The following day began warm and clear as the morning sun angled through the trees spreading a dappled light through the waking town.
But as soon as feet and wheels began moving up and down the roads, and two-man saws started biting wood in the mills, a fine dust rose and began to coat everything anew.
After porridge, the students got comfortable in the large sleeping room to try to capture their experiences of the previous day in writing.
Mati found the words flowing from her pencil in a way she had never before experienced. She wrote of a deep gratitude toward one person, and an unbreakable bond she now felt with the donkey who had somehow found the courage to stay with her . . . and if necessary, to die with her.
Rini’s writing was all about the amazement he felt at being able to do something heroic for the first time in his life, finding strength in himself he didn’t know he had.
Kibi related her initial moment of seething anger, almost hatred, toward the wolf for attacking her friend. But she also shared her happiness, upon reflection, at being able to let go of that anger when the wolf was no longer a threat. Perhaps, she wrote, it was her many years as a slave that allowed her to relate to the desperate, starving animal.
Toli, to Ilika’s disappointment, wrote a vague factual account of the event, without any soul-searching.
The rest were not so directly involved, and their writings reflected a more
detached point of view.
Sata’s birthday party was planned for that evening. Neti and Kibi volunteered to get the food. Within an hour, they had commissioned the baker’s wife to make a pot of savory stew, with very little meat, like Sata’s mother made. A fresh loaf and two berry pies were reserved, and then the two girls went shopping for gifts.
Boro resigned himself to looking for gifts with Toli, who was very proud to find the three rucksacks they still needed. Boro discovered a box of tiny animals carved from bone in the dry goods store, and from these they selected gifts for both Sata and Buna.
Ilika and Mati discovered a little shop of odds and ends in one room of a house. The floor was so cluttered with iron tools, wooden boxes, and chipped pottery that Mati could hardly move. Ilika spotted a book from across the room, the first he had seen in the town. He picked his way carefully toward it, and finally held in his hands a small volume of mathematical tables and formulas. Opening it randomly, he quickly spotted several errors, but was able to purchase it for a small silver piece.
“Don’t tell anyone,” he said to Mati as they left. “It might be for a birthday gift.”
Mati grinned, and put a finger to her lips.
Neti and Kibi found the perfect place for the party, a sandy level spot right beside a small stream, not far from the town but completely hidden.
When Kibi opened the covered pot and Sata smelled the delicious stew, with just enough mutton fat for flavor, she closed her eyes and a smile of contentment filled her face.
Between bites, she received her gifts of trinkets and ribbons, sweet biscuits and candy, and the most perfect fresh plum she had ever seen.
Ilika suggested that birthdays should be a time of sharing compliments, and forgiving and forgetting any mistakes or weaknesses from the past.
Everyone had experienced Sata as a completely reliable member of their group, and compliments came from everyone. Mati especially remembered how she had jumped into the water to help with Tera back on the coast. Boro
had kind words and a special smile for her that made her blush.
When it came time for dessert, Sata was torn. She couldn’t decide whether to eat berry pie, a sweet biscuit, a piece of candy, or her perfect plum.
When others, with big grins, volunteered to help, she quickly slipped the other items into her rucksack, and asked for a serving of pie.
Next morning, Ilika taught them the arithmetic for the division operation, step by step.
They were quite relieved to be learning a method that would work in every situation. Some could do a few simple divisions in their heads, or by trial and error, but were painfully aware of how limited those methods were.
By lunchtime, they all had the basic idea. Toli picked it up quickly, and was beginning to look happy again. He volunteered to go into the woods to gather sour berries while Ilika looked at Miko’s and Rini’s scrapes and cuts.
Others went out to do more gift hunting.
After selling the last three unneeded saddlebags, Ilika was about to leave the dry goods store when he happened to glance up toward the highest shelf, near the ceiling, in the darkest corner, behind the door. There it was, the shape he had been looking for ever since they entered the forest. He had, until that moment, found nothing even remotely similar, except a wasp’s nest hanging from a tree branch that was quite well guarded.
The short man got a rickety little ladder and brought it down. As he placed the smoothly stitched leather ball in Ilika’s hands, a smile appeared on the teacher’s face. A silver piece later, Ilika left the shop with the only spherical object likely to be found outside the capital city.
