Claude's vacation to Hawaii got off to a bad start when he accidentally stepped on a minehuni, the Hawaiian version of the leprechaun. And then after the tiny fellow responded by calling him "a hee-faced hoi-brained malhini," Claude poured his pina colada on the wee man.

Warned that the favorite sport of minehunis is revenge, Claude was surprised the next morning when the minehuni brought him a peace offering, a bowl of poi. "In Hawaii, we eat it with our fingers," the tiny man said. "Great! I always liked eating with my fingers, but people always corrected me after I turned 4," Claude said as he dug into the bowl.

But as soon as he finished, Claude felt his body deflate like air escaping from a balloon. He diminished until he resembled an infant wedged between his shoes and big tropical straw hat. "And you are an infant; only 20-months old," the minehuni grinned. "We have a berry with great youthening properties that grows on the shady side of volcanoes. I used its juice in making the poi. Now you are not much bigger than me, and will learn what its like to live among big people, and get stepped on, just as you did to me," he sneered.

Claude never found that out. As a baby, his adoptive parents kept him safely in cribs and playpens, away from being underfoot. And just about everything they fed him had the consistency of poi. They let him eat it with his fingers, which made baby Claude extremely happy. "Bah! Humans! Can't even get a decent revenge on them any more," the minehuni grumbled.


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