Midnight Robber Page 3

  And all Tan-Tan could do, Nursie wouldn’t talk about it any more after that. Tan-Tan just shrugged her shoulders. Is so it go; Toussaint people didn’t talk too much about the criminals they had exiled to New Half-Way Tree. Too bedsides, Tan-Tan was too nervous to listen to Old Nursie’s horse-dead-and-cow-fat story tonight. First parang! Nursie had had all the ruffles on Tan-Tan’s frock starched and her aoutchicongs, her tennis shoes-them, whitened till they gleamed.

  Tan-Tan’s bedroom door chimed, the one that led outside to the garden. She had a visitor, just like big people! “You answer it, doux-doux,” said Nursie.

  “Eshu, is who there?” asked Tan-Tan, as she’d heard her parents do.

  “Is Ben, young Mistress,” the eshu said through the wall. “He bring a present for you.”

  A present! She looked at Nursie, who smiled and nodded. “Let he in,” said Tan-Tan.

  The door opened to admit the artisan who gave her father the benefit of his skill by programming and supervising Garden. As ever, he was barefoot, console touchpen tucked behind one ear and wearing a mud-stained pair of khaki shorts and a grubby shirt-jac whose pockets held shadowy bulges like babies’ diapers. Weeds hung out of the bulgy pockets. He had an enormous bouquet of fresh-cut ginger lilies in one hand. The red blooms stretched on long thumb-thick green stalks. Tan-Tan gasped at the present that Ben was balancing carefully in his other hand.

  Nursie chided, “Ben, is why you always wearing such disgraceful clothes, eh? And you can’t even put on a pair of shoes to come into the house?”

  But Ben just winked at her and presented her with the lilies. She relented, giggled girlishly and buried her nose in the blossoms. Finally he seemed to notice Tan-Tan gazing at the present. He smiled and held it out to her: a Jonkanoo hat. It was made from rattan, woven in the torus shape of a nation ship. “I design it myself,” Ben told her. “I get Garden to make it for you. Grow it into this shape right on the vine.”

  “Oh, what a way it pretty, Ben!” The hat even had little portholes all round it and the words “Marryshow Corporation: Black Star Line II” etched into a flat blade of dried vine in its side.

  “Look through the portholes.”

  Tan-Tan had to close one eye to see through one of the holes. “I see little people! Sleeping in their bunk beds, and a little crêche with a teacher and some pickney, and I see the bridge with the captain and all the crew!”

  “Is so we people reach here on Toussaint, child. And look . . .” Ben pulled six candles out of a pocket and wedged them into holders woven all along the ring of the ship. “Try it on let me see.”

  Careful-careful, Tan-Tan slid the hat onto her head. It fit exactly.

  “When you ready to go,” Ben said, “ask Mistress Ione to light the candle-them for you. Then you going to be playing Jonkanoo for real!”

  Nursie fretted, “I don’t like this little girl walking round with them open flame ’pon she head like that, you know? You couldn’t use peeny-wallie bulb like everybody else, eh? Suppose the whole thing catch fire?”

  “Ain’t Ione go be right there with Tan-Tan?” Ben reassured her. “She could look after she own pickney. This is the right way to play Jonkanoo, the old-time way. Long time, that hat woulda be make in the shape of a sea ship, not a rocket ship, and them black people inside woulda been lying pack-up head to toe in they own shit, with chains round them ankles. Let the child remember how black people make this crossing as free people this time.”

  Tan-Tan squinched up her face at the nasty story. Crêche teacher had sung them that same tale. Vashti and Crab-back Joey had gotten scared. Tan-Tan too. For nights after she’d dreamt of being shut up in a tiny space, unable to move. Eshu had had to calm her when she woke bawling.

  Nursie shut Ben up quick: “Shush now, don’t frighten the child with your old-time story.”

  “All right. Time for me to get dressed, anyway. Fête tonight! Me and Rozena going to dance till ’fore-day morning, oui.” Ben knelt down and smiled into Tan-Tan’s eyes. “When you wear that hat, you carry yourself straight and tall, you hear? You go be Parang Queen–self tonight!”

  “Yes, Ben. Thank you!”

  When everything was ready, Nursie fetched Tan-Tan to Ione. Nursie carried the Jonkanoo hat in front of her like a wedding cake, candles and all.

  Ione was too, too beautiful that night in her madras head wrap and long, pale yellow gown, tight so till Tan-Tan was afraid that Ione wouldn’t be able to catch breath enough to sing the high notes in “Rio Manzanares.” She looked so pretty, though, that Tan-Tan ran to hug her.

  “No, Tan-Tan; don’t rampfle up me gown. Behave yourself, nuh? Come let we go. I could hear the parang singers practising in the dining room. Is for you that hat is?”

  “From Ben, Mummy.”

  Ione nodded approvingly. “A proper Jonkanoo gift. I go give you one from me tomorrow.” She put the nation ship hat on Tan-Tan’s head, and then lit all six candles.

  “Candles for remembrance, Tan-Tan. Hold your head high now, you hear? You have to keep the candles-them straight and tall and burning bright.”

  “Yes, Mummy.” Tan-Tan remembered Nursie’s posture lessons. Proper-proper, she took Ione’s hand, smoothed her frock down, and walked down the stairs with her mother to join the Cockpit County Jubilante Mummers. The John Canoe dancer in his suit of motley rags was leaping about the living room while the singers clapped out a rhythm.

