Finally night come on, and all them could do was take two-three sips of water from the river and try to sleep. King Antonio curl up tight round he daughter to keep the night chill from she body.
So every day, them wander the Earth, looking for the kind of food Kabo Tano does provide and calling his name. But it ain’t have no help for them. It had beasts on the Earth, but them couldn’t eat beasts in them there days. Tan-Tan and Antonio get meager so till them arms and legs-them look like twig, and them bellies just a-stick out with starvation.
“Kabo Tano! Hear we! Kabo Tano! Save we!”
No reply.
In desperation, them dig up some dry red soil from the ground, and use some river water to make clay. Them shape it into the shape of fruits and vegetables, hoping Kabo Tano go make them real. Nothing happen. “Maybe we must eat them first,” Tan-Tan say. So them bite into the clay food, but it was just clay. It leave a dusty taste in them mouth.
One day they climb up a mountain, thinking maybe if them get closer to the sky, Kabo Tano could hear them. Them had was to crawl, them was so weak with hunger. Them finally reach the top, and them join them voices in a last plea to Kabo Tano.
Well, pickney, Kabo Tano couldn’t hear them, but him was casting his eyes about that day, and he spy them standing on the mountaintop, leaning on each other. He mark how them belly-them swell up with hunger, and how them arms and legs thin so like twig. Kabo Tano take pity on he children, but without his food in their bellies, him couldn’t instruct them. So him cause some of the grass that did there ’bout to grow into a magic tree to sustain them. The tree had plenty-plenty branch, and each branch big so like one whole tree. Every branch had a different fruit or vegetable growing on it, a different gift from Kabo Tano: sweet brown naseberry and fat red otaheite apple; breadfruit and custard apple and peewa. In the shade under the great tree, Kabo Tano make all kind of good things grow: cassava root and yellow yam; dasheen leaf and pigeon peas; sorrel bush and grenadilla vine.
Him woulda make the tree grow on the mountaintop where Tan-Tan and Antonio was, but it was too high for good plants to grow. So he plant the tree half way between the mountain them did climb and the river where them did drink. Them would have to find it. That is why it name the half-way tree.
One more day pass and Tan-Tan and Antonio never find the half-way tree, so Kabo Tano send a wild pig as a messenger. “Go to them quick,” he say. “Tell them where the tree is.”
But the pig greedy for so, you see? Him look way up into the branches of the half-way tree and him see hog plum and jackfruit growing, and he mouth start to water. But him couldn’t climb tree with him trotter-them. So he push he nose into the ground, and root out sweet potato and yellow yam. He crunch them up with he sharp teeth. The food taste so good that he decide to keep the tree a secret. He eat so till he belly get round and hard like a drum, all the while Tan-Tan and Antonio groaning for hunger.
“Wild pig,” Kabo Tano say, “why you ain’t go to save my children yet?”
“Mm-scrumph,” the pig say through a mouthful of food. “Is a long journey, O Great One. I just eating a little bit to get some strength to climb that mountain, oui?”
The pig figure he better make the thing look good, so he climb up the mountain to where Antonio and Tan-Tan did lying. He even pass by them, but all he say to them was “Mm-scrumph,” and they ain’t pay he no mind. When Kabo Tano ask he what Tan-Tan and Antonio say, he pull a next trick.
“What? Is you that, Kabo Tano? I can’t hear you too good, oui? My belly must be getting empty again. I tell your children where it have food, but them want to lie down and rest little bit before them make the trek back down the mountain.”
And the pig went and fill he belly up again at the half-way tree.
Tan-Tan watch at the wild pig. She tummy feel like it turning inside out from hunger. “Daddy, that pig fat. Maybe he know where to find food.”
“I think you right, daughter, but I too weak to follow and see where he go.”
Tan-Tan ain’t want to leave she daddy side to go follow the pig, so she say to a woodpecker, “Bird-oi, please bird-oi, do; follow that wild pig for we, and see where he getting food, and come back and tell we.”
The woodpecker find that Queen Tan-Tan so polite and nice, it would please him to do what she ask. So see him there, a-follow the wild pig waddling through the tall grass.
But the woodpecker is a stupid bird, you see? All heart and no brains. As him follow the pig, him start to forget the route, so him only stopping and drilling hole tat-tat-tat into the trees to mark where them pass. Him was making one set of racket. Mister Wild Pig realise that somebody following he. He hide so he wouldn’t lead them to the food. The woodpecker had was to go back and tell Tan-Tan and Antonio how him lose the trail.
Tan-Tan was in despair, till she see a manicou rat slinking past. She notice how quiet the rat could go through the grass. “Mister Rat, you could help we, please?” But the manicou ain’t business with she. He just flick he tail at she and keep going. He self too want to see where that wild pig getting food, but he ain’t have no mind to bring anyone else in on the secret.
Tan-Tan still ain’t give up. She watch at how silent the manicou slip swips through the tall grass without bending a single blade, and how he climb up a rockstone quiet-quiet, wrapping he tail around it so him wouldn’t fall. Tan-Tan feel say she could be nimble and agile she self too. She choke down two-three extra handfuls of grass to give she little more strength. She pick some long blades and weave them into a pouch to hold any food she might find. Then she catch some water in she hands from the mountain spring. Some for sheself, and some for Antonio to drink.
“Daddy, lie still and guard your strength. I coming back when I find out where that wild pig getting food.”
“Kabo Tano guide you, daughter.”
And Tan-Tan set off through the bush quiet like breath, till she find the trails of the wild pig and the manicou.
As he watch the strange procession to the half-way tree, Kabo Tano realise that the wild pig had deceive he. He get vex, you see? But him couldn’t speak to Tan-Tan to advise she until she find the tree and eat from it. She had was to help sheself.
The wild pig only stopping and listening all the time to hear if anybody following he, but neither Tan-Tan nor Brother Rat ain’t make no sound at all at all. Tan-Tan follow, she follow. Them go down the mountain; Tan-Tan follow. Them cross a dead tree that had fall across a little brook; and Tan-Tan right behind them. Them go little more, and for the first time she lay eyes on the half-way tree, so big that she couldn’t see around it, and so tall that the branches-them disappear up into the sky. And the food! Tan-Tan mouth start to water when she see ripe guava and june plum hanging in the branches. She crouch down in the tall grass where the beast-them couldn’t see she.
Brother Rat twirl he whiskers in glee when he see all that food. He slip through the grass so quiet that the wild pig ain’t suspect nothing. He climb up the tree and start picking z’avocat pear from one branch and stuffing it in he mouth. The wild pig waddle to the root of the tree. He only nosing out cassava root and yellow yam and swallowing them down. As she watch at the two of them eating, Tan-Tan belly growl.