Caribbean Folk Tales by Wendy Shearer

Author:Wendy Shearer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The History Press

Guyana

Once upon a very long time ago. Times were hard. When I say hard, I mean ‘scrape the bottom of the rice pot’ kind of hard. There had been a terrible drought across the islands and there was not enough food to go around. Everyone spent their days and nights searching for food. Everyone spent their days and nights talking about food. Have you ever noticed that even when you’ve just eaten, you start talking about what you’d like to eat for the next meal? Well, it was no different here. With little food to eat, everyone still talked about food: ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to have some sweet potatoes?’ or, ‘I could do with finding some ripe soursop.’

One blazing hot morning, Turtle was resting in the shade of a tamarind tree when Rat came strolling by. His fur was dull and his long tail dragged in the dirt. Turtle raised his tired head and they exchanged the usual pleasantries.

‘How are things with you Turtle?’ asked Rat.

‘Oh, fine. Just fine. And you?’

‘Couldn’t be better,’ replied Rat, hoping that his voice wasn’t squeaking too high. It’s probably fair to say that neither one of them would admit it if they weren’t fine. In fact, Rat, who was a bit of a cunning fellow, began to boast about how the drought wasn’t really bothering him.

‘You know what Turtle, I can go for quite a while without eating’, he said.

‘Is that so?’ Turtle looked thoughtful for a moment and then said, ‘Why don’t we see who can go without food for the longest?’ For he was a creature who quite liked a challenge.

Rat’s tummy was already concave and his skin was stretched tight, like a well-made drum, but he had no intention of refusing a challenge from Turtle.

‘A competition? No problem,’ said Rat. After all, he was a hardy bush rat, used to the rarity of food.

They agreed that they would pick a tree for each other and take turns to not eat any food until that tree bore fruit. Rat chose a plum tree and told Turtle to go first. He built a fence around the tree and Turtle made himself comfortable next to its slender trunk.

After a month, Rat came back to check on his friend. ‘How are you doing Turtle?’ He could barely hide the glee in his voice.

‘I’m fine thank you.’ Turtle’s voice rang out loud and clear. After the second month, Rat felt sure that Turtle would be suffering. He strolled by the plum tree and greeted his friend. ‘How are you doing Turtle? Still alive?’

Again Turtle replied quite cheerily. This performance carried on for several months. Rat would visit and poke his nose through the fence that he’d built. He’d call out to Turtle, expecting to hear him begging for food, but Turtle was always chipper.

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