Tales from the Caribbean

by Trish Cooke

  So Brer Anansi set off to go to the parties with his two sons, Kuma and Kwek.

  Most animals in the village had been invited to one of the parties, so they all came out of their houses around the same time and walked along the main road with Brer Anansi and his boys.

  ‘It sure is going to be a good party at Brer Dog’s home!’ said Brer Turtle.

  ‘Brer Goat’s party is going to be better,’ Brer Cockerel said. Brer Anansi laughed and bragged about how he had been invited to both and how he was going to have a better time than all of them.

  For most of the journey, the route to both parties was the same way and all of the animals chatted together and shared their excitement as they walked. Eventually they reached the crossroads where a big sign said WEST VILLAGE TO THE LEFT. EAST VILLAGE TO THE RIGHT. It was here that those who were going to Brer Dog’s party went to the left, down the West Road to the West Village, and those who were going to Brer Goat’s party went to the right, down the East Road to the East Village. Finally, it was only Brer Anansi and his two sons that remained, trying to work out which way to go first.

  ‘I’ll go to Brer Dog’s party first,’ said Brer Anansi, finally making a decision. He told his boys to follow him down the West Road to the West Village.

  ‘I sure am looking forward to that fried chicken,’ Brer Anansi said.

  ‘Me too!’ said Kuma and Kwek.

  And the three of them walked a little way down the West Road. Then suddenly Brer Anansi stopped.

  ‘I’ve had a thought,’ he said. ‘Maybe we should go to Brer Goat’s party first. That callaloo, lobster and pepper soup with dumplings will surely start off the rest of the food just right.’ Kuma and Kwek agreed. ‘Turn around, boys! Let’s go to Brer Goat’s house first.’

  So Brer Anansi and his boys turned back and walked until they got back to the crossroads, and when they reached it they took the East Road leading to the East Village.

  A little way down the East Road, Brer Anansi stopped again.

  ‘Brer Dog’s wife’s coconut cake sure is calling me!’ he said and he told the boys to turn around again so that they could get back to the crossroads and take the West Road to Dog’s house in the West Village. This happened several times with Brer Anansi changing his mind about which party to go to first. One minute it was Brer Dog’s and the next it was Brer Goat’s. The boys weren’t happy with Brer Anansi changing his mind all the time. Their legs were getting tired and they were feeling frustrated.

  ‘We must go to the party that is serving food first,’ said Brer Anansi, coming up with another idea, ‘and after we have eaten there, then we will go to the second party.’

  ‘How will we know which party is serving food first?’ asked Kuma.

  ‘Supposing we choose to go to one first and when we get there we find they’ve already eaten?’ said Kwek.

  Brer Anansi thought Kwek had made a good point. That would be disastrous. Brer Anansi certainly didn’t want to miss out on any of the dinners.

  ‘I’ll think of something …’ said Brer Anansi but he was running out of ideas. By this time the children were tired and hungry.

  Then Kuma had an idea.

  ‘Father, you can send Kwek and me to the parties ahead of you! I will go to the fried chicken party in the West Village’ – Kuma loved fried chicken – ‘and Kwek can go to the chocolate ice cream party in the East Village.’

  ‘No’ said Kwek, ‘I’ll go to the fried chicken party and you go to the chocolate ice cream one!’

  ‘No,’ said Kuma, ‘it’s my idea so I’ll go …’

  ‘Hush!’ said Brer Anansi. ‘I think it’s a good idea for you two to go on ahead. When you get to the parties, let me know when they are serving dinner and the party that is serving dinner first is the one I will go to!’

  It was finally agreed between them that Kuma would go to Brer Dog’s party in the West Village and Kwek would go to Brer Goat’s party in the East Village. All Brer Anansi had to do now was to come up with a plan for the boys to signal their father and let him know which party’s dinner was being served first.

