Chapter 19 Venturing into Greater Worlds beyond the Greenhouse World
Busy! Busy! Business! Dig Dig Dig Toss Toss Toss “Yippee! Coal. More coal. Coal to burn. I am rich forever” Toss. Toss. Burn. Burn. Choke. Cough…
The hole in the floor of the greenhouse grew deeper. The deeper down into the ground it went, the wider it grew. The pile of rocks and rubble grew ever larger in the greenhouse. Some of it was black, very black, black as coal, for indeed it was coal. Every so often Dave the Cleaner clambered out of his hole with his shovel and heaved some of the coal into the greenhouse furnace. With each shovel of coal he chanted,
“I gotta gotta keep
The home-fires burning
It’s fried, fried fish
Is all I am a-yearning…”
Wipe Wipe Wipe Clean Clean Clean Care Care Care. “Hmmm, wondering, wondering… hello moon, hello stars, hello all, just wondering…How does a greenhouse really work? What if there is more to life than this? Which is the why and where from here?” Choke. Cough.
As the pile of rocks and rubble grew ever larger, Dave the Cleaner had to move his rock shelter still higher up its slopes.
During the daytime he wiped the soot off the glass ceiling and cleaned the leaves of the plants so they could get enough sunlight to keep growing. The air was thick with smoke and he often had to stop to cough.
At night time he slept in the rock shelter to avoid being hit by the rocks flying up out of the pit.
Sometimes the constant rain of rocks woke him up and so he would sit in the dark peering through the roof at the distant stars and moon above. In the moments between the THUDS and CRASHES of the rocks, his mind would wander out beyond the greenhouse far away into the silence of the distant stars.
Some times in the stillness of the night he seemed to hear the calls of the morepork owl and the chatter of the mountain stream echoing in the starry silence, just as they did when he was a young boy. Sometimes the echo of the mountain stream in the stars seemed to turn into the distant singing of children. Maybe the songsters were the children of the Mahoe tree?
“The wind blows far
The winds blows high
The window is
The wind’s own eye.
The wind blows near
The wind blows low
Just open wide
Your window…”
One morning Dave the Cleaner woke up in his rock shelter to find he was still humming this song. “Yes, why do the trees in here now seem so unhappy? What if?” he asked, “Yes, what if plants growing in greenhouses need opening windows to thrive and be happy?” He could now see over the top of the tallest trees because they all drooped down in such as sad way. Indeed the mound of rocks was now so high he could nearly reach up and touch the top panes of glass in the roof. For the first time he was able to look closely at the top panels of glass.
“What have we here?” he exclaimed in surprise. “Could these be opening windows up here?”
Dave the Cleaner was busy below shoveling coal into the greenhouse furnace. He heard the question. Quicker than a wink he raced up the pile past Dave the Cleaner and danced on top of it “Hah! Hah! ” he chantled in triumph, “I’m the king of the castle and you’re the dirty rascal.”
“Ummm… Who knows who is a king or who is a rascal? Anyway can’t you see? Could it be these old windows are made to be opened and shut?”
“Bah! You are dreaming as usual, Mahoe Dave the Cleaner, you can’t open them. They have been rusted shut a hundred years. Some of us very clever people use electric motors and fans to move air around nowadays!”
“Ummm, er, don’t you remember? Didn’t all the electrical wires go BANG! and kind of melt that day when you when you set fire to the magazine page titled Global Warming…?”
“Huh! Questions! Questions! You and your endless, pesky questions, Mahoe Dave the Cleaner. I will have you know I created this greenhouse world. So I know how it works and it works just like I say. So quit all the questions and leave me alone. Look! I am so very busy keeping the home-fires burning!”
With that, Dave the Cleaner grabbed his shovel and stomped and tromped and stamped his way back down the pile of rubble. At one spot a couple of branches dangled in his face. “Hah! Out of my way, nuisance tree! I like tidy!” he grumped and with a blow of his shovel he hacked off each branch. And soon, DIG DIG DIG TOSS TOSS THUD CRASH, he was back in business down his hole, busy, so busy.
Meanwhile, back in the greenhouse, Dave the Cleaner continued to clean and care for the plants as best as he could. When he came to the tree with the chopped off branches he saw it now had gaping wounds on its trunk. “Oh, poor tree, look how your precious oils are weeping out of you. You need special care.” He had collected his pee, which contains lots of goodies for plants. Now he mixed it with water from the pond and a little ash from the fire. “There you are, tree, some fine drink for you” he said as he poured it around the tree’s roots.
He continued to give the wounded tree this special care for many days. Each time he collected the oil as it dripped out of the tree “Who knows what good use your oil may have?” he said, patting its trunk in thanks. Then, one day while resting in his rock shelter high on the pile, the answer came.
There he was, sitting there and gazing around the greenhouse world. The air was thick with smoke that made him cough and his eyes sting. Where there had been a large pond with rainbow fish and giant water lilies, there was now a dirty puddle at one end and a deep, dark hole in the ground at the other end. In between was the high pile of rubble on which he sat and every few minutes it grew a little higher as more rocks were tossed up out of the hole. Many of the plants had vanished and those remaining looked sicker and sadder by the day. “How can we best survive? What would the children of the Mahoe tree do?” he asked.