The innkeeper shook his head, wondering why all three groups of travelers wanted fish and wine that night, and mutton and ale the following night.
Maybe it had something to do with the moon.
The fish was tasty, the bread was fresh, the cheese was creamy, and the wine was sweet. Buna took delight in all the flavors and textures of the meal.
She was fifteen, and this birthday party was not just for this year, but all fifteen years. She was free now, and she was happy. She had friends and she was learning new things every day. And for the first time in her life, she had
hopes for the future. Her first cup of wine was soon empty, so she asked for another.
Ilika let Buna indulge herself. There was plenty of other heavy drinking and loud talking in the common room to mask whatever she might do.
Her second cup went down just as easily as the first, but she didn’t get far into the third. As soon as she started to change color and get strange looks on her face, Ilika helped her up to the sleeping room where a copper basin awaited.
She didn’t make it to the basin.
When the others came up, Buna was on her hands and knees in the middle of the floor, adding to the puddle of wine and fish she had begun a few minutes before. Mati rubbed her back while Ilika and Rini gathered all the towels and rags they could find.
After a while Buna was able to drink a cup of water, but it was immediately added to the puddle. They wiped her face and helped her remove her boots.
The basin was placed beside her bed as she was tucked in. The birthday girl was soon fast asleep.
Ilika and Rini set to work cleaning up the mess, with Mati helping as she was able.
Buna was a little afraid to admit that she was awake the following morning. In contrast to the night before at dinner, she now felt worse than she could ever remember feeling.
But since everyone else, from all three groups, was standing around in the large sleeping room, obviously hungry and ready for breakfast, she opened her eyes. Soon she started overhearing whispers that included words like ‘tickle’
and ‘pinch,’ so she gathered her courage and threw back the covers.
Boro’s group went down to the common room, and a little later Kibi’s group went down. After some effort figuring out how to put on her boots, Buna finally declared herself ready.
Luckily, the innkeeper provided plenty of sweet tea, as nothing else looked interesting to the fifteen-year-old.
She had a very sheepish look on her face, back in the sleeping room, as people presented her with sweet biscuits, candies, fruits, and pretty trinkets.
NEBADOR BookTwo: Journey 182
“Are you mad at me, Ilika?” she asked when the gift giving was complete.
“Well . . . next time there’s something to clean up, I’ll remember that you owe me one . . .”
Rini smiled. “And me.”
Mati waved her hand. “And me.”
“.
.
. but you didn’t hurt anyone, except yourself, or avoid any responsibilities, so . . . no, I’m not mad at you. I’ve had a hangover before, when I was about fifteen, as I remember. I didn’t like it much, so I don’t make a habit of it.”
“I feel so terrible right now . . . I don’t ever want to do that again!”
“That’s good to hear. You’ll have your next opportunity to get drunk . . .
tonight at dinner.”
Buna moaned. “Do you think they’d make me some tea?”
Everyone
chuckled.
Ilika brought out the leather ball, which now had longitude and latitude lines, numbers, and a rough outline of the continents.
“Finally, we have a globe. Here is your kingdom . . .”
They all got close to take in this new perspective on their home.
“It’s so small!” Sata said with wide eyes.
“Yes, compared to the whole planet, your kingdom is very small. This tiny dot is the capital city, and this speck is Lumber Town, where we are now.”
Each student took a good look at their little corner of the world. Ilika gave them plenty of time to work with the globe and ask questions. Then he gave each a point on the globe for which he wanted the coordinates, and coordinates for which he wanted the point on the globe.
Buna discovered how difficult it was to think with a hangover.
At lunch, Buna possessively guarded her mug of cool, sweet tea.
Afterwards, Ilika set aside an hour for shopping, then gathered everyone back in the large sleeping room.
“Now that you all know the basic arithmetic operations, and plenty of logic, I can give you some realistic problems that require listening, writing, selecting, organizing, and calculating. Each person works alone. I will read the narrative three times. I recommend you just listen the first time.