  ‘Go home and get me two long ropes,’ Brer Anansi said to his sons. The boys did as they were told and when they returned Brer Anansi stood in the centre of the crossroads, halfway between the two villages, and tied the end of both ropes around his waist. He gave the other end of the first rope to Kuma and the other end of the second rope to Kwek.

  Then he said to Kuma, ‘Follow the West Road to the West Village and go to Brer Dog’s party.’

  And to Kwek he said, ‘Follow the East Road to the East Village and go to Brer Goat’s party.’

  And to both of them he said, ‘When food is being served, I want you to pull on the rope, hard.’ That way Brer Anansi would know which party was serving food first and he would be pulled in the direction of that party immediately.

  So Kuma went to the West Village and Kwek went to the East Village as Brer Anansi had instructed them to do, and Brer Anansi waited at the crossroads for the signal.

  When Kuma reached Brer Dog’s party in the West Village the music was playing loudly and people were dancing and having a good time. Before long Kuma was joining in with them. He was a great dancer as he had learnt a few steps from his father. After the dancing, the guests at the party played games, sang songs and joked around. Kuma enjoyed taking part in all the festivities. It was a great party, but Kuma never once let go of the rope that his father had asked him to hold.

  Kwek was also having a good time at Brer Goat’s party in the East Village. There too the music was playing loud and people were dancing and having a good time. Kwek was the life and soul of the party and taking the centre of attention, as his father would have done, with his fancy footwork on the dance floor. The guests at Brer Goat’s party played games, sang songs and joked around, just like the ones at Brer Dog’s party were doing, and Kwek enjoyed taking part in all the festivities, just like his brother at Brer Dog’s party. Kwek obediently kept hold of the rope just like his father had asked him to do.

  Meanwhile, at the crossroads, Brer Anansi was getting bored and hungry. He was dressed in his good suit ready to go to a party with nothing to do but wait for the signal. He waited and waited, getting hungrier and hungrier, and more and more bored.

  At about four thirty Brer Goat stopped the party in the East Village and announced that dinner was about to be served. At about the same time over at Brer Dog’s party in the West Village, Brer Dog’s wife announced that the fried chicken was ready and people could eat. Kuma and Kwek, remembering what their father had told them to do, started to pull on the rope straight away, Kuma from the West Village and Kwek from the East Village. As they pulled on the rope Brer Anansi, still standing at the crossroads, felt the tug from them on either side. As each son pulled on the rope from east and west Brer Anansi could not move in one direction or the other. He was stuck. He tried to move to the west side but he could not budge and he tried to move to the east side but he could not do it. Kuma and Kwek pulled harder and harder to try to get their father to the party in time for the food, but the more they pulled, the more he could not move from the crossroads.

  As he pulled on the rope Kuma decided he might as well fill his belly with some of Ma Dog’s fried chicken with rice and peas and plantain, followed by coconut cake and custard for afters. He enjoyed every bit. The party music continued and, still pulling on the rope, Kuma danced the night away. Kwek too filled his belly with Brer Goat’s delicious callaloo, lobster and pepper soup with dumplings and finished with some chocolate ice cream. He kept pulling on the rope the whole time as he danced into the night. Kuma and Kwek only stopped pulling on the rope when the party was over. Kuma thanked Brer Dog and his wife and started back home. Kwek thanked Brer Goat for giving him such a wonderful time and he started back on his journey home too. When Kuma and Kwek got to the crossroads where their father was waiting they found him in the same spot where they had left him. But because they had pulled on the ropes so har
d, it had made Brer Anansi’s waist extra thin, and his body had puffed out like two balloons above and below the waist. (And from that day on, that’s how Brer Anansi looked – and how he still looks today.) The children did their best not to laugh and tried their hardest not to show how good a time they had both had at the parties they had been to.

  ‘The more you both pulled on the rope, the more I couldn’t move!’ said Brer Anansi angrily. ‘And now I’m hurting all over, and I’m hungry!’

  The boys took Brer Anansi home and when he got there he was so vexed he started to yell at his wife, ‘Where’s my dinner?’