“The wind blows far
The winds blows high
The window is
The wind’s own eye.”
The song seemed to float through his mind like a wisp of a smile and caused him to look up. It was then that he saw the wounded tree no long drooped. Now it stood tall and happy so that its top branches scraped the roof windows. “Are you trying to teach me something? What can be learned?” he asked. Then it suddenly occurred to him, “You are now strong and high enough for me to climb right up to the window.”
As you know, he was now skilled at climbing the plants without damaging them so he could reach up and wipe the glass panes clean of soot. So in no time at all he was perched atop the tree. He sat listening, trying to see through the smoke-filled air. Scratch. Scratch. Each time he moved the tip of the tree scraped the window frame. It reminded him of a cat scratching the door, asking to be let outside. He wiped some soot off the glass and a ray of sunlight shone through, lighting the tip of the tree.
“Aha,” he exclaimed, “so is that the true story of greenhouses?”
Now he could see the tip of the tree scraped on ancient rusted hinges.
Now he could see it was one of a row of ancient windows designed to let the wind flow through the greenhouse.
Now he could see a network of rusted wires and pipes for opening and shutting them.
“Yes,” he said, “these are just like the window winders in some of the classrooms at school.”
“Oi! You! Get down from that tree this second!”
The angry order came the moment he saw how greenhouses truly work. As if by magic, Dave the Cleaner had instantly appeared on top of the pile waving his shovel in the smoggy air. “Duh! Yes! Talking to you, Mahoe Dave. Get down from the tree this instant.” he shouted.
“Ummm, why? What harm is happening to the tree?”
“Don’t ask questions. I am boss here. So I make the rules here. The law says NO TREE CLIMBING ALLOWED! Its to protect the trees.”
“Er…Have you not seen who tends the trees every day? Have you not seen my care for each leaf and twig when climbing them to clean the glass roof?”
“I don’t care. The law is the law. Rules are rules and must be obeyed. Anyway the law is to protect you from falling down and hurting yourself. Do not argue! Climb down this instant!”
Dave the Cleaner did not argue. Instead he climbed down and bowed to the tree. “Thank you for being there,” he said to it, “We now share the truth that our world is not a greenhouse. We now know how we can make much better use of the sun, the wind and glass.”
DIG DIG DIG TOSS TOSS THUD CRASH… Dave the Cleaner was already back in business down his mine, busy, so busy he did not hear the tree being thanked.
Wipe Wipe Wipe Clean Clean Care Care Rub Rub… Dave the Cleaner did one extra task each day now. He had seen how the tip of the tree rubbed its oil on the rusty window hinges high in the greenhouse. Each day he rubbed a little of the oil he had collected from the wounded tree on all the joints and wires of the window opener.
Then one day he tried turning the large window crank …CREEEAK SCRUNCH GROAN SCREECH… Wires and pipes and windows that had not budged for a hundred years began to move. Dave the Cleaner was beside him in the instant of the first creak. He arrived out of the hole so fast that… THUD WALLOP ÖOH OUCH…the rocks he had tossed up followed him and hit him on the back of the head. “Owww!” he howled. “Someone just threw some rocks at me. Must be all your doing, Mahoe Dave the Cleaner! I heard you messing with my greenhouse world. Leave well alone. It works just perfectly as it is. Cough.”
“Ummm, err, what wrong with having a wee play with things?”
“Mark my words! There will be trouble of I hear one more creak of the windows.” With that he grabbed a stick and wrote in the soot on the windows:
THE LAW
NO PLAY ALLOWED IN MY GREENHOUSE!
He then grumped his way back down the hole, grumbling “Pesky Mahoe children and their pesky ideas. I know best! I make the rules around here.”
Meanwhile Dave the Cleaner sat high on the pile of rubble and gazed around the greenhouse world. “Well, children of the Mahoe tree, is this really such a great idea,” he asked. “What is the most wise thing to do? The plants here seem so sad and sick. Each day there is less clean water. To breathe the smoke-filled air is to choke. Even the ground now seems to tremble when storms shake the greenhouse. Which is the right way? Which is the wrong way? What is a law? Who or what really makes the rules.
He sat listening to the silence between the thuds and crashes of rocks raining down on the pile around him. Sometimes the sound of distant singing and laughter floated through the silence. He closed his eyes and heard the children of the Mahoe classroom all laughing and calling He saw them all walking skipping and running as, eye closed, they each held a balloon and trusted the wind to guide them the length of the school field.
“The answer, my friend
Is blowing in the wind.
Trust to the wind
Run with the wind
Be like the wind…”
“Aha, yes,” Dave the Cleaner exclaimed, “The opening windows prove the people who built this greenhouse went with the wind. Yes, indeed the true story of the greenhouse is blowing in the wind. It is right to respect their wisdom.” Hence forth, each day when he cleaned the glass and cared for the plants, he also oiled and polished all the joints and wires of the windows until they shone.
