu`u School Lahaina

STORYLINE

The Legend of Mark, the Last Hailoha Driver

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A long time ago when everything still worked and my grandpa was young, there were roads paved with something called asphalt everywhere and most people had cars. If you wanted to go somewhere nearby, you’d get into your car by yourself or with a bunch of people and just drive there. That worked good most of the time but sometimes people drank too much or they were really tired and driving was dangerous. People were getting hurt a lot so they decided it would be better to have drivers take you where you needed to go. Back then you could use phones to talk to other people and make the drivers come to where you were. There were lots of drivers on the island but the best one was Mark.

Like a lot of the old things the drivers went away when the veils fractured, but some people say that Mark and his car survived. Nobody knows how he made it, since he wasn’t on the hill with the rest of the smart people. Some say he was a scientist and knew how to protect himself. Others say he made a deal with the spirits on the island. According to the stories if you’re on Front street during a new moon you might see Mark driving his car. Some people say that you need to have a working phone to make him stop but others say you just truly need to get somewhere to catch his attention.

Mark’s car is black so it’s hard to see and it doesn’t make any noise. It is made out of a special metal that can’t be dented and nothing happens if you shoot it. The tires never go flat too. He has been up and down Front street so many times that he doesn’t need to use the lights on his car. Mark just knows where the bad spots are and drives around them. It’s easy for him to drive right past someone without them noticing so you have to pay real close attention if you go and look for him. He knows what’s in each building he drives past, so you can’t surprise him.

They say that Mark can tell if someone is good or bad and bad people who try to get Mark to take them somewhere never arrive. If you’re good, Mark will protect you and bring you where you need to go. You never have to tell Mark where you want to go he just knows somehow. All the monsters who live in the jungle are scared of Mark especially the Menehune. According to the stories, any Menehune who see Mark turn into wood, but that seems like a lie to me, so it’s probably not true.

If Mark stops to give you a ride you have to pay him and he doesn’t accept rai stones. The stories say that Mark’s favorite things are cigarettes and Manimal drinks. He will take you anywhere you want if you have enough of those, but he’ll accept other things too. Some of the other things that Mark will take for payment include: canned food, old books, honey, alcohol, or even jokes and good stories.

Even though Mark is mostly good in the stories (unless you’re a bad person) he has some rules that you have to follow. If Mark stops to pick you up, you have to give him his payment right away. He doesn’t like to ask for payment. He likes listening to old music in his car. If you try and talk over the old music or ask him to turn it down he’ll stop the car and make you get out. If you complain, he’ll honk the horn to let all the monsters and bandits know where you are. Mark has a bowl filled with peppermint candies in his car that he shares with anyone that he takes for a ride. You can take one of the candies but only one. If you take more, he’ll take you where he takes bad people and you’ll never be seen again.

Mark The Hailoha Driver is a good story but the only person I know who says he’s real is my Grandpa and sometimes he lies to me so I’m not sure. There might have been a guy named Mark who did all that stuff after everything broke, but my dad says Front street is really dangerous so Mark would have to be really tough, tougher than my dad. I think it would be awesome if there really was a Mark. When I get older I want to go down to Front street on a new moon and look for him, but probably with some other people.

Akamai Mahelona
4th Grade
Pu`u School Lahaina

STORYLINE

How the Veilstorm changed Lahaina

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The topic of my report for Lahaina history week is the Veilstorm. Lots of people say that the Veilstorm was worse than the big accident, but I’m not sure. It made the island the place it is today and made it so that I got to meet Nana. She has protected us for a long time and always smiles and says “Be mindful little Akamai and stay on the trail.” whenever I leave Pu`u.

Nobody knows what made the big accident happen. Some people say it was a bomb. Some say it was because everyone there was lazy and didn’t fix things when they broke. My cousin says it was because we had gone against the laws of nature, but he’s weird and thinks lots of crazy things. What everyone seems to agree on is what made some of the animals mean and what turned some people into monsters, it was the Veilstorm.

The accident damaged lots of buildings and pushed some houses right over. The people who survived had to find places to go. Lots of people went to emergency shelters but many weren’t close enough and had to find someplace else to go. For many that meant going inside the lava tubes that Veilcorp was using to store the 127 they used to power the station. That was a big mistake.

What they didn’t know was that a really big storm was coming. It was the worst storm that anyone could remember. For 5 days the wind ripped through the trees and knocked down more buildings. It rained so much that parts of the island flooded and brought up some of the 127 from the tunnels. The wind spread it across the island and the rain turned orange. There wasn’t anyplace to go for lots of people. Some got sick and some didn’t make it. But some of the people who got sick started to change.

Nana and her brother Kino were teachers before the accident and they were the first to go out and look for people. They checked lots of different places like Front street, the radio tower, and Hahai Ranch. They were so busy trying to help people that they got caught in the orange rain for a long time and both got really sick. Because they helped so many people, everyone was really sad when they got sick. Kino got a bunch of weird bumps on his skin. Nana was lucky and only had a fever for a few days.

Some of the people in town were worried that Kino would make other people sick so Nana took him to their house to take care of him. She worked and worked to clean up the mess in town and take care of Kino. It wasn’t long before some people noticed that Nana never slept and she could work for hours and never get tired. A few other people began to say or do weird things too. Some of them said they could have conversations without talking or make things move by wishing they would. They were the lucky ones.

For every person who could do special things on the inside there were a bunch that just changed on the outside. Lots of them lost their hair or teeth some had even worse things happen. Nobody was sure what to do. Then people began to talk about how animals had started to change to. The really big boars began to show up and people had to be careful in the jungle. Everywhere on the island the animals and people who were outside during the Veilstorm started to change.

One day a bunch of the village went out to the lava tubes to look for food and they were attacked. All the people who had been staying there had changed. Their arms got longer and stronger. They got sharp teeth and they forgot who they were. They became the monsters that we now call the night marchers. Lots of villagers didn’t make it out of the tunnels, but some managed to. They ran as fast as they could back with the night marchers right behind. Nana was the first to spot them.

She sounded the alarm and everyone got weapons or went inside the old school. There wasn’t a gate back then so Nana knew she needed to slow them down somehow so people could get to safety. She ran to her house yelling Kino’s name. Nobody had seen her brother in weeks and when he came out they didn’t know what to think. The bumps on his skin were all over and he was so big he almost didn’t fit out the door. Nana pointed towards the people running up the hill and the monsters chasing them. That’s all Kino needed to see.

He charged down the hill screaming and waving a big pole over his head. It was so scary that some of the villagers stopped and ran back the other way towards the night marchers. Kino’s pole slammed into the first night marcher and sent it flying. The rest ignored the villagers and jumped on Kino. It was a long fight, but eventually all the night marchers gave up and ran away. Kino and Nana saved the village but Kino was hurt bad.

People couldn’t stop talking about the monsters and how Kino used one as a club after he lost his pole in the fight. They were scared about the monsters and that Kino might hurt someone in the village one day, so they decided he had to go. They gathered up everyone who looked sick and made them live someplace else. Lots of the people who had to leave got together for safety. Eventually they met other people who were sick and made their own villages. Some started to call themselves the Kānaka.

Nana stayed and still watches the trail from the front gate even though she’s old now. People say she still doesn’t sleep, but she never seems grumpy like my mom does when she’s tired. I guess that’s what makes her such a good gate guard. I’m sorry that her brother had to go live someplace else and that so many people got sick or died. Even though the Veilstorm turned some people into monsters it turned some people into heroes too.

Akamai Mahelona
4th Grade
Pu`u School Lahaina