Sweet Tea and Brown-butter Mochi

This is a story written to inspire new life, Spring, creativity and re-birth. It's a fun one to read aloud with or without company. 

Oh, the most important part of this story is it began as a story written for Jade. We are the Auntie and Uncle of Jade who live so, so far away from her it makes our toes wrinkle wishing we were closer. Try as we might, we can't be much closer than we are right now (which is not very close at all). Writing this story helps us feel like we are closer. Story has that sort of magic. Always remember that, Jade. Story has that sort of magic to make people seem closer than they are. 

And since gifts are meant to be shared, we'll do that now, thanks to the Internet Gods and Goddesses, sending it to Jade and also sharing it with all who care to read it, too.

Sweet Tea and Brown-butter Mochi
By Yvonne Mokihana Calizar

"A dynasty of cats lived next door." Nanny's voice was fishing for some interest from the girl who was busy playing.

"I don't know what a dynasty means?" The girl kept tossing the boat-shaped bubbles to her imaginary friend.

"An essay is a raven." This was a bit of silliness Nanny hoped would loosen some of the girl's curiosity.

The short sentence did catch the girl's attention. She had heard about essays. "Isn't an essay a small story?" She stopped tossing the bubbles.

"You'd better write them stories down before they're forgotten." The bird's voice softened. "Or have them stolen by a black bird attracted by the glitter."

As it usually did, the Give-and-Go Game had captured the girl's attention just long enough to entice her onto the back of the purple and pink feathered, one-footed bird she called "Nanny." 

"Who would miss them if I don't write them down?" The girl wondered considering the words she could write, and when she got way beyond a hundred and ninety eight she kept going. The words drew themselves into clouds with no periods in sight. Clouds didn't need periods.

"You might never know, but that's not the point of it." Nanny bent her one scrawny, but very strong, banana-skin colored leg to allow the girl onto her back. Though the bird looked puny she was in fact among the most muscular of her kind and it was the plumage that deceived. It was a most clever disguise -- to appear one way while being another. Once the girl settled into the natural saddle of muscle between her wings Nanny continued.

"The point is Story does not call to everyone. You are one of the lucky ones. You have ears that listen. No, I take that back. You have ears that hear but can they listen?"

The girl was not selfish about possessing things or even an idea. She was taught to know gifts are meant to keep giving. An idea, could easily be a gift. So to have an idea taken back wasn't bad. Nanny had succeeded, again, to make the girl think ... and that was the best of gifts. Nanny knew this girl would grow best on ideas that made her think. 

"Why did you take that back? There's no difference between ears that hear and ears that listen." 

The girl was making a statement. You could always tell the difference between her questions and a statement. There was no wiggle room in the conversation when someone made a statement. But, a clever sorceress, like Nanny, knew how to wrangle another ending out a statement. And that is where this story is heading. 

"Are you settled well into the muscled saddle?" The question is as much for you, dear reader, as the girl. Our destination has something to do with the difference between ears that hear and ears that listen. 

"You might enjoy the journey with your eyes closed," Nanny said just before she pushed off with her strong banana-colored leg and flapped her brilliant purple and pink wings.

"Will that help me listen?" teased the girl with a bit of sass to her laugh.

"It might help, but more than that it will keep your eyes from being bothered by the waves of fairy moths that are heading this way in such a hurry. Oh, and keep your mouth closed as well. Whoops, too late." 

A mouthful of fairy moths is a bother, tasting a lot like peppermint chalk, but they will not harm you much. Unless of course you swallow. Better to spit them out as soon as possible and then ask for a cool drink of sweet tea and Brown- butter mochi, if they are available.

Fortunately, Nanny knew just where to go to find sweet tea and Brown-butter mochi. It wasn't far and she was always welcome to drop by with or without passengers on her back. 

The wind was cooperative, and since we are making up this adventure as we go, Nanny tipped her purple and pink plumage into a graceful dive. From her saddle seat the girl spied a small golden wagon. Its roof was curved, not pointed like most roofs. She said as much to Nanny, "That wagon has a roof shaped like the sky, except it's not sky-colored." The girl was right. The curved roof was pale brown, like the color of tea mixed with a lot of coconut milk. 

Four chairs were laid out in front of two of the wagon's windows trimmed in red. A table and a tall silver tea pot was set for company. 

A tall man with legs as long as string beans was waving as Nanny pulled out her wings to be the most delightful parachute, and landed "Ker-plunk". 

"Fairy moth emergency?" Laughed the tall man with legs as long as string beans and wild silvery-yellow hair. His face was covered with lines made deep from all the laughing he had done, and his large hands reached across the way to welcome the girl.

