Dave Island

There is nothing more lucrative than the investment in one’s own mistakes. For a man to get what is owed, he must shed all fear and reap what has been sowed.

These words found themselves part of an assignment for Dave’s “language arts” class. The words were merely written down by him. They actually belonged to his father: an astonishingly tall man of great influence to all except Dave himself. Dave was far from believing or truly understanding the words he so meticulously wrote, memorizing them under a closed fist rather than an open hand. He was ten years old when his father was last around to teach him.

By the time he was twenty, the remote island which Dave called home had finally started to prosper in spite of his great father’s death. At the dawn of the fifteenth century, it was said that Alamea (the goddess of fertility) would bless the mothers with a sign—an exceptional child, bearing eyes as blue and pure as the surrounding ocean, and green in his soul. A leader—someone who would not be forgotten for centuries to come. When hopeful families-to-be asked the shaman of this sign, he only responded once, emphatically stating: “As with the goddess, as with the sun and the moon, you will understand when you see. And when you see, you will feel.”

Despite the surrounding water having a more greenish tinge, and there being no way to check the color of a man’s soul, birth rates had skyrocketed during the last twenty years. And now the time finally arrived when a majority of the children were of working age. Of course, men began labor much earlier than twenty, but now some had military, religious, and political influence. Those who followed Alamea to the east end of the island were weak after the third civil war, and now their perseverance was being rewarded with fresh strength.

Dave was once a promising young man, tall and imposing like his father. Now, however, he was an outcast of his own accord… well, that was a popular sentiment belonging to his mother, anyway. But by Dave’s twenty-first birthday, she was gone too. Now he was all alone, barring two old schoolmates: Kai, a proud and jittery young artist; and Lea, soft and beautiful—a shining beacon of light, a treasured friend for Dave. Even since Dave’s departure from school in the eighteenth level (a step in the process populated by eleven-year-olds), Kai and Lea had met with him whenever they could, remaining a tight trio no matter how far Dave drifted away.

It must be said that his father’s death was not the only reason for Dave’s truancy, and thus his distancing from the political sphere of the eastern island. Even as a boy, with his watery blue eyes and heart like a floating leaf in the wind, Dave did not fare well in terms of fitting in. The plain truth is, without looking deep as Kai and Lea did, one would see a rough exterior: a staggering oblong head bearing an only slightly less massive nose which bridged over a freakishly pronounced chin, two sunken craters for eyes under low mounted, shelved brows which would always be the first to enter a room, all hanging below an almost non-existent forehead, accompanied by two elongated ears and razor-thin lips.

It was something to behold, remaining that way for the rest of his life.

The other children would stare until their eyes burned and their stomachs turned. Dave forgot every parable and every adage his father had ever told him during those later school years. And in adulthood, he would be quick to forget every comforting word, every loving hug, and every piece of reassurance from his mother. He was a special boy, and now he couldn’t shake the feeling of being a special man.

“The Chief would be nowhere without your father. I mean literally! He would be dead without him! We all would be!” Lea said to Dave on one sunny afternoon.

“And that has nothing to do with me,” Dave would solemnly reply.

“She’s right, brother,” Kai pitched in, “they wouldn’t make you go back. Do the last five levels with me, they’re the only ones that matter anyway.” Kai always called Dave “brother” despite not being a formality on the island and the two sharing no blood.

“For what? To join a community that already rejected me?”

“You know the people are grateful,” Lea chimed in again, “they love you.”

“They love to point and stare.”

Dave glanced at his only friends with misery in his eyes. Silence took over for a good few minutes before Kai finally piped up again:

“Level fifty is freedom! You’ve seen the boats they’re building. ‘Ships,’ they call them. Imagine how far a captain could take one of those things!”

“Why? To find some new land with some new tribe to bother? No. Home is here; I only wish to move about it like a ghost—so the people can only sense a peaceful spirit.”

Lea was always one of the children to be fascinated with Dave, and in moments like these could go on peering into his soul for hours. On this day, however, there was no time. There had been village-wide panic about rumblings within Rano Kau (the island’s largest volcano). This particular brand of panic was, by the easterners, always funneled into religious conviction. In this case, sacrifice…

“One black goat, bred in the dark and brought to ash. Born to flesh, released to spirit, the most any animal can hope for.” These were the rather harsh words of the shaman. They were the words of the previous shaman and they would be the words of every new shaman to come. Only white and brown goats grazed the fields of the island, but with each decade past, one black goat was prophesied to be born and raised for sacrifice. This time, the panic in the village was not actually due to the vicious rumblings of Rano Kau, but rather because of a peculiar lack of black goats in the last fifteen years… The reason for this was, for the most part, happily perceived as grace from Pele (the goddess of fire). There was no need for a black goat because there was no need for a sacrifice.

