King Antonio was a sorcerer too, seen. He give Tan-Tan a magic glass so that if she want he, she only had was to look in the glass and say, “Antonio, oh! Antonio!” and him face would appear.
“You calling my name, doux-doux? What my sweetness want?”
Tan-Tan would talk back to the glass. “Daddy, please Daddy, if is not too much trouble, I could have a new dolly?” (Tan-Tan was a nice child who did mind she manners, like allyou must do.) Next thing she know, a servant would come through the doors, carrying a new dolly on a silk pillow. And Tan-Tan would say thanks to the servant, for she daddy teach she always to be polite and never to put sheself above other people. She had a favourite dolly; the one wearing a red silk cape, black toreador pants, a white bandit shirt, and carrying two little tiny guns in holsters strap round it tiny waist.
King Antonio love he daughter can’t done. He swear say the brightness of the moon shine from Tan-Tan eyes. If anything make Tan-Tan cry, for him is like bitter rain falling over the whole moon and him couldn’t take no pleasure in him life until he make she happy again.
Now, when the Taino people look up into the sky, them could see other worlds floating all round them in space, pretty-pretty. Some yellow, some red, and some blue. Some gold and some silver, and all of them shining and clean, just like the moon where they living.
One night Tan-Tan was standing with she daddy outside the palace, gazing into the sky and admiring the beautiful worlds that great Kabo Tano make all round them. And Tan-Tan notice something she never see there before, for it was so dark and dingy it get hide in the brightness coming from the other worlds. The something was a ball like the shiny pretty worlds, but dusty and dull.
“Daddy, is what that one there?”
“It name Earth, sweetheart.”
Next night, Earth look even worse. By the third night, Tan-Tan couldn’t bear to look at it no more. It was spoiling the view. “Daddy, how come the Earth so dirty?”
“It make of dirt, my darling. It ain’t have nobody there to clean it.”
So Tan-Tan know what she have for do. “Daddy, please Daddy, is not right we let it get like that. If is not too much trouble, I want to go to the Earth and scrub it clean.”
Well, King Antonio heart too soft to say no to he one daughter, but he ’fraid too bad to let she go to Earth alone.
“All right,” he say, “but a queen can’t go anywhere without she king, so I go come with you to keep you safe.”
Then Tan-Tan laugh and clap she two hands, and give she daddy a big kiss on he cheek.
Tan-Tan and she maid Ione prepare everything for scrubbing the Earth clean. Them fill up a big basket with broom, and duster, and mop and bucket, and plenty, plenty soap.
“What about food, Mistress?” Ione ask.
“We ain’t going for long,” Tan-Tan tell she. “We go come back before we even self get hungry.”
“Mistress, take this cutlass at least. You never know when you might need to defend yourself.” And the maid gave Tan-Tan a cutlass with a blade that would never get dull.
Come early the next morning, Tan-Tan and Ione load the big basket into King Antonio best cloud chariot, the one that could fly through the air so smooth, you ain’t even know when you leave and when you reach. The seats did soft as cotton, and when the night air get too cold on you, you could pull a piece of cloud over you to warm you like a blanket.
All the Taino people come to wish the king and queen a safe trip. Everybody waving. King Antonio sing the special song to make the chariot fly. It lift itself gentle into the air and take off. Some little children chase after it as it float up into the sky, higher and higher until Tan-Tan couldn’t see them down on the ground no more.
Them fly past all Kabo Tano bright, shiny worlds twirling around in the air to delight the Taino people with their beauty. Them pass the world of the bristle star people, waving at them with all their plenty fingers. Them pass the world of the manicou people, hanging in the trees by their long tails. Then Antonio direct the cloud chariot towards the Earth with the power of he mind. When the two of them reach, them park the chariot in the sky and jump down to the ground.
Earth was in a bad way, oui? All she waters brown and foul. It ain’t have no people living there, only dead fish floating on the surface of the oceans and rivers, stinking up the place. The land barren too; dry and parched. Tan-Tan and Antonio watch the sun hot up a patch of Earth so much that it burst into flames. The air above Earth full with grey, oily smoke. The only thing growing was a thin, sharp grass that would cut up them feet if them not careful. The beasts on Earth gaunt and hungry, for the grass wasn’t giving them nourishment enough.
“This going to be a hard day’s work for true,” Tan-Tan say. She give Antonio the mop and bucket, and she take one of the brooms.
“Daddy, you must mop all the rivers and the oceans clean and throw out the dead fish. I go sweep the smoke from out the air.”
King Antonio grumble little bit, for king not make to do hard labour. “Why I don’t just magic it?” he say to she.
But when him try, nothing happen. Him wasn’t on the moon no more, and him obeah magic wouldn’t work. Antonio sigh and set about to clean, using him own two hands. What a bring-down for a king!
The two of them mop and sweep and scrub so till the Earth get clean and shiny again, the way Kabo Tano make it in the first place. Them throw the dirty mopping water on the parched ground, to moisten it up so it wouldn’t catch fire no more.
Tan-Tan straighten up she back and look at what them do. “Righteousness. The grass growing back thick and strong again, and the waters clean now so the fish wouldn’t poison. I hungry from all this work. Time to go home for supper. Call the chariot down, Daddy.”
But them forget that on Earth, King Antonio wasn’t no obeah man. All he call, he couldn’t make the cloud chariot come. It only floating up in the sky with the other clouds. A breeze spring up and blow the chariot away.
“What we going to do?” Tan-Tan ask. She getting frightened now.
“We have to plea to Kabo Tano, doux-doux. He go help we.”
And so them call on the Ancient One, begging he to save them. But remember, pickney, Kabo Tano could only hear he people so long as them have his food running through their veins. All like how Tan-Tan and Antonio ain’t eat for a long time, them words come out weak and soft. Kabo Tano ain’t hear them. Them call until them hoarse. No reply.
“When we don’t come home for supper, somebody from the moon go come and get we,” said Tan-Tan.
“No, darling. I is the only one could make the cloud chariots move.”