"I do like a gentleman," the girl said, repeating a comment she had heard. It was the first chance she'd had to try it out. The tall man with laugh lines on his lean face was lit with joy at the hearing of the compliment. He seemed to stand taller, if that was possible, and his smile? Well that was a smile as big as a poi bowl, and to see it made the girl's face lift into a poi bowl as well.

By the time the girl felt her feet on the ground beneath her, a small brown woman as round as a pumpkin was pouring sweet tea into big china cups. "Just made a fresh batch of Brown-butter mochi to help with any left over fairy moth chalk. Do come. Do sit. Do sit for tea and company."

Thanks, NY Times Cooking

The sweet tea was hot but not too hot. A couple gentle blows across the pink sea of Red Hibiscus tea with Blackberry honey made the drink perfect for drinking. The Brown-butter Mochi shaped in small muffin tins were a little sticky but oh of course mochi should be a little sticky! 

"All the better to catch any of the fairy moth dust that sometimes gets trapped here and there," said the round brown woman the shape of a pumpkin. She was a bit serious looking, but it was the words she said that made the girl really listen. 

She meant business, a good and caring sort of business with her serious eyes that glowed with something. "Very much like love," suggested Nanny. The girl nodded in agreement between sips of sweet Red Hibiscus tea as fairy moth dust tickled on its way down and through her belly. 

The tall man and Nanny sat just long enough to drink one cup of tea and eat three Brown-butter mochi a piece. Then Nanny pointed with her purple and pink wing tip and asked, "Why is there a long trench in the Earth leading to your wagon?"

"A whole lot of settling in, is what that trench is doing." He said and the girl noticed there wasn't much laughter in his voice. She listened more closely.

"Afraid of settling in are you?" Nanny was gentle with the question. The golden wagon was a home with wheels so it could move when it came time. Nanny knew all about moving, being a bird who was made to fly away when it came time. 

Instead of words, the tall man with legs as long as beans shrugged his narrow shoulders and kicked at the mounds of dirt. The girl felt sorry for the man but wasn't sure why. She knew grown-ups could be confused and afraid but wasn't sure what to do about that. She was still learning about things like that. And, she wasn't sure what it meant to be 'afraid of settling in'.

"Sometimes grown-ups get ourselves into a story we just don't know how it's gonna end. And then? And then, we forget the Story has an idea for an ending if only we'd just listen. Patience helps too. Know what I mean dearie?" The brown round woman was dunking a piece of Brown-butter mochi into the last of her sweet tea as she said what she said. 

The girl wasn't quite sure what that meant, but she kept that question to herself. 

When she had drained the last of her tea the brown round woman  smiled and said, "This tea party is helping Those-who-watch know we mean no harm to this place." The girl looked more closely at the long trench with its mounds of Earth piled along one side. 

The brown round woman continued, "It's a little like making Brown-butter mochi. A whole lot of somethings have to get heated, beaten and dropped to make something as delicious as those butterscotch sweets."

Women of magic remember to do things to balance one thing with another. The balance was to make sure Earth knew these people would take only what was needed, leave gifts and set things into the flow once again. The first and most important rule of magic: do no harm. 

"We cross borders without regard, ignorant or arrogant of the protocol native to the transitional spaces that take us from this place to that place. Traditions remembered and practiced would maintain and pass along the right things to do, at the right time, and in the right frame of mind. Have we all become wanderers with passports un-stamped with the memory of teachings from the Ancestors and Nature? There are rituals to remember and common magic to induce respect for the beings and places that share this planet." - The Safety Pin Cafe

This tea party was more than the girl could have imagined when she woke up this morning. Her toes were beginning to wrinkle thinking about growing up. Story was a big deal. She wondered whether she was ready for such things. And could she ever write all this down?

"It really doesn't need to be sorted out here and now," Nanny pulled the girl in snug, as she could feel the girl's confusion. "These are thoughts best chewed on over many cups of sweet tea and nibbles of mochi. Easy will do it, leave space in between thinking, play a lot and make room for the company of strangers."

It was time to continue with their journey. The girl could feel a nap coming on. The long trench needed full moon ceremonies to balance things up, and it would do Nanny good to work off some of those Brown-butter mochi by flapping her purple and pink wings. 

"Thank you so much for the tea and company," said the girl gratefully. "This was a very special day." It really was. A birthday ought to be one of the most special days in the whole year of days, and that is what this day was. Wonder-filled.

Happy  Spring, Happy April 1st (no fooling!) and Happy Birthday, Jade.

The End.

Love,
Moki

P.S. If any one tries making the recipe for Brown-butter Mochi please let us hear how it turns out. Until I get a bigger oven, or find small muffin tins I will have to imagine how ono these are (Fortunately, I'm good at imagining).