“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” the islander responded. As he said this he turned away waving his hands at the newcomers and added, “And I don’t need to listen to this.”

The older islander continued to glare at the newcomers. “It might be better if we just end this conversation now. This is the way we live and it’s served us well. If you don’t want to accept it that’s your business, but this is who we are. As far as your visit here is concerned, I think I speak for the others when I say that it might be better if you make preparations to leave as soon as possible.”

Hearing this, one of the older newcomers said, “If that’s what you want, it’s fine with us. But we’ll need a day or two to get organized.”

“Alright, but we don’t want you to create problems here. You need to keep your ideas to yourselves.”

“Well we don’t want trouble either,” the newcomer responded, “but I don’t see why we can’t discuss these things.”

One of the other islanders stepped up beside the elder and declared, “Our people are content and they don’t need to be agitated by a lot of confusing questions.”

The newcomer, looking disgusted, responded, “Fine, whatever you want.” Then he turned to his companions and said, “Let’s get back to camp.” With that all the newcomers turned away and walked back toward their people.

After they were gone the island leaders gathered around the fire again. Some were deep in thought, staring at the fire or just looking down at the ground. A couple of the men were obviously agitated, kicking at the sand, throwing rocks into the darkness.

One of the islanders picked up the brown round fruit. He held it out and, turning it over in his hands, looked intently at it and said, “This is important … it has to be, even if we don’t know exactly why.”

The older islander stared out into the darkness after the newcomers. “We need to keep an eye on them until they leave.”

Another islander watched his comrade fondle the brown fruit and said, “The sooner the better is all I can say.”

The next morning the island leadership called a meeting for its highest ranking officers, which included two of the leaders who had conversed with the newcomers the night before. They convened in one of the nearby villages having asked all those who had witnessed the conversation with the newcomers to be present as well. Each man was questioned by the officers beginning with the officers who had actually been there.

Once this had been done the men who were of lesser rank were asked to leave after being told not to speak of the situation with anyone else. Then the remaining officers began to express their thoughts and concerns with one another. It was finally decided that organized surveillance of the newcomers should be conducted and that this “committee” of leadership should be notified immediately of any disruptive behavior on the part of the newcomers.

The leadership of the newcomers, for their part, also decided not to tell their people about the difficulties that they’d experienced. Instead they gathered their people around them and suggested that they should not “overstay” their welcome, that it might be best if they continued on their journey. Some of the people were disappointed, thinking that there was no reason to be in a hurry to leave. Others were glad to hear they were leaving, because, while they had enjoyed the celebrations and feasting, they were still uncomfortable with the surroundings.

Throughout the day the newcomers made preparations for departing. The boats were inspected and repairs made, and everyone organized their personal belongings so that they could be stowed for the journey. The island leaders had also told them that they could take any provisions that they might need, including the food that was leftover from the festivities, of which there was plenty. Some of the newcomers also gathered up some fruit from the plants that were near their camp. By the end of the day all was ready and they decided to leave at daybreak the following morning. Everyone was encouraged to get a good night’s rest and then they all settled down to sleep.

Throughout that day, as the newcomers had made their preparations, they were continually being watched by islanders who had been given the task of keeping an eye on them. The observers did this without trying to hide, for they were told to be obvious in order to remind the newcomers’ leaders that they should leave as soon as possible.

The islanders took turns keeping watch so that they could periodically get something to eat and be refreshed. Some of the men who lived nearby went to their own dwellings to do this. And this made their actions become apparent to those in their household, which is probably how it started.

Throughout the day word gradually got out that there had been trouble with the new group, and as the story of what had happened circulated through the community, the details became more and more exaggerated with each telling. By that evening many of the islanders were hearing that the newcomers had become abusive, insulting the island leaders and making threats. It was even said that they had intended to invade the island all along, that their group was actually a scouting party sent to spy out the island, and that they had already sent word back to their people, and that a much larger force was on its way to wage war with the island. 

While this was happening several members from the “committee” had gathered together at the dwelling of one of their number to discuss how to give their visitors a proper “send-off” the next morning.

“I think we should just wave good-by and act like nothing’s happened,” suggested one of the older leaders. “Better to avoid any problems, since they’re going anyway.”

“It still chafes me, the way they ridiculed our heritage,” countered one of the younger men.

Another pounded a fist into his other hand and declared, “I tell you, I’d like to give one or two of them a good thumping … suggesting that our story isn’t true. Who do they think they are?”

“Just calm down,” said the older leader. “I don’t like it either, but why stir up the whole island?”

While they were debating this there was a knock and a shout from outside, “Open up, we need to talk!”

The man who lived there opened the door only to find a gathering of angry islanders outside, many of whom were holding torches. “What’s the trouble?” he asked. As he said this the other leaders filed out the door behind him.

One man from the crowd stepped forward and declared to the leaders, “The newcomers are trying to take over our island!”

“That’s right,” added another. “They’ve been spying out our community the whole time they’ve been here.”

“Who told you that?” asked one of the “committee.”

“It’s common knowledge,” was the response. “Everybody’s been talking about it.”

“I’m not aware of any such thing,” responded the leader.

“It’s true. Not only that, they’ve been saying that our story about the brown round fruit’s a lie, and that we don’t deserve to live on this island.”

“Yeah!” added another from the mob. “They think their ways are better than our ways … that they’ve been supposedly directed here by the stars or something, and are meant to have this island.” When he said the word stars he held up two fingers in each hand to mimic quotation marks.

“I … I don’t think that’s true,” said the elder as he looked around at the other leaders. “Besides, how are they going to take this island from us? There’s only a few of them.”

“They’ve sent word back to their community, telling them that they should come and invade us, take what’s ours.” This remark prompted an outbreak of murmuring among the people.

As one of the older leaders, standing in front of the “committee” was about to respond, another leader tugged at his arm and said in a low voice, “We need to talk about this before you say anything else.”

The old elder got a quizzical look on his face and quietly said, “Talk about what?”

The leader gave a slight nod toward the old elder and with a side glance toward the people, said, “Just … give us a minute to think about this.”

The old elder looked around at the other leaders and was met with intense stares by one and all; they looked as if they were trying to communicate with him with their eyes. Seeing this, the old elder turned to the people and, raising his hand to calm them, said in a determined voice, “Give us a few minutes to confer.” After which the leaders filed back into the house and shut the door.