Again, the grumbling Rano Kau told a different story…

Something miraculous actually happened during this time of mass hysteria. For possibly the first time in his life, Dave got exactly what he wanted, immediately after he asked for it no less. He walked through the village he loved, completely unnoticed among the villagers who tormented him (if only in his mind) (but definitely in reality as well [if only behind his back]). Like a ghost among those who feared they would soon be the same. Is it possible to be relatable and completely invisible at the same time? Dave wondered. Either way, he enjoyed every moment. He eventually came upon a gathering—more of a mob around the exasperated Chief.

“There’s no time!” was among the first shouts dave could hear.

“Look to Haukea and feel her calming presence!” retorted the Chief.

“It is not Haukea, but Pele who threatens to bath us in fire! We must appease her!”

“Where is the goat of ash?” another voice called out.

“Listen to our shaman,” the Chief pleaded, “if no blackened goat is born, no sacrifice is necessary. It has been that way for a thousand years! Listen, calm yourselves and hear the goddess for yourself…” And the Chief spread his arms out wide, tilting his head up to the sky and closing his eyes.

The villagers were hushed.

All remained quiet. Dave looked on with an unfamiliar peace in his soul.

But the tranquility was shattered by a thunderous shaking of the earth. A deadly call from Rano Kau and a curse from the lips of Pele herself. The ground shook for a full ten seconds before the screams of the people became the most startling sound again.

“If a sacrifice is demanded, a blackened goat will be provided!” yelled the Chief nervously over the crowd before stepping away in a hurry. He was far too young to be the Chief at only forty-seven years of age, but he was the best this tumultuous island had.

The next morning, the fear in the air was as palpable as the quaking earth. Dave strolled breezily through the village. It was his second time venturing into the village in the last two days… also the second trip in the past six months. The shaking ground didn’t bother him, it was as if he was floating. In fact, he floated so easily that he soon found himself in a quiet part of the village, failing at the time to remember why it was so quiet…

It was an “elder-only” area, meaning only those of influence were allowed to loiter here. Dave, in his own world, was quickly snapped back to reality when he came upon something that caught his eye. Under a large wooden roof, a farmer struggled to keep a brown goat up on a table with one hand while he fumbled an oily black brush in the other. Soon another man helped to keep the goat still, then another… the Chief. Dave looked on closely as what seemed to be a mixture of black grease and soot was smeared over the finicky goat. It made the sound of what resembled an inauspicious laugh as it was painted. Dave turned his wide eyes around and rushed off.

“They’re gonna sacrifice a brown goat!” Dave yelled to Kai and Lea, finding them in the school after nearly an hour of searching.

Lea remained perfectly still. Kai didn’t respond, he was lost in a wonderfully detailed portrait of Lea. Dave yelled again. Lea only moved her eyes to look at him.

“Pele demanded a brown goat this time, so what?” said Kai without looking up from his work.

“She hasn’t demanded a brown goat in a thousand years! They painted a goat black! I saw them do it, they don’t believe in their own sacrifice!”

Kai finally put down his pencil. Lea relaxed her statuesque pose. They both belted out in unison:

“What?”

A crowd of every single villager who could walk had already started up to the top of Rano Kau. It was a long hike, but urgency kept feet moving quickly as if on hot coals. Dave, Kai, and Lea eventually caught up to the back of the mob, unable to see what was leading the charge: the Chief and three others carried a large wooden crate which held the painted black goat as it nibbled the flowers decorating the cage.

There were two dangers accompanying the journey: the narrow winding paths which passed over fearful heights, and the fact that this was westerner territory. Though there had been no war for many years, it had been even longer since the easterners had been to the mighty volcano. Any attempt by Dave and his friends to stop the crowd was met with hushing and dismissive gestures. The narrow paths kept them behind, and by the time they reached the front of the crowd, they had reached the summit.

The goat was already set down. A small ceremony had begun: throat singing, ancient words from the shaman, people holding their hands up to the sky. (No torches, it was fiery enough already.)

“Stop!” Dave screamed for long past the first time, only now being heard by the Chief.

Dave bellowed to the crowd—all of whom became transfixed—exposing the truth and condemning anyone who would make a false sacrifice.

“Careful, son, do not upset the goddess further with false accusations,” said the Chief.

Dave retorted well, claiming the Chief to be the false one. All ears listened intently.

“He saw it with his own eyes,” said Kai, “they painted a brown goat black.”

“Pele will only become enraged! The wrong beast will die because of us, and we will all bathe in flames because of it!” added Lea.

The ground shook with greater intensity than ever before.

