by Trish Cooke
‘It’s all right,’ Turtle said, ‘I’m not hungry.’ And she went on her way.
The next day Turtle was walking the same way and she saw the birds again, eating all the peas and millet on the farmer’s land. They noticed her passing and called again.
‘You really will enjoy this!’ the seagulls called.
‘Tasty stuff!’ quacked the ducks.
‘Come get your belly full!’ the turkeys said.
But even though the food looked good Turtle just walked on by. She was not prepared to take the risk.
‘Not today,’ she said, and just plodded along.
Well, on the third day, when Turtle saw all the birds eating the peas and millet on the farmer’s land, she began to think that maybe she might be able to get a little to eat without being caught. After all, on all the days she had passed the birds, she had not once seen any sign of the farmer.
‘Well, are you coming?’ asked the pigeons.
‘The thing is,’ said Turtle, ‘I’m not a very fast mover, and if the farmer comes out you all have wings and you can fly away. I don’t and the farmer will be sure to catch me.’
‘Then we’ll give you some wings,’ said the birds, and each one of the birds attached one of their fine feathers to Turtle’s shell.
‘Thank you very much!’ said Turtle, and she went into the field to join them.
Turtle ate and ate with the birds until her belly was full. But, alas, while they were eating the nightingale called out, ‘The farmer is coming! Fly! Fly!’ And, in a panic, the birds quickly grabbed the feathers they had given to Turtle and flew away. Turtle was left stranded. She tried to get away, but because her little legs crawled so slowly the farmer caught her.
‘Ahhhhh, you little rascal!’ the farmer said angrily. ‘So you and your feathered friends think you can get away with stealing my crop, do you? Well, I’m going to make you pay for it!’ And, just as the farmer was about to beat Turtle, full of fear she began to sing:
‘If I could fly,
I’d fly away,
But sad to say
I have no wings.’
When the farmer heard Turtle sing, he could not believe what he was hearing.
‘Sing for me again!’ he said, and Turtle sang again:
‘If I could fly,
I’d fly away,
But sad to say
I have no wings.
I love to sing,
I love to sing,
More than anything,
I love to sing.’
‘A singing turtle?’ said the farmer. ‘What a catch! You could make me very rich!’
The farmer brought Turtle home with him and he put her in a box until he could think of the best way to make money out of her. The box was dark and cold and Turtle was very afraid. If only she had listened to her first instinct and not gone into the farmer’s field, she would be safe now!
That night the farmer did not sleep at all. All through the night he kept thinking about how rich the singing turtle could make him and, the more he thought about it, the more greedy and restless he became. The farmer’s wife asked him what was keeping him awake, but the man didn’t like his wife very much and he was very greedy. So he didn’t tell her about the singing turtle as he wanted to keep all the money he would make for himself.
‘Nothing for you to worry about, my dear wife,’ he said. ‘You go back to sleep.’
But the farmer’s wife knew that her husband was up to something. ‘Are you sure there is nothing you want to tell me?’ she said.
‘I am sure,’ said the farmer.
The next day, when the farmer got out of bed, he knew exactly what he was going to do. He put some grass and some water in the box for the turtle, so she could eat and drink while he was away, and then he hid the box under his bed. He put on his suit.
‘Where are you going?’ said the farmer’s wife.
‘I have some business to do in town,’ said the farmer, and he set off to Port-au-Prince.
Once there, he told everyone he met about his singing turtle, until gradually word got around and all those with money wanted to buy it. The farmer, however, would not sell until he found the person who had the most money. When the president heard about the singing turtle he came to the farmer. The farmer thought his luck was in and was waiting to hear how much the president was prepared to pay, but the president didn’t believe that the farmer was telling the truth.
‘There is no such thing as a singing turtle,’ said the president. ‘You are nothing but a cheat and a liar! And for that you will be punished.’
‘I am telling the truth!’ said the farmer. ‘And I will sell the singing turtle to the highest bidder. Come to my house and see for yourself. If I am lying, you can punish me!’ So the president and all the people followed the farmer back to his home.
Meanwhile, the farmer’s wife had been wondering what her husband was up to. She searched high and low for the box she had seen her husband with, to see if that could help her find out what he was hiding from her. She imagined that it was probably a box of money since she knew how greedy he was. She told herself that if she was to find it she would keep the money for herself and leave him with none. The farmer’s wife finally searched in the bedroom and found the box under the bed.
‘Got it!’ she said happily. ‘Now I am a rich lady.’ When the farmer’s wife opened the box she was very disappointed.
‘An ugly old turtle!’ she said. ‘Is that all!’
The farmer’s wife was about to put the lid back on the box and put it back under the bed when the turtle said, ‘No, don’t put me back! Please! I’m not just any old turtle. I’m a singing turtle!’
‘A singing turtle?’ said the farmer’s wife. ‘That could make me very rich! Go ahead, then, let me hear you sing!’
Turtle thought a while. She had to be very smart if she was to get away.
‘I can only sing by the edge of the river,’ said Turtle.
‘Very well,’ said the farmer’s wife, ‘I will take you there.’ So the farmer’s wife carried the box with Turtle in it to the river’s edge.