“Poki is eighteen years old and lives three miles northwest of the capital city, on a little twenty-seven-acre farm that includes a two acre garden, four cows, ten goats, and twenty-two chickens. He is courting a fifteen-year-old girl who lives one mile west of there, weighs eighty-five pounds, and wants to have four children. Poki’s three friends came over yesterday to help him cut two cords of firewood on his twelve-acre wood lot. Poki spent a copper piece last Tuesday to buy his girl a piece of candy, and she gave him the best three apples out of the thirty-seven she picked from her apple tree. On Wednesday he sold two goats, as he decided ten was too many for his five-acre goat pasture. He got three silvers for the nanny and one for the billy. With the money, he bought fence boards to keep the cows out of the acre around his house and chicken yard. If he and his girl get married next September, how many acres will each cow have for grazing?”
Miko, Neti, and Boro gave Ilika rather blank looks.
Kibi looked daggers at her teacher.
Rini, however, handed Ilika a little folded piece of paper.
“Having heard the whole narrative, you now know what the problem is.
The next step is to write down the needed information from the narrative, and filter out anything that is not needed.”
Ilika read the narrative again.
That was sufficient for Toli, Sata, and Mati, who all handed him the correct answer after a few minutes of calculation.
Kibi looked very frustrated, even though she had an entire sheet full of notes.
Ilika read it for the last time. He could see what was happening to Kibi.
She was such a people-person that she couldn’t ignore the human dimensions of the narrative. As a result, she was missing some of the important facts . . .
about cows and acreage.
Boro, Neti, and Buna handed him correct answers.
Miko, never very good at doing math in his head, was trying to use the division arithmetic they had just learned, but was getting the steps mixed up.
Tears ran down Kibi’s cheeks. She didn’t have enough information in her notes to solve the problem, and now she had no way of getting it.
Everyone took a break and Ilika surrounded Kibi with his arms.
“I feel so foolish,” she whimpered. “I was just so touched by the boy and the girl.”
Ilika kissed the tears on her cheeks until she was giggling. “If you’ll help Miko with his division, I’ll read it to you again.”
“Okay,” she said, smiling shyly.
By dinnertime, with Kibi’s help, Miko had untangled his division steps.
After two more readings, by sheer force of will Kibi made herself ignore everything in the narrative that didn’t tell her about the cows or the acreage of the farm. They both handed Ilika slips of paper with the answer. He smiled.
Miko was in a good mood for his birthday party, and thoroughly enjoyed the mutton. Ilika found a very small piece, scooped some cooked greens onto his plate, and got a big chunk of bread when Mati passed the loaf to him. He noticed that Buna had pushed her ale into the middle of the table for anyone to take who wanted it.
Miko was thirsty and drained half his ale as soon as he sat down. Then he glanced at Buna, pushed his mug a little farther away, and didn’t touch it again until he had eaten a fair amount of bread and meat.
Back in the large sleeping room, Miko was presented with candies, fruits, and trinkets, but he was most deeply touched when Neti handed him a leather necklace with a tiny cougar carved from a yellow stone. He let her put it over his head, then held her close for a long time.
Miko received good thoughts and wishes from everyone, but was most surprised by what Ilika said.
“You have kept a little bit of childlike openness that allows you to scream when you are hurt, cry when you are sad, and run when you are afraid. Most grown-ups have lost those abilities. You’re like the willow tree that bends in a
storm instead of standing up straight and breaking. Those abilities will serve you well, as long as you don’t let them rule you.”
Miko swallowed, looked into the eyes of his teacher, and finally nodded.
Deep Learning Notes
Writing about their experiences in the great forest was suddenly very easy for Mati, and very hard for Toli. Any idea why?
In Kibi’s writing, how was her experience as a slave similar to the wolf’s situation as a lone outcast?
What qualities had Sata shown on their journey that made everyone have sincere kind words for her at her birthday party?
Why did Ilika let Buna get drunk? What are some of the differences between a parent of a child, and a teacher of a young adult?
The next day, what good came of Buna getting drunk and having a hangover?
What mental changes might the students go through when they saw how small their kingdom was, compared to the rest of the world?
What are the global coordinates (latitude and longitude) of your home? What land or sea is on the opposite side of the world from your home (straight through the middle of the Earth)?
How many acres will each of Poki’s cows have for grazing? How many numbers in the narrative story are unimportant to finding that answer?