“The goat is black and born of ash. By the goddess, we have no time!” said the shaman.

The Chief signaled for the cage to be opened, two men followed orders. Shouts began coming from the crowd: “Throw it in” and “Make the sacrifice” made up the general feeling. And soon the cage was opened. The two men struggled to hold the goat as it kicked and screamed. The crowd chanted as the “beast” was brought towards the edge of the fiery pool of lava.

“No!” screamed Dave, but he went completely unheard.

As the chanting reached a low staccato and the goat kicked pebbles over the edge of a superheated death, Dave sprung into action…

Using his size to push through the Chief’s men, Dave sprinted and dived forward, grabbing the goat’s hind leg as it was pushed over the edge. It took all his strength to hold the poor animal, and still, he was slipping. Kai and Lea rushed over to hold him. All three refused to let go, and soon members of the crowd rushed over as well.

“He’s right!” came a sudden cry from a villager.

More came over and saw it… The Chief could not deny it now… There was a small patch of brown fur on the goat’s underbelly.

The villagers helped pull Dave and the goat up. The goat’s fur heated by the fumes, Dave’s tightly gripped hand was now marked with the black paint-mixture. The Chief backed out of the crowd. The goat ran down into the forest. Both went unnoticed.

“It’s him,” broke from one of the villagers. All was calm for a moment—the ground still and the crowd hushed with their eyes keenly focused on Dave.

“It’s the special child. Alamea’s gift, all grown up.”

A silent beat passed as Dave grew uncomfortable.

“Praise be to the goddess, her child has saved us again!”

Dave looked as though he had something important to say, but when he tried to speak, his voice was drowned out by the cheering crowd. “Praise be to the goddess, praise be to her child!”

Five days passed without any rumblings from Rano Kau. Well, there were a few minor earthquakes… but those were only peaceful communications from Pele. Dave had been quite the star in those five days, only once managing to escape the gaze of the pious villagers.

Dave sat under a tall and misshapen palm tree, one that cast a shadow large enough for Kai and Lea to join him. Kai carefully drew recreations of the ordeal at the volcano. Each picture featured Dave, front-and-center. Lea gave all her attention to the real Dave.

“Nalani can’t keep her eyes off you,” smiled Lea. “She really likes you, why is that such a bad thing?”

“She doesn’t like me, only who she thinks I am.”

“But you are the one who saved the village.”

“Don’t either of you listen to me? All I saved was an innocent goat.”

“You stopped us from enraging Pele with a false sacrifice; she would have burned us all!”

“I already told you at the school, a true goddess would not scorch a village over a wrong-colored goat! Can’t you see it’s cruel to pretend that a pure creature has been bred only for slaughter, only to ‘save’ others?” cried Dave.

“I don’t understand,” Lea calmly replied, “even now you can’t accept that you’re special, that the people love you.”

“It’s easy to love how they love. A love for oneself with no love of oneself.”

After a silent moment, Kai spoke up:

“You should leave this place before they try to make you the chief.”

Dave was taken aback for a moment, and the three friends launched into a long conversation about what was best for Dave. Dave had been considering leaving the village for a long time. He had talked previously about building a hut and living beyond the deep forest, at a beach he had visited as a child. The only real point of consideration was Nalani.

“No one could stand waking up to a sight like this every morning,” muttered Dave.

Lea grabbed him by the shoulders, making him face her. “I bet you were told you would never have friends that love you either.”

Lea smiled big. Dave smiled too, slowly.

It took a lot of convincing, but Dave grew more confident, eventually agreeing to meet with Nalani alone. She was truly stunning. Her smile beamed, reflecting the brightness which the new couple received from other villagers. When Dave was with her in public, he felt that only she could see him, and more importantly, he could stand to see himself.

As more time went by, Dave only grew more comfortable with her, more in love with her. But one thing nagged on his mind… Does she love me, or does she love being with me? For Dave, these two options were very distinct. Nalani was always at her happiest when the two were in public, roaming around the village they loved. She had always told him it was because she loved his new confidence, she loved to see him accept love from outside. But a nagging mind is a difficult thing to shake for a man like Dave.

Eventually, after many happy months, it was decided that Dave and Nalani would not be married in the village. They would instead be married without ceremony on the beach Dave had visited as a child. And on that beach, they would stay for the rest of their lives.

Nalani had agreed to all this without hesitation. The rest of the village encouraged it, so did Kai and Lea.

“Finally I can be happy, finally I can accept peace,” said Dave, standing under the shade of his favorite palm tree.

Lea wrapped her arms around Dave and squeezed with all her might. “You’ll always be special to us.”

Dave glanced at Kai, who was looking out at the rolling green hills and the vast empty space. Dave finally broke free from Lea’s arms and walked over to Kai.