‘There you go,’ she said. ‘Now sing for me.’
Turtle knew she had to be very smart if she was to escape, so she said, ‘I can only sing when my feet are wet.’
‘Very well,’ said the farmer’s wife, taking Turtle out of the box and placing her in the water by the bank of the river. Turtle crawled into the water quickly and swam away.
‘Oh no!’ cried the farmer’s wife. ‘You tricked me!’
Just then, the farmer’s wife heard her husband’s voice. ‘This way! This way!’ she heard him say, and as she looked in the distance she could see him leading a crowd of people to her house.
He must be bringing them to see the singing turtle, she thought. I must do something!
Afraid of what her husband might do, the farmer’s wife found a lizard, which she quickly put in the box. She put the lid on the box, then ran as fast as she could back to the house. The farmer’s wife managed to get back to the house before her husband arrived with the crowd, and slipped the box back under the bed. The farmer marched to the bedroom and triumphantly took out the box from under his bed to show to the crowd.
‘Inside this box,’ said the farmer, ‘is the most amazing reptile.’ And without opening the box the farmer said, ‘Sing, Turtle, sing!’
The lizard replied from inside the box, ‘Cric!’
The crowd began to laugh and the president looked angry. The farmer tapped the box and said again, ‘Sing, Turtle, sing!’
And the lizard replied, ‘Crac!’
This time the crowd laughed louder and the president became angrier. ‘What foolishness is this?’ said the president. ‘Remember I warned you that you will be punished if there is no singing turtle!’
The farmer’s wife, knowing what she had done, decided to slip out of the house at that moment. She could see that the president was not at all pleased and she did not want to be part of the punishment
her husband was going to get.
‘One moment,’ said the farmer, lifting the lid from the box. To his horror, there inside the box was a lizard instead of the turtle. ‘But this can’t be!’ said the farmer.
‘You cheat!’ said the president, and turning to two men in the crowd he said, ‘Take this man down to the river to be drowned!’
‘NO! NO!’ screamed the farmer. ‘There’s been a mistake. Someone has stolen my singing turtle!’
But nobody listened to the farmer. Two men marched him down to the river, as the president had ordered. When they reached the river and the farmer was just about to be thrown into the water, Turtle stuck her head out of the water and sang:
‘Farmer, eh!
If you could fly away,
But sad to say
You have no wings.’
‘That’s her!’ said the farmer. ‘That’s my singing Turtle! Listen to her sing!’ And the Turtle carried on singing:
‘President, eh!
The farmer talk too much!
May he learn from this,
Now set him free!’
When the president heard the singing turtle, he set the farmer free. And from that day the farmer was never so quick to open his big mouth to tell secrets any more, and the singing turtle hid herself away and was never seen again.
The Girl with the Star on her Head
This story is based on a folk tale from Haiti
It is said that some babies are born with stars on their foreheads. It is said that some babies get the stars when they are older. These stars are invisible to the ordinary human eye, but they are there nonetheless. Not even the child who has a star on her forehead knows that it is there because it is invisible. These stars, I am told, are put on the child to mark them for extra protection. If something bad is going to happen to them, the star finds a way to protect them.
Amalie was such a child, born with an invisible star on her forehead.
Now Amalie’s mother had died when she was still a baby and that left her father to look after her. Amalie’s father was worried, as he didn’t think he was very good at doing all the things he had seen his wife do with the baby: feeding her and rocking her to sleep.
But when he held Amalie the love oozed out of him and she felt as comfortable in his arms as she had in her mother’s. Amalie’s father was still afraid that his daughter might miss out on important things if he did not marry again, however. So he quickly became engaged to someone new so that his daughter could have a mother in her life. Although Amalie’s father was doing what he thought was right, the woman he chose to be Amalie’s stepmother wasn’t someone who had Amalie’s best interests at heart. Amalie’s stepmother had two daughters of her own, and they were spoilt and greedy. When they met Amalie and saw how beautiful she was, both inside and out, they were extremely jealous of her and treated her badly.
In front of her father they would speak sweetly about Amalie, but whenever they were alone with their mother they would say, ‘Mummy, why must we share a bedroom with that ugly wretch?’
And their mother would reply, ‘It won’t be forever. We’ll soon get rid of her!’
One day Amalie’s father was offered work in a far-off land, a job that would give him lots and lots of money. But it would mean him spending a lot of time away from home. Though they needed the money (as his new wife didn’t work) Amalie’s father did not want to leave his family, so he asked his wife what he should do.
‘Of course you should take the job!’ said his wife, for she was a greedy woman and cared not that she would barely see her husband. And so take it he did. It was a sad day for Amalie when her father left because she loved him so dearly. She also knew how her stepsisters hated her and how her stepmother only treated her well when her father was around. Without him at home life for her would be very different.
And she was right.
As soon as Amalie’s father left, Amalie’s stepmother and her daughters began to whisper to each other and giggle, all the time looking over at Amalie.
‘Mummy, you promised that you would get rid of her!’ said one daughter.
‘Yes, Mummy, when will that be?’ asked the other.
‘Soon …’ said Amalie’s stepmother.