  But there wasn’t any food for him because he’d told his wife not to cook. So Brer Anansi went to bed on an empty belly that night, all because he was too greedy and he couldn’t make up his mind about which party to go to.

  The Three Tasks

  This story is based on a French Caribbean folk tale

  There was once a beautiful young girl called Avaline who was left in the care of her stepfather after the death of her mother. On her sickbed, Avaline’s mother gave Avaline a gift. It was a small, funny, knobbly-looking twig.

  ‘Soon I will leave you,’ said Avaline’s mother. ‘Here is your protection when I am gone. This is a magical twig and when it is used by the person who truly loves you it will save you from harm. Remember: nothing can stand in the way of true love.’ Avaline was too upset to understand what her mother was telling her and she simply wept as she hugged her.

  The stepfather didn’t like Avaline very much and, soon after Avaline’s mother died, he started being cruel to her. He made her his servant. Anything he told her to do, she had to do it. He was so wicked that he would beat her if she refused. Avaline dreamed of being far away from her evil stepfather and living a happy life.

  One day Avaline was busy washing clothes in the river when she was joined by a handsome young man called François. Avaline and François spoke all afternoon and it felt as if they had known one another forever. They laughed and chatted and felt so comfortable in each other’s company.

  From then on, each day François would return to the river and join Avaline as she did her washing. Avaline and François gradually fell in love.

  François was so overcome with his love for Avaline that he asked her to marry him. She was overjoyed and was happy to accept his proposal but, in order to marry Avaline, Francois would have to ask her stepfather for permission, as that was the custom in those days. Avaline suspected her stepfather would not approve as he was a cruel man and wanted her to be his slave forever. Nevertheless, one day, after she had finished her washing, Avaline led François to her home.

  Once there, François respectfully asked Avaline’s stepfather if he could have her hand in marriage. The mean stepfather wasn’t happy. In fact, he was furious! If Avaline were to marry this man, who would he get to do all his chores? The cooking, the cleaning, the washing? Avaline thought the evil stepfather would surely say no and she would be enslaved by him forever. But to her surprise, the cunning stepfather turned to the handsome young man and said, ‘I am a reasonable man. Of course you have my permission to marry her. But first you must complete three tasks. Once you have completed all three tasks successfully then you can marry my stepdaughter.’

  Avaline immediately suspected that her stepfather was up to something and doubted that the tasks he set would be straightforward. Still, she was glad the young man had been given a chance, as slim as it might be.

  ‘I must speak to you privately,’ said the stepfather to François and he sent Avaline off to do some housework.

  Once he and François were alone, the stepfather turned to him and said, ‘If you do not complete the tasks successfully, you must go away and never return to bother my stepdaughter again.’ The young suitor reluctantly agreed that if he failed to complete the tasks successfully then he would go away and never return.

  Then the wicked stepfather went to the kitchen and took a bucket from under the sink. With a sharp knife, he pierced the bucket several times until it was full of holes.

  ‘For the first task, I want you to take this bucket to the river,’ said the evil stepfather. ‘I want you to fill it with water from the river, bring the bucket of water to my house and fill my water tank with the water you have carried.’

  The river was quite a way away from the stepfather’s house and François knew that there was no way he could collect water from the river with a bucket full of holes and still have water in it when he returned.

  ‘But that will be impossible!’ said François. ‘The water will leak out of the holes in the bucket before I reach your house.’

  ‘So it will,’ said the stepfather smugly, ‘but that’s your problem.’

  François felt frustrated. It seemed that he would never get to marry the girl he had fallen in love with after all. Still, he took the bucket full of holes and he made his way to the river. Once he was there he put the bucket in the river to fill it and, as he took it out again, just as he had expected, water was already leaking from the many holes. As quickly as he could, François ran all the way back to the house to fill the water tank with the little water he had left in the bucket. Alas, when François reached the house, the bucket had lost all the water and was empty.

