Search just our sites by using our customised search engine

Unique Cottages | Electric Scotland's Classified Directory

Click here to get a Printer Friendly PageSmiley

Children's Stories
by Margo Fallis
Beads


Several straw huts stood among the tall grasses. Other huts stood on wooden poles a few yards from the beach. Kamea lived in one of the huts with her grandma, Pooha. Every morning Kamea walked along the sand searching for searching for puku shells. With bucket in hand she picked up each one, dropping them among the bigger shells she collected for herself.

One morning, Pooha called to her granddaughter. “Today I am going to buy some fish from Kona, the fisherman. I will be gone most of the day. Go and gather the puku shells and then come back here and string them into a necklace. When you are done with that, go and visit Maleka. She will take you to pick a pineapple and some sugar cane. I will bring back a fish for supper.”  Grandma left the small girl by herself, as she often did, and went off to find Kona.

Kamea strolled down to the beach. The waves rolled in with a gentle rhythm, spreading across the sand in a sheet of greenish-blue. Something rolled from the water onto the beach, landing near her feet. “It’s a bottle.” She picked it up and examined it. “It’s pretty. I wonder where it came from.” Kamea blew the sand out and put her eye to the hole at the top. “I can carry my shells in this.”

She bent over and picked up a puku shell, dropping it into the bottle. After an hour shells bubbled out of the top of the bottle. “That’s enough. I’ll take them home now.” She headed for her hut, kicking sand with her toes. Sea birds flew around her, squawking. Kamea saw a kitten scurry under a fallen coconut palm. “I like living here.” She smiled and ran the rest of the way.

Inside, she dumped out her bottle. The puku shells spilled onto the table. “First, I need to go to visit Maleka and get the pineapple and sugar cane and then I’ll come home and make a few necklaces with these.” Kamea ran to her neighbor’s hut and then came home with arms full. She put the food down and then worked hard all day threading the shells onto string. She’d just put the last one on when Pooha came home.

“I’ve got us a fish, Kamea.” She saw all the necklaces. “You’ve been working hard. I’ve got a special surprise for you.”

“What is it, Grandma?” The girl took the fish from Pooha’s hands and put it on the stove. “Show me. Show me.”

Pooha reached into her pocket and pulled out a bag of shiny stones. “These are for you. They’re made of real glass.”

“They sparkle, Grandma. They are beautiful.” Kamea poured them on the table next to the necklaces. “Look what I found today.” She showed her grandma the bottle.

“You can put all your new glass beads into it so they won’t get lost. Tomorrow we’ll make necklaces and put these and the puku shells together. We will go to town on Saturday and sell them.”

“If we sell them, Grandma, then we can have enough money to eat honey cakes, pineapple coconut balls, rice candy and ginger drops.” Kamea licked her lips.

“Not only that, but we can have some mahi mahi, chicken and pork too. Let’s go down to the beach and swim for a while and then we’ll have some poi and taro pupu and some fish. After that, we’ll make some more beads.” Pooha took Kamea’s hand and they strolled down to the beach.

“Grandma, I saw a kitten today. Maybe we’ll find another bottle to fill with more puku shells.” Kamea smiled up at Pooha.

That afternoon, after feasting on fish, they made the necklaces with the shells and glass beads. They kept them in a pile on the table and went to bed. The next morning when they woke up they were all gone. Pooha shook her granddaughter. “Kamea, what did you do with the necklaces?”

Kamea yawned. “I didn’t touch them, Grandma.”

“They’re gone. All of them!” Grandma sat on the woven mat on the floor.

Kamea ate breakfast in silence. She didn’t like seeing her grandma so sad. She grabbed her bottle and ran down to the beach to gather puku shells, thinking it would cheer her grandma up. On her way back to the hut she saw the kitten. “What’s in your mouth, little kitten? Whatever it is, it is shiny.” She chased the kitten under the fallen palm. “Come out. Come out. I won’t hurt you.” Falling to her knees, Kamea reached under the log. “What’s this?” She pulled out all of the necklaces she and her grandma had made the day before. “So it was you! You came to our hut and ran off with them. Grandma will be happy now.”

Kamea ran home with the beads in hand. “Grandma! Grandma! I found them.”

Pooha stood and went to the door. She saw Kamea with all the beads. “Where were they, Kamea?”

“The kitten took them.” Kamea dropped them on the table.

“I think we need to put them somewhere safer. Why don’t you pour a bowl of milk for the kitten. It might be hungry. What should we name her?” Pooha put her finger under her chin in thought

Kamea filled a small bowl with milk and put some of the cooked fish next to it. A few minutes later the kitten came to the door to eat.

Pooha picked it up and stroked her. “We shall call you Beads.” She put the kitten down and it ran back to the fish.

“That’s a funny name, Grandma. Beads.” Kamea laughed.

Beads stayed near the hut from them on. Every day Kamea and Pooha fed her. When Saturday came around, they left to the village to sell their necklaces. Later that day, after they returned home, Pooha sat on the mat. “Well, Kamea, tonight we shall feast and every day this next week we shall feast. You and I need to make more necklaces with the glass beads and we can eat like this every day. I’m glad we bought some more. Now we can eat well and so can our little kitten, Beads.”

Kamea hugged her grandma and picked up the kitten. That night she ate until her tummy bulged and so did Beads.


Return to Children's Stories


 


This comment system requires you to be logged in through either a Disqus account or an account you already have with Google, Twitter, Facebook or Yahoo. In the event you don't have an account with any of these companies then you can create an account with Disqus. All comments are moderated so they won't display until the moderator has approved your comment.

comments powered by Disqus

Quantcast