Amalie’s father worked very hard while he was away and he sent lots of money to his new wife so that she could take care of the home and the family. But she only looked after herself and her own daughters. She bought them pretty dresses and jewellery and she bought nothing for Amalie, who wore only rags.
One day Amalie’s stepmother made a visit to an evil wizard in the nearby town and told him she wanted to get rid of her stepdaughter. Now the evil wizard was happy to do this as he was a wicked man through and through.
‘Very well, madam!’ he said. ‘I will come at midnight, marking my arrival with the sound of a cock crowing, and I will take your stepdaughter away. Be sure to leave her outside for me to collect as I cannot come indoors to get her. My powers only work outside.’
So that was the arrangement. Amalie’s stepmother was to leave Amalie outside the house at midnight, like a bag of rubbish, and the evil wizard would collect her and take her away. Amalie’s stepmother told her daughters about the plan, and they told Amalie nothing.
Now Amalie didn’t trust any of them, but she had to live with them, so she tried to get on with them the best she could. She suspected they were probably up to something but she didn’t know what.
‘Amalie!’ called one of the stepsisters. ‘Let’s play a game!’
This was unusual for a start, as neither of the stepsisters liked to play with Amalie.
‘What would you like to play?’ Amalie asked cautiously.
‘Hide and seek!’ said the other stepsister. They had already discussed their plan with each other.
Amalie didn’t want to be unfriendly so she agreed to play hide and seek with them.
‘We’ll hide and you seek us out!’ said the sisters.
Amalie agreed.
‘But first let’s go outside,’ they said. ‘There’s not enough room in the house. There’s nowhere for us to hide inside.’ So Amalie and the stepsisters went outside.
‘Close your eyes and count to ten,’ they told her, and Amalie did so. As soon as they saw that Amalie’s eyes were closed, Amalie’s stepsisters ran straight back to the house and went inside, locking the door behind them. When she had finished counting, Amalie opened her eyes and began to look for her stepsisters in the street. Of course they were nowhere to be found. Amalie looked and called out for them until night-time, but still she couldn’t find them anywhere. Meanwhile, her stepsisters were snuggled up in bed, caring nothing for her safety.
As it got later and later, Amalie got frightened. She did not like the dark very much because she knew that was when witches and wizards came out, but she was worried for her stepsisters and didn’t want to leave them outside. She carried on searching for them but still, of course, she could not find them. Finally, she gave up and decided to go home to ask for her stepmother’s help. It was almost midnight when she reached her door. But try as she might, the door was shut fast. Amalie knocked loudly but no one came to answer.
Just then a cockerel crowed, ‘Cock-a-doodle-doo! Cock-a-doodle-doo!’ and the evil wizard jumped out from the darkness. Amalie was startled and started to scream. All of a sudden, the star on her forehead began to glow.
‘I’ve come to take you away!’ said the wizard, reaching out to grab her. But, as he did so, something very like a laser beam shot out and knocked him all the way into the next district. The wizard didn’t know what had hit him!
Amalie was in shock. She turned and knocked on her front door even louder than before, shouting for her stepmother to open it.
‘Stepmother! Stepmother! Open the door! An evil wizard is trying to take me away!’
But the stepmother just laughed and turned over in her sleep.
‘No, I won’t open the door! If the evil wizard wants you, he can keep you!’ she
said.
‘Stepmother! Stepmother! Open the door!’ called Amalie again.
‘Child, go and trouble your father and leave me alone!’ shouted her stepmother.
Amalie didn’t know what to do. She hoped and prayed that the wizard would not come back.
But, alas, the cockerel crowed again, ‘Cock-a-doodle-doo! Cock-a-doodle-doo!’ and the evil wizard jumped out from the darkness once more and reached out to grab Amalie.
‘You’re coming with me!’ he said, and just as before the star on Amalie’s forehead lit up and the laser beam shot out and knocked him into the next district. This time Amalie noticed the light coming from her forehead.
‘What’s going on?’ she asked.
The star on her forehead answered, ‘I am here to protect you but my strength is weakening. I can knock out the wizard seven times only to buy you some time to get away, but after that you’re on your own!’
‘But where have you come from? What are you?’
‘Your mother sent me,’ said the star. ‘When she saw who your father married after she died she wanted to protect you and make sure you were safe from evil. But hurry, we don’t have much time! Get indoors before the wizard comes back. He can only harm you when you are outside at night.’
Amalie listened to what the star told her and she knocked on the door again, even louder than before.
‘Stepmother! Stepmother! PLEASE open the door! The evil wizard is coming back to kill me!’
‘Can’t you hear me?’ said the wicked stepmother. ‘I don’t care if the wizard kills you! In fact, I wish you were dead!’
And as the stepmother spoke the cockerel crowed once more, ‘Cock-a-doodle-doo! Cock-a-doodle-doo!’ and the evil wizard once again jumped out from the darkness, reaching out to grab Amalie. And for the third time the star on Amalie’s forehead lit up and the laser beam shot out and knocked the wizard into the next district. But each time the star hit the wizard it became weaker. Just four more hits and all of its strength would be gone.
