So sayeth the seer

When Kaneloa's senses returned, he found himself in the middle of a white sea of flowers. The royal tuberose plantation of King Kavawai. But no Ola. Yet he heard the goddess of life whisper in his ear, "Sorry, bebbe, I no can appear to play favorites, know what I mean? But I'll be around."

Hearing a distant pahu drum echo through The Tube, he followed the sacred sound, getting his bearings as he went.

His path through the tuberose soon merged with another, and he saw Tuber crews harvesting buds and blossoms, and he fell in behind a group who bore bundles of blossoms on their broad backs. These flowers, he heard them say, were not for trade with the Topsiders, but were for the imminent wedding. One of the king's seers had prophesied that the young chief who would win the hand of Princess Tuberosa La'a would be arriving today, and they hoped to have him identified within a day or two, for Tokelani, goddess of whoopee, was anxious to visit. And the princess was just plain anxious.

Tokelani?! Goddess of whoopee?!

The name was magic for a young man of The Tube. Especially one who had no personal whoopee experience himself. Such as Kaneloa. So even if he didn't qualify to marry the princess -- and he had no realistic expectation that he would, even though he'd arrived on the very day foretold by the seer -- he had an excellent chance of getting lucky anyway! As the old Tuber proverb went, "Lucky you live when Tokelani comes."

Kaneloa followed the flower bearers until they came to a fork in The Tube.

"Which way to the Royal Rotunda?" he said.

They really hadn't noticed him before.

"Another young chief, vying for the hand of the princess?" their foreman said.

"Hopefully."

"And when did you arrive?"

"Just now."

They all exchanged glances.

"And how did you arrive? No other portion of The Tube connects with the royal plantation."

"I arrived by ... um ... by Ola."

Again they exchanged glances, this time with low murmurs.

"This is the service entrance," he said. "You go that way, chief."

When Kaneloa started down the final leg of his journey to the Royal Rotunda, the foreman turned to the others and said, "I think we may see this one again -- on the royal wedding day."

The sound of the pahu drum grew as Kaneloa walked, now mixed with chanting. The call of the Great King also grew. Soon he was entering the enormous rotunda where scaffolded altars draped with kapa rose toward the ceiling. "Pssst, the king's over here!" he heard Ola say.