However you can well imagine what happened at the first CREEeeAK when he moved the window opener. Yes, Dave the Cleaner was out of his hole in an instant, waving his shovel and shouting, “” You know the law, Mahoe Dave. You stick to the rules or else. Be very afraid.” He never actually said what else might happen because he knew that people can imagine far worse punishments than he could think up.
Was Mahoe Dave the Cleaner afraid? He would just give a deep breath, thank the wind for being there and continue caring for the plants and soils of the greenhouse as best he could.
Then one night it happened. A storm passed by with winds so strong it shook the greenhouse to its foundations. Soon Dave the Cleaner came up out of his hole in the ground. As usual he was covered all over with black coal dust except this night his eyes were white with fear, so white they looked like two large dinner plates in his grimy face. It seems the shuddering and shaking of the greenhouse in the storm had set rocks tumbling down onto his head while he was deep down in the huge hole.
“It will be all your fault if my precious greenhouse world falls down into my mine, Mahoe Dave,” he shouted. His eyes grew even whiter and wider with fear when he heard the storm outside the greenhouse. “I warned and warned you not to mess with the sunlight and the wind!”
He frantically shoveled coal into the furnace until it glowed red. It made him feel better. So he shoveled still more coal on the fire until the whole greenhouse glowed smokey red. “Huh! See. Home, sweet home. See! I know everything. I just made my very own sun in my very own greenhouse world and …and…yulp! I am out of here!”
BOOM WALLLOP. It so happened in that moment, a great gust of wind slammed the greenhouse causing Dave the Cleaner to dive into his hole for shelter. A moment later a distant chant from way deep in the ground could be heard,
“I dig! I dig! No fear!
I’m busy I’m busy No fear!
I toss! I toss! No fear!
Keep the home-fires burning
No fear! No fear!”
Meanwhile Dave the Cleaner sat all night in his rock shelter atop the rapidly growing pile of rubble and coal. All around him he could hear the THUD THUD CRASH of the rain of rocks coming up from the hole. He was now so near to the top of the roof that the gales of wind and rattling of hail on the glass seemed as close as tip of his nose. During the biggest gusts he sang to the wind,
“The answer my friend
is blowing in the wind”
The wind seem to quieten down with the first light of dawn and when the sun rose he saw the pile was so high he could easily reach the windows without even climbing the tree. The wind no longer roared and now seemed to hum, “Come, come, come and have fun”.
From far below came the distant echoing chant ”I fear. I dig I dig. I fear I busy I busy. I fear. I dig I dig!” In fact Dave the Cleaner was so busy digging he was quite unaware that Mahoe Dave had hopped down the pile of rubble, cranked open the windows, skipped back up the pile, climbed out the window and was now seated on top of the roof enjoying the fresh breeze and the sweet taste of raindrops on his tongue.
“Yipee. I am rich. I found more coal.” Dave the Cleaner immediately began breaking it out of the ground and tossing it high out of the hole with his shovel. “I can keep the home fires burning forever” he chanted to himself. He kept himself so busy digging and tossing the coal that it was only when he climbed up out of his mine that he noticed Mahoe Dave the Cleaner was not to be seen. He glared around and shouted, “Quit your fooling around – stop hiding from me – you’re worse than a child. I know you are up to mischief of some sort. I am very busy and I mean business!”
“Here with you as always,” called a voice from above and when he looked up he saw not one but a hundred, a thousand tiny, pesky Mahoe Daves all sitting outside on the glass roof and each and everyone of them was surrounded by a rainbow. “Bah! I can’t be tricked! I know all.” he shouted back. “That is just your reflections in the raindrops on the roof. Huh! None of you are real like I am!”
“Hmmm, are we not as real as the soft breeze and raindrops that now touch on our skin?”
“Grrr! First you messed with the sun. Now you break the rules of my precious greenhouse world and are messing with the wind…”
“Well, er, could it be our world is not really like a glass bubble.? How come the air out here is filled with the sounds of tumbling waterfalls and ocean waves breaking on rocks, the buzz of insects and songs of birds, the smells of flowers and animals?”
“Bah! Questions! Endless questions! You are nothing but the dreamed-up dream of a bunch of five-year old children. I am shutting you and all your pesky questions out of my world forever!”
Dave the Cleaner grabbed the window crank. He began closing the windows but the questions kept coming.
“Ummm, what if, ahhh, what if you are like me and you are also a grown-up who was once a five year-old?”
Dave the Cleaner grew red with frustration and stopped closing the window. “Bah! I cannot think of the question and think up the answer and think of what I am doing all at the same time!”
“What will you eat in your greenhouse world when all the fish are gone?
What will you drink when the clean water is all poisoned?
How will you breathe when all the trees are gone?
How can you be real if you were never a five-year old child once?
End chapter nineteen but do you believe it is the end of the greenhouse story? Will the questions stop coming? Have you got any more questions about living forever in a greenhouse world? What’s say Dave the Cleaner does shut the windows again and just keep digging and burning? What will happen if the hole under the greenhouse gets too big? Do you think Mahoe Dave the Cleaner will stay perched on the greenhouse asking all his questions? How can he show Dave the Cleaner he might be missing out on a lot of fun outside his greenhouse world?
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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 Nineteen
Idea: Pending 13 July 2020
Question: Pending