"coconuts For Boola"

After the birth of my own beautiful baby daughter in 2002, I decided to start fashioning a collection of original "modern fables" or updated children's "moral" tales which could offer a more timely and relevant set of practical ethical lessons for our children and grandchildren who will be growing up and inheriting this new super-fast paced, wired and wireless, electronic and computerized age of instant and ubiquitous communication, entertainment and commerce that we so benignly and expectantly label 'The 21st Century'.

When most of the better known traditional children's fables such as Aesop's or Tales from the Brother's Grimm were originally collected and set down by their erudite but provincial compilers, there was no such thing yet as the global struggle between the forces of capitalism and communism, molestations of children by priests in the church, airplanes flying into skyscrapers and the ever-present dark cloud of nuclear war hanging so ominously over everyone's head like it does today - in fact - there wasn't even very much general understanding of the most basic concepts of natural science whatsoever; science at that time (around 1812) was still equated by most of the masses with obscure occult practices like magic and alchemy, and thus played little part in the mythic milieu of fables and fairy stories - that is until Mary Shelley's highly original and groundbreaking scientific myth "Frankenstein" was unleased upon the world, releasing a powerfully fresh and relevant new moral conundrum for mankind to ponder over; a kind of modernization of the ancient myth of pandora's box - but only with an uncannily prophetic sense of plausible inevitability.

Not only did this new fable or modern myth percipiently forecast the moral dilemas of human cloning and DNA manipulation - it also serves as quite a striking metaphor for the 'monster' unleased by the nuclear age - a 'monster' which once unleashed runs amok and threatens to destroy everything else good and wholesome that we have built, while we watch cowering from the shadows, completely helpless to counter-act or destroy our out of control creation. Indeed - just like pandora's box - or letting the malevolent djinn (genie) out of the bottle - we have in fact created an entire arsenal of technological horrors that could ultimately wipe us all off the face of the earth - and the saddest thing about it all is that we were clearly and convincingly warned NOT to do that very thing - through ancients myths and modern fables such as "Frankenstein".

So, my goal has been to create a set of up to date, modern myths and fable for today's 21st Century children who face a whole host of different problems than their 17th and 18th century counterparts did. But I didn't especially want to make them cautionary horror stories like "Frankenstein" either.

Instead, I wanted something that she could listen to at bedtime and enjoy on a surface level as engaging and entertaining fable-like short stories, so I definitely wanted them to have a funny and kind of kooky outer layer, but with deeper layers of more serious moral meaning hidden just below the bright and shiny surface that she could discover and intuit for herself as she grew up and maybe even in turn, share with her own children in the future.

Thus - here's an example of a little bedtime story I wrote just for my little girl. It doesn't need any real explanation. It simply is what it is without any need for exegis, I think. But I'll bet you'll NEVER be able to guess what modern event or situation I based this particular 21st Century Fable upon. I'd be willing to send a pristine, brand new copy of "GRIMM's FAIRY TALES" to anyone who does guess it though, because I would be so floored and blown away by your outstanding knowledge of 20th Century trivia!

- Anai
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"COCONUTS FOR BOOLA"
by Anai Bendai

(For Aria)
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One morning, Hakki Tem, High Priest of the Tall Tree House, called down to a villagers passing by on the ground beneath him, "The great god Boola orders you to bring me FIVE coconuts!"

"Boola asks for FIVE coconuts?" the puzzled villager asked, looking up to the window of the Tall Tree House. The great god Boola was always silent, and had never asked for anything before this. So this request was truly amazing!

"Yes! The Great God Boola demands FIVE coconuts!" High Priest Hakki Tem again shouted down to the villager. "Now go fetch them for me! Move! MOVE!"

The villager immediately dropped his other work right where he stood and hastily ran off to collect the FIVE coconuts for Boola.

After a short while, the villager returned with FIVE coconuts and put them into a straw basket attached to a rope that went right up into the Tall Tree House. High Priest Hakki Tem watched impatiently as the villager hauled them up through the window.

"Hurry up down there! Boola is impatient!" he called down to the sweating villager who began pulling on the rope even faster.

Once the basket with the FIVE coconuts reached the trap door to the Tall Tree House, High Priest Hakki Tem took them out, tossed them against the wall and dropped the basket back to the ground.

