The Hero"Ka Me'e"

The Overgrown Garden

 Zea stood in line outside the village garden where oddly the test was being held. The wind was wild flinging her hair and pushing at her arms as if it wanted her to go home. It was also relentlessly prodding the clouds trying to get them to cry, but clouds are stubborn and only cry for weather giants.

When she had approached the high wooden gates of the village garden her eyes widened in surprise as she realized it might be harder than she thought to pass this ho'ike (test). Because as she came closer she saw that there were far more than a dozen children standing in a line that nearly reached the road leading to her cottage. As soon as she came close enough she stepped into the end of the line and prepared to wait.

Everyone stepped forward and Zea, not looking where she was going, stumbled on a rock. Many heads turned to look at her and she felt her blush beginning to creep up her neck and ears. She scrambled up off the floor, her face burning. "I know one person who is not going to pass the test." she heard someone whisper. She looked up and saw Kilano sneering down at her. Anger welled up inside her but she contained it, like putting a cork on a bottle with an angry genie inside.

She pushed herself up off of the floor, "I'm going to show him" Zea told herself with the first sign she had given herself that she just might want to pass the ho'ike. Then she began to contemplate what Kilano had said to her her heart filling with doubt. "Am I good enough to pass the ho'ike?" she questioned herself While fiddling with the strap on her satchel that she decided to bring because, after all you can't ever be too careful. " Do I have the skills?" She asked, " I don't know" she answered herself, continuing on with her personal evaluation gathered from what her mom had told her about what the elders were looking for. " Am I strong? That one didn't take long. No, she decided glancing at her thin arms. "Am I agile?" That one took a while, she thought about how often she fell and tripped, and finally came to the conclusion that she wasn't especially agile. " Last question," she told herself. " Am I intelligent?" excitement took hold of her, " I think I am!" she yelled in her head, so loud that she was surprised that no one heard her. After a while she realized that although she might be intelligent that was not the only value the elders were looking for, she sighed in discouragement and stepped forward with the crowd.

In what seemed like no time at all she was at the foot of the stairs leading to the extravagant wooden gates covered with the vines of the perfumed passionflower. "Oh no!" she thought her heart slowly speeding up with the thought of the test just a few steps away. " What have I gotten myself into," she muttered under her breath.

After about five minutes of waiting, personal evaluation, and anxiety she was first in line. "oh no! what have I done! Hmmm, is there enough room between that boy and that girl for me to escape and run home?" All these thoughts were swimming around in her head at about five- thousand miles a minute. When all at once the great doors opened and she left the loud noise of excited and nervous children, and also the comforting rays of the sunshine, and slowly she stepped through the huge, ornate double doors into a makeshift room with walls made of closely knit trees, such as the Alexandria Palm, the Sea Hibiscus, and some Koa trees. The floor was littered with ferns and clover and other small flowers all looking a bit brown around the edges because of the drought, of course but happy nonetheless. The garden was much different then Zia remembered from the last time Zea had been allowed in. It seemed they had just let go and didn't do any pruning or organizing anymore because of the drought. But as she looked closer there had been some care in how these earthy walls had been grown.

All of the sudden a man stepped out of the shadows saying "Hello, my name is Haku, and I must escort you to the next part of the test." He belted it out in his loud nasal voice but sounding as if he had recited the same words many time over. Zea decided she didn't notice him as she walked in because of his dark skin, hair, and clothes. Although it still was very odd how he had just appeared and she had an itching feeling that she shouldn't trust him but he was the only other person her so she decided to listen to him. "But if I want to even get close to being ka me'e or the hero in the old language I will have to work even harder than ever to convince myself that I have what it takes." She told herself hoping to put on a stern facade for Haku. "Haku," she translated thoughtfully, it meant supervisor and overseer in the old language. "Well it suits his job nicely," she conceded to herself.

" But I must insist that you be blindfolded," Haku continued, "we don't want anyone to get hints, do we?" he continued. Zea cringed at the loud irritating sound of his nasal voice. His words were very proper but his clothing and nasal voice ruined the effect.

"No sir." Zea lied, "She would like a hint, thank you very much." She thought indignantly to herself.

"Great, well here you go" he said showing her a thick red piece of fabric. Zea cringed as he tied it around her curly blond hair.

" I am not looking forward to taking this off." she thought as she felt some her hair being tied in the knot.

"Well now missy we best be on our way." He said as he grabbed her hand and began to pull her behind him.

"It's Zea!" she yelled as he began to walk faster and faster in a direction that Zea speculated to be north, then south, then east, then west, in what seemed like continuous circles.

As they skidded to a stop Haku said, "Well Missy you can take your blindfold off now."

"Great," Zea complained, "but can you help me? I'm afraid I tied some hair into the knot as well," she said cringing as she pulled on the edges of the knot. " And, it's Zea."

"Yes I can certainly help, Miss Zeea," he said in an upbeat tone, Zea cringed

"That's close enough," she sighed.

" It's a good thing I have got your name down now, seeing as I am leaving right as soon as I help you get this off."

"Leaving!"

"Well yes, of course. You couldn't think I was going to stay and help you." He said while yanking on the makeshift blindfold.

" I didn't even know, where I was going, and I still don't know where I am so, what was I supposed to think?" She told him angrily as she cringed with pain from his yanking on the blindfold. When he finally exclaimed "My! That was difficult! What did you do to get it fastened in there so well?"

" I didn't do it, you tied the knot."

"Hmmm, well I guess I did, didn't I" He laughed at himself as he pulled the blindfold from her eyes. When the blindfold came off all Zea could do was stare. It was beautiful in a confining sort of way. It was just like the room but bigger, with shrubs like the petite purple pearl flower winding in between the trees forming thick opaque walls. The shrubs were dotted with different varieties of native flowers. Zea picked a plumeria from one of the walls and tucked it carefully into one of the pockets of her satchel to save this wonderful memory of the feeling like you are in a place that is simply too perfect to be real.

All of the sudden Haku broke into her thoughts saying, "I better be off Miss Zeea, but I wish you the best of luck." Then he leaned down to her height, lowered his voice and mumbled into her ear as if it weren't something he was supposed to say, " I'm rooting for you kid, follow your gut." Then he straightened, gave her one last toothy grin and disappeared into the wall.