Chapter twelve Journey to the Sun
If, per chance, you had been going for a stroll through the Park near the home of Dave the Cleaner’s Mum and Dad on that bright sunny morning, you would have seen a most strange and funny scene. There were only two other people in the Park. They were both rather elderly and strangely similar, if not identical to look at.
One sat on the park bench sunning himself and muttering in a grumpy way,”Bah this! Doh that! I know best!..’”
The other trudged along the path towards the park bench carrying a bucket in each hand. On the first glimpse he appeared to be a clown. However closer inspection reveals he was wearing a cleaner’s suit with cleaner’s goggles and mask. So you might have assumed he was coming to clean the parkbench and he had cleaned up some scrap pieces of wood and pipe on the way.
If you had walked close by him, you would have understood why he appeared to be a bit of a clown. He had a fun glint in his eyes and he was singing songs he made up as he walked along, just like many young children love to do.
He sang snippets of verses like:
“Yes, everything is warming
Yes, everything is cooling
Yes anything in warming even as its cooling
and that’s how it is…”
And
“When anything is not warming
it is sure only cooling down, down, down
until it ain’t no more…
And anything is not cooling
it is sure only warming up, up, up
until it ain’t no more…”
He sang complete verses like:
“Oh I am so glad my body is warming
just the same is its cooling somehow.
Oh I am so glad my body is cooling
just the same as it warming somehow
why am I so glad I am cooling and warming somehow?
Cos that’s why I am right here just now right now.”
It is true he did not sing with the bell-like clarity of a young child. However it would have been clear to you he sang with some joy at being alive. You may be also noticed the elderly man on the park bench did not look at all happy when he first heard the song. He scowled even more when he looked up and saw it was the cleaner coming. Indeed he banged his forehead with dismay with his fist and sat hunched, muttering “Doh! Bah!” with his hands blocking his ears.
From a distance you might have concluded they entered into an argument when the cleaner reached the Park bench for there was much arm waving and the finger-pointing. You would probably then have concluded the elderly man was refusing to get off the parkbench so it could be cleaned.
You would have been so wrong. You had to be walking close by the park bench to believe their very strange and funny discussion. However they were alone together in the park and so we can only try to imagine their incredible conversation and what happened next.
“Bah! You here again! Stop that awful singing. It hurts my brain. You look like a clown, an idiot clown at that. So embarrassing! You are always spoiling my Clean Clean image.”
“Why worry? Isn’t it a beautiful day? Why don’t we have some fun with the Sun?
“Doh! You mean fun in the Sun, not fun with the Sun.”
“Oh I mean fun with the Sun. These are two magical buckets. Anything you take out the bucket is immediately replaced with the same thing again in the bucket. Let’s have some fun and see what happens if we heat up or cool down the Sun, shall we? Perhaps such fun might help make it perfectly clear exactly what Global Warming really is?”
While he was speaking, Dave the Cleaner waved his arms and danced around in his suit as though he were a magician presenting a new trick.
Dave the Cleaner sat back on the park bench and began to laugh. He was soon laughing so hard he toppled off the end of the bench on to the ground. He was still laughing so much that he clambered back up on the bench and quite forgot to check the seat of his trousers. So he did not notice he had landed in a dog poop.
“Hahahaha. This I must see. I know what Global Warming is and no magical buckets exist that can change my mind on that! Think about it.
The world would fill up to the brim with water if a bucket could keep making water. The sky would fill up to the heavens with deadwood if a bucket could keep making deadwood.
The universe would go pop if a bucket could keep making long pipes that go forever.
Hahaha. Go on, hop in one of your magical buckets and make a million, billion, trillion copies of you.
Bah! Impossible, you dreamer. Yeah, you are not even real like me.”
“Aha, maybe you are right, my friend. Perhaps nothing can go forever, as you just said. Could it be the same way you say Global Warming is no different to Global Warming-Up is also the same way these buckets are magical too? Let us see if this is true, shall we?”
“Hahaha. Dream on. I happen to know, if you climb high in the sky there is no air to breathe up there.
And where there is no air at all it is colder than the most frozen iceblock.
And the Sun is so far away you would die of old age long before you climbed a tiny, tiny part of the way.
And, if you did so happen to reach the Sun, it is so blazing hot you would be fried to a frazzle in an instant.
It’s light is so bright you would have long gone blind and be unable to see what you are doing.
My foolish friend, you are dreaming if you believe your goggles and mask and cleaner’s suit will protect you. Impossible!”
Dave the Cleaner simply smiled and said, “As surely as warming is warming-up and cooling is cooling-down, they will protect me. These pipes will take me to the Sun. This firewood will stoke it bright. That water in yonder pool will douse it dim. So sit back and enjoy the show. First I will fetch a little water.”