"Boola blesses you for your obedience, Now go away! GO AWAY!" High Priest Hakki Tem called down to the villager, and then disappeared back into the Tall Tree House.

The villager smiled and felt very good about himself for he thought, I've done something good for the great god Boola! And the High Priest Hakki Tem says I am now blessed!

Very excited, the villager ran home to tell his wife and children! They would be so proud of him! The bounty of their blessings would surely be great!

And so as the day went by, many pieces of coconut shell fell from the sky around the Tall Tree House. The villagers gathered around and were amazed.

"Its raining coconuts shells," one of them noted.

"Boola must be very hungry," another said.

"It is a sign that we will have a good coconut harvest this year," yet another villager commented.

The next morning, High Priest Hakki Tem stuck his head out the window of the Tall Tree House. "The great god Boola orders you to bring me 10 coconuts," he yelled down to a villager who happened to be walking by on his way to do an important errand for the Chief.

The villager, a man named Amon Sod, nodded and quickly ran to the forest to fetch TEN coconuts. It was hard work collecting all those coconuts! When he returned, he put them all in the basket and swiftly hauled them up on a rope and pulley until they disappeared into the Tall Tree House.

"Good enough!" the High Priest Hakki Tem shouted down to him. "Now go away! GO AWAY!"

But as Amon Sod was walking away from the Tall Tree House, he began to think to himself. Just why did the great god Boola need so many coconuts anyway? A great god like Boola shouldn't need villagers to gather up coconuts for him should he? The great god Boola made the trees that made the coconuts. Surely he must have his own way of gathering coconuts for himself. He never needed the villagers to do it for him before.

Then another thought occured to Amon Sod. High Priest Hakki Tem used to go up to the Tall Tree House only once a day, in order to pray for plenty of coconuts to harvest, but now he never came down from way up there amongst the leaves. So why did High Priest Hakki Tem want to spend all of his time in the Tall Tree House? He was supposed to gather his own coconuts just like everyone else. Was the Great God Boola sharing his coconuts with the High Priest Hakki Tem?

Listening to his own nagging doubts, Amon Sod turned back and returned to the Tall Tree House and called up to High Priest Hakki Tem. "Hey up there! Why does Boola need so many coconuts anyway? Why can't he gather his own coconuts? Is he not a great god?"

High Priest Hakki Tem appeared at the window and became very, very angry. "Amon Sod! You are a trouble maker! You must never ever question the will of the great god Boola!" he screamed, hopping up and down. "You are stupid and insignificant to Boola! You will never understand what Boola wants or why Boola wants it! Now leave my sight before Boola curses you and your family forever! FOREVER!"

Then High Priest Hakki Tem disappeared back into the Tall Tree House, and before Amon Sod even took ten steps away from the Tall Tree House, he quickly reappeared. "Oh! And now now you've REALLY done it Amon Sod! The great god Boola has just told me he demands 20 coconuts... FROM EVERY SINGLE VILLAGER before sundown or there will be a great disaster and everyone will perish! So go now and run Amon Sod! Run and warn everyone of the wrath of the great god Boola and bring the peace offering of twenty coconuts each back here to me at the Tall Tree House! Before sundown! Now go! Move! MOVE!"

Still suspecting the High Priest Hakki Tem was up to something, but also very terrified of the wrath of the great god Boola, Amon Sod ran back to the village and spread the word immediately. The great god Boola needed many, many coconuts right away! "And we must hurry!" he warned them. "We all must hurry before Boola unleases his wrath and disaster strikes the village at sundown!"

The villagers worked tirelessly throughout the hot day, each gathering twenty coconuts until almost all the coconut trees were bare and began hauling them up to High Priest Hakki Tem in the Tall Tree House.

Finally, at sunset, the great task was done. All of the coconuts had been hauled up into the Tall Tree House. Everyone sat and rested at the base of the Tall Tree and heaved and puffed to catch their breath.

And high above them, sitting atop his great pile of coconuts, High Priest Hakki Tem laughed at how easy it was to make the foolish villagers gather food for him. "That will show them to question the will of the great god Boola." he said, chuckling to himself and biting into a sweet piece of white coconut meat. "And next time, I think I shall have them shell the coconuts for me first."