“You know something…” Kai started, without turning to Dave, “I don’t think you’re that weird-looking.”

Dave looked even uglier when he chuckled.

“You’re really not coming back, brother?” Kai continued, now looking at Dave.

“There won’t be much to come back to; Pele told me in a dream that she’s gonna burn the whole east side of the island.”

They looked at each other for a beat… then laughed.

“I’ll promise not to drag you back here if you promise to let me come visit,” said Kai.

“Only you and Lea.” And Dave turned to walk away. But Kai stopped him…

“You really think the others will let me make art all day? You were the only one who ever believed in me.”

“You don’t need their permission.” And Dave grinned.

And that was the last time Kai and Lea would see that deformed smile for many months.

Dave and Nalani built more than a hut on that beach on the other side of the island. Months quickly turned to years of peace and quiet, but not before Nalani brought a couple of new disturbances into the world. The hut turned into a hotel for a family of little ones. Dave worked every day: farming, hunting, and gathering. Nalani took care of the children, not one of them fell to illness. Nalani only proved more insatiable with the passing years. A small family became, over many years, a small tribe. With the first of the children having grown old enough to help find food and take care of the young, everything remained in harmony. Life for Dave was not without challenge, but he was more than at peace—as fulfilled as any man could ever hope to be.

Kai and Lea did visit many times over the years. Lea was somewhat unwilling to entertain the children, thankful to get away from a herd of her own little ones. Instead, Lea always gravitated to Nalani, able to talk with her for hours on end. Kai, on the other hand, always made use of his time at Dave’s beach by taking in the sights and sketching down what he saw; though truth be told, many of his drawings were focused on Dave and, to a lesser extent, the children.

At forty-nine years old, Nalani died in childbirth. The child was perfectly healthy, with a strong family to take care of him. Dave was supported by that family, and after months of mourning, he kept on proudly taking care of his little tribe of beautiful children. Kai continued visiting, but Lea never came to that beach again.

Dave was close to eighty years old when his body began to fail him; he grew sick fast. With his loving children around his bedside, Dave mumbled only one wish:

“I would like to see my old village one last time.”

It was true that he really did love that village. They say one has to be able to let go of what one loves. But perhaps Dave thought returning was also part of that bargain.

The journey back to the village was not so long as it was perilous, especially for a sick old man. But after multiple days, the secluded village was in sight.

Two of his children made the journey with him, holding him up while he met with Kai.

Kai gave Dave a deep hug. “Come with me, brother.”

They walked up to the misshapen palm tree, the top of the hill which overlooked those rolling green hills. Dave’s children rested under the tree’s shadow. Something caught Dave’s eye as he met Kai at the edge of the plateau.

“What… what are those things?” said Dave as he struggled to focus his weak eyes.

“It’s you.”

Kai held up his most prized drawing: his most meticulous close-up of Dave’s face.

“I don’t under—”

Kai pointed down to another plateau just under them where a GIANT STATUE OF DAVE’S FREAKISHLY MISSHAPEN HEAD AND FACE stood tall and proud. Dave looked back up at the lush fields… and the structures scattered among them...

Dave was utterly frozen. “And them… they’re all…”

“All you.”

“How… how many?”

Kai smiled strangely. “About nine-hundred.”

Dave’s jaw sank to the ground.

“Not all here,” Kai continued, “this is only some of them.”

Dave could do nothing but stare in amazement at the HUNDREDS OF GIANT STATUES OF HIS FREAKISHLY MISSHAPEN HEAD AND FACE.

Suddenly, Lea’s now old and hoarse voice appeared behind them.

“Do any of them look like you?”

“Well…” fumbled Dave.

“Not the statues... the kids,” said Lea.

Dave turned, realized it was Lea, and froze.

“Why did you stop visiting after Nalani died? I thought Kai was lying to me; I thought you were dead!”

Lea’s head fell solemnly…

“There was supposed to be a child born like you… That’s the whole reason she went with you, the whole reason we…”

“You and Nalani were supposed to bear a special child. She did it for the village…” Kai chimed in before turning back around to face the statues again.

“The goddess has abandoned us…” mumbled Lea to herself as she turned to limp back down the hill.

Dave’s children were basically asleep in the shade, tired from the long journey. Dave turned back—in utter shock—to the statues in the distance.

“So, does the village look how you remembered it?”

Dave stood in silence. Both of their white beards flowing gracefully in the wind.

And it did look just how he remembered it… minus the nine-hundred giant statues of his freakishly misshapen head and face. Like it or not, he was immortal now.

“Why the long face?” said Kai.

Dave dropped dead from a heart attack minutes later.