  But François would not give up. His love for Avaline was so strong, and he wanted to marry her more than anything in the world, so he went back to the river. This time, after he had dipped the bucket full of holes in the river, he ran even faster back to the house. But still there wasn’t a drop of water left in the bucket when he arrived at the water tank.

  Avaline came back from doing her chores and she watched François making his trips to the river and back again, running faster and faster each time with the bucket full of holes.

  ‘What are you doing?’ she asked.

  ‘Your stepfather has asked me to fill this bucket with water from the river and then to bring the bucket of water to his water tank and fill the tank with the water I collect.’

  ‘But the bucket is full of holes!’ said Avaline. ‘It’s impossible!’

  ‘I know,’ said François, ‘but I want to marry you! So I’ll keep trying.’

  ‘You must truly love me,’ Avaline said and, remembering the special gift that her mother had given her, she took it out of her purse.

  ‘My mother left me this but I am unable to use it. The magic will only work when used by someone who truly loves me …’

  ‘And what must I do with it?’ asked François.

  But before Avaline could answer, the magic twig spoke. ‘Strike me on the ground three times!’

  François was confused but he loved Avaline so much so he did as the twig said.

  ‘Now you must tap the water tank three times,’ the magic twig said. The young man ran to the water tank and tapped it three times.

  ‘Now go to the river and dip me in the river.’ François went to the river and put the tip of the wand in the river.

  Then the twig said, ‘Repeat after me, River, fill the tank!’

  François repeated the words: ‘River, fill the tank!’

  ‘Your task is done!’ said the twig.

  ‘Really?’ François said.

  ‘Yes,’ said the twig. ‘Go and see for yourself.’

  François went back to the stepfather’s house, and lo and behold the water tank was full of river water! The young man called the stepfather and told him that he had completed the task. He showed him the full water tank.

  The stepfather was shocked. ‘Fine,’ he said angrily, ‘but you still have two more tasks to do! For your second task I want you to …’ (the stepfather thought long and hard) ‘… dry up the river so I can walk across it.’

  François sighed. He knew this time he had no chance of completing the task.

  ‘But that will be impossible!’ said François. ‘How am I to dry up the river?’

  ‘That’s your problem,’ said the wicked stepfather.

  François went sadly to the river. As
he sat down, feeling sorry for himself, Avaline came and sat beside him.

  ‘What has he asked you to do this time?’ she asked.

  ‘Your stepfather has set me an even more impossible task. He has asked me to dry up the river so he can walk across it,’ François said. ‘Do you think the magic twig can help again?’

  Avaline smiled. She was sure it could. She took out her mother’s magic twig again. As before, the twig spoke and told François to strike it in the river three times. François took the twig and did as he was told.

  ‘Now repeat after me, River, empty yourself!’

  François repeated the words: ‘River, empty yourself!’

  And as he did so the river water began to lower.

  ‘The river water is going down!’ François exclaimed. The river water got lower and lower until the river was dry.

  ‘Your task is done!’ said the twig. ‘Go and get Avaline’s stepfather.’

  So François went to the house and asked the stepfather to follow him down to the river.

  The stepfather laughed. ‘You don’t expect me to believe that you have actually emptied the river, do you?’ he said. But when he arrived at the river and saw that all the water had gone he stopped laughing immediately. He had no idea how François had done it.

  ‘No! This cannot be!’ he shouted.

  ‘Walk across it,’ said François. ‘The river is dry, just as you requested.’

  The evil stepfather climbed into the dry river and he walked across it. He was furious.

  ‘So you have managed to fill my water tank with river water carried in a bucket full of holes, and you have managed to dry up the river so I can walk across it. But you will never be able to do this final task! Never!’

  François was worried. He knew that this time the evil stepfather would set a task so difficult that even the magic twig would struggle to achieve it.

  ‘What is the final task that you would like me to do?’ he asked.

  ‘Let me think …’ said the stepfather. He thought and thought and thought. ‘In fact, let me sleep on it,’ he said. ‘Come back to my house tomorrow and I will tell you your task then.’