But as High Priest Hakki Tem was happily chewing on his favorite meal of coconut meat, he began to hear a strange groaning and popping sound that violently shook the floor and walls of the Tall Tree House.

Alarmed, he hopped down off his great pile of coconuts and looked out the window and down to the villagers below. They were all standing some distance from the base of the Tall Tree House now. Their mouths were wide open and their eyes were big with fear.

"The Tall Tree House is going to fall!" one of the villagers yelled, and within moments, almost all of the villagers had fled into the forest to get out of the way.

"Where are you all going?" the High Priest Hakki Tem shouted down to the retreating villagers in desperation. "Help me come down from the Tall Tree House! Save me! Don't leave me up here alone with all these coconuts!"

But it was too late by then. The floor suddenly tilted off kilter throwing High Priest Hakki Tem off his feet and then a tremendous splintering sound like wood snapping began to fill his ears! Coconuts from the huge pile bounced and rolled all along the floor around him and High Priest Hakki Tem was now very afraid! He struggled to crawl over the coconuts to get to the trapdoor that lead to the ground but he kept tripping and falling over all the coconuts!

SNAP! **CRACK!** WHOOOSH!

Suddenly, The Tall Tree House, High Priest Hakki Tem and all of his many, many coconuts came tumbling down to the ground, smashing into thousands of broken pieces onto the ground far below.

And then all was silent.

After hearing the terrible crash from the woods, the frightened villagers slowly began to return one by one to see what had happened to the Tall Tree House and High Priest Hakki Tem.

"I wonder why our Tall Tree House fell and killed High Priest Hakki Tem?" one of the villagers asked, scratching his head while surveying all the splintered wreckage.

"I dont know," another villager replied. "But it must have been the will of Boola."

"No," said the villager named Amon Sod. "I think the Tall Tree House collapsed because High Priest Hakki Tem just had too many coconuts up there with him. I do not think the great god Boola really needed that many coconuts. High Priest Hakki Tem just did not want to work anymore and so he used our fear of the great god Boola's wrath to trick us into collecting coconuts for him faster than he could eat them."

The villagers all nodded in agreement at Amon Sod's wise words and began picking up the pieces of the Tall Tree House along with all the scattered coconuts. They buried High Priest Hakki Tem at the base of the Tall Tree and the village artist made a grave marker for him out of empty coconut shells.

"My my my," the village stargazer muttered after filling up yet another large basket full of coconuts. "What will we do with all these coconuts? There are too many to store. They will all rot before we can eat them."

"I know what we will do. We will gather and feast," said Amon Sod. "To celebrate the fall of the Tall Tree House and the passing of High Priest Hakki Tem into the Afterlife. And we will invite all the neighboring villages to come to our great coconut feast and around a great fire we will tell everyone the story of High Priest Hakki Tem and how he caused the Tall Tree House to fall because he used our fear of the great god Boola to trick us into collecting coconuts for him.

And so they held the Great Feast of Coconuts that evening and every year after on the anniversary of the fall of the Tall Tree House. And once they had taken their fill of the bounty of coconuts they would gather around the great fire, beneath the twinkling stars and the light of the full moon and listen to Amon Sod tell the story of the foolish High Priest Hakki Tem and his selfish desire to make the villagers collect coconuts for him.

"And from the day of the falling of the Tall Tree House," Amon Sod said at the end of the story, "we all understood that we do not need a High Priest like Hakki Tem to speak with the great god Boola for us. Instead, we now listen for the voice of the great god Boola within each of our own hearts."

All of the villagers then stood and cheered for the story told by Amon Sod and celebrated the fall of the Tall Tree House and the Feast of Coconuts long into the night by gathering around the embers of the Great Fire and telling each other stories about their ancestors and other events that had happened to their villages. Never before had everyone felt so free of spirit and so close to the great god Boola.

Only when the moon had set and the stars began to grow dim with the coming of the morning light did the villagers wearily stumble home to their grass thatched huts to rest and sleep and cover themselves in good dreams...

THE END


(C) 2006 Anai Bendai

*If you enjoyed this new fable and want to share it with others, please do not copy it and repost it away from this site. Instead provide a link to whomever you'd like to share it with so they can also find it here at this original site. If you want to print it off and read it your own precious babies, however, I have absolutely no objections with that.