With that he carried one of the buckets over to the nearby park pool.
“Ribbit, ribbit,” croaked the frogs.
“Quack, quack,” called the ducks.
“Whirr, whirr,” flitted the dragonflies.
“It’s okay,” he assured them. “I just need a few cups of water to throw on our fiery old sun to dim it down for a brief while.”
“Ribbit, ribbit,” croaked the frogs, plooping into the water so only their eyes showed.
“Quack, quack,” called the ducks, swimming in giddy circles.
“Whirr, whirr, blat” flitted the dragonflies, bashing into the rushes.
“Don’t worry,” he whispered to them, “some humans don’t believe there is a difference between warming and warming-up and this puts you all in great danger. Sun will be back to normal as soon as I show them the difference.”
Meanwhile a five-year-old girl came scooting past the park bench. She slowed down and said to the elderly man seated on it, “You know that man is not allowed to fish in the park pond.”
The elderly man replied, “He is not fishing. He is just getting some water to put on the Sun to make it go out.”
“Oh,” she said,” some adults really do hate the Sun don’t they.” And she scooted away shaking her head.
So it was there was only one person in the whole park to watch Dave the Cleaner prepare to start his climb up to the Sun and that person was laughing so hard his eyes were all blurred.
First he strapped a bucket on each side of his cleaner’s suit. He then adjusted his mask, pulled down his goggles, placed one pipe atop the other and another pipe on that pipe, saluted goodbye and began shinnying up the pipe just as he had seen Mahoe children shinny up the climbing poles on the school jungle gym.
Reach up and grip pipe with hands, pull body up, grip pipe tight with knees and shins, add another pipe from the bucket onto the pipe ladder.
Reach up and grip pipe with hands, pull body up, grip pipe tight with knees and shins, add another pipe from the bucket onto the pipe ladder…
Words fail to describe the speed and ease he assembled the pole and climbed up beyond a passing cloud and became a tiny dot high in the sky.
At first Dave the Cleaner sat on the park bench laughing at the ridiculous sight of the be-goggled clown pulling pipes out of a bucket, connecting them one atop the other and then clambering up them like a monkey to reach the Sun.
His laughter at this ridiculous scene soon turned to laughter in disbelief as the pipe ladder kept growing upwards and the clown became smaller than a sparrow in the sky.
The pipe ladder must have reached a cloud because he saw the tiny figure stop climbing and sit on it for a rest. “Hahaha! Think of gravity!” he shouted up to the sky. “The pipe ladder is impossible! It must tumble down and you will crash down too!”
He heard a distant voice call back from the cloud, “If warming is the same process as warming-up, then this pipe ladder to the Sun is also possible.”
Dave the Cleaner sat back on the parkbench and now his laughter turned uncertain, then doubtful and then even a little fearful. Something else strange began to happen. The further out of sight Mahoe Dave the Cleaner became in the sky, the louder he could hear his confounded songs came echoing down.
“Yey, warming is always cooling
That’s the way, that’s the way it is
That’s the way it’s ever been
That’s the way it ever will be
Warming is always cooling
It makes the world go round, no fooling”
And even more annoying:
“There is going to be a big change
there is going to be a big rearrange
temperatures gonna rise
all across our skies
when warming is quicker than cooling
It won’t be no time for fooling…”
Dave the Cleaner put his hands over his ears to block the songs from above. However the harder he pressed the more clearly he could hear the songs inside his head. He screwed his eyes shut so the sight of the clouds, the Sun and the sky would not remind him of what trouble Mahoe Dave the Cleaner might be getting up to. The singing seemed to stop and he found the silence that followed even worse. He began to imagine all sorts of things.
Mahoe Dave the Cleaner had fallen into the Sun and and burned to a frazzle.
Mahoe Dave the Cleaner had tumbled off the pipe ladder into nowhere.
The Dave the Cleaner dreamed up by the children of Mahoe had gone pop, like all dreams do.
or worst, those buckets really were magical and he was now too busy at the Sun to sing.
He now remembered what the little girl on the scooter had said “Oh, some adults really do hate the Sun don’t they.”
He knew Mahoe Dave the Cleaner did not hate the Sun. In fact for some reason he always hated the way Mahoe Dave the Cleaner kept raving on how amazing the Sun is and how we must care how we use sunlight.
“Nope! No way! Can’t happen!” he said to himself, gritting his teeth and folding his arms tighter. “I know best. What I do makes no difference! I don’t believe a human being can change what sunlight does. Impossible.”
There was a long silence from above him.
End Chapter Twelve.
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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 One
Idea: Pending
Question: Pending