  Tan-Tan was Cockpit County queen that night for true! The Mummers went house to house, singing the old-time parang songs, and in every place, people were only feeding Tan-Tan tamarind balls and black cake and thing—“Candles for remembrance, doux-doux!”—till the ribbon sash round her waist was binding her stuffed belly. Everywhere she went, she could hear people whispering behind their hands: “Mayor little girl . . . sweet in that pretty frock . . . really have Ione eyes, don’t? Mayor heart must be hard . . . girl child alone so with no father!” But she didn’t pay them any mind. Tan-Tan was enjoying herself. All the same, she couldn’t wait to get to the town square to sing the final song of the night. Antonio would be there to greet the Mummers and make his annual Jonkanoo Night speech. For days he had been busy with the celebrations and he hadn’t called to speak to Tan-Tan.

  At last the Mummers reached the town square. By now, Tan-Tan’s feet were throbbing. Her white aoutchicongs had turned brown with dust from walking all that distance, and her belly was beginning to pain her from too much food. Ione had blown out the candles on the nation ship hat long time, for with all the running round Tan-Tan was doing, the hat kept falling from her head. She had nearly set fire to Tantie Gilda’s velvet curtains.

  Tan-Tan was ready to drop down with tiredness, oui, but as they entered the town square, she straightened up her little body and took her mummy’s hand.

  “Light the candles again for me, Mummy.” Hand in hand with Ione, Tan-Tan marched right to her place in the front of the choir. She made believe she was the Tan-Tan from the Carnival, or maybe the Robber Queen, entering the town square in high state for all the people to bring her accolades and praise and their widows’ mites of gold and silver for saving them from the evil plantation boss (she wasn’t too sure what an “accolade” was, oui, but she had heard Ben say it when he played the Robber King masque at Carnival time the year before). Choirmaster Gomez smiled when he saw her in her pretty Jonkanoo hat. He pressed the microphone bead onto her collar. Tan-Tan lost all her tiredness one time.

  The square was full up of people that night. One set of people standing round, waiting for the midnight anthem. It must be had two hundred souls there! Tan-Tan started to feel a little jittery. Suppose she got the starting note wrong? She took a trembling breath. She felt she was going to dead from nerves. Behind her, she heard Ione hissing, “Do good now, Tan-Tan. Don’t embarrass me tonight!”

  Choirmaster Gomez gave the signal. The quattro players started to strum the tune, and the Cockpit County Jubilante Mummers launched into the final song of the night. Tan-Tan was so nerv
ous, she nearly missed her solo. Ione tapped her on her shoulder, and she caught herself just in time. She took a quick breath and started to sing.

  The first few notes were a little off, oui, but when she got to the second verse, she opened her eyes. Everybody in the square was swaying from side to side. She started to get some confidence. By the third verse, her voice was climbing high and strong to the sky, joyful in the ’fore-day morning.

  Sweet chariot,

  Swing down,

  Time to ride,

  Swing down.

  As she sang, Tan-Tan glanced round. She saw old people rocking back and forth to the song, their lips forming the ancient words. She saw artisans standing round the Mercy Table, claiming the food and gifts that Cockpit Town people had made for them with their own hands in gratitude for their creations. Every man-jack had their eyes on her. People nodded their heads in time. She swung through the words, voice piping high. The Mummers clapped in time behind her. Then she spied a man standing near the edge of the crowd, cradling a sleeping little girl in his arms. He was the baby’s daddy. Tan-Tan’s soul came crashing back to earth. Tears began creeping down her face. She fought her way to the end of the song. When she put up her hand to wipe the tears away, an old lady near the front said, “Look how the sweet song make the child cry. What a thing!” Tan-Tan pulled the mike bead off and ran to Ione. The nation ship hat fell to the ground. Tan-Tan heard someone exclaim behind her, and the scuffing sound as he stamped out the flame of the candles. She didn’t pay it no mind. She buried her head in her mother’s skirt and cried for Antonio. Ione sighed and patted her head.

  Soon after, her daddy did come, striding into the town square to give his speech. But he didn’t even self glance at Tan-Tan or Ione. Ione clutched Tan-Tan’s shoulder and hissed at her to stand still. Tan-Tan looked at her mother’s face; she was staring longingly and angrily at Antonio with bright, brimming eyes. Ione started to hustle Tan-Tan away. Tan-Tan pulled on her hand to slow her down. “No, Mummy, no; ain’t Daddy going to come with we?”

  Ione stooped down in front of her daughter. “I know how you feel, doux-doux. Is Jonkanoo and we shoulda be together, all three of we; but Antonio ain’t have no mercy in he heart for we.”

  “Why?”

  “Tan-Tan, you daddy vex with me; he vex bad. He forget all the nights I spend alone, all the other women I catch he with.”

  Tan-Tan ain’t business with that. “I want my daddy.” She started to cry.

  Ione sighed. “You have to be strong for me, Tan-Tan. You is the only family I have now. I not going to act shame in front of Cockpit County people and they badtalk. Swallow those tears now and hold your head up high.”

  Tan-Tan felt like her heart could crack apart with sorrow. Ione had to carry the burst nation ship. Scuffling her foot-them in the dirt, Tan-Tan dragged herself to the limousine that had been sent to the square to wait for them. They reached home at dayclean, just as the sun was rising. Tan-Tan was a sight when Nursie met her at the door: dirty tennis shoes, plaits coming loose, snail tracks of tears winding down her face.

  “Take she, Nursie,” Ione said irritably. “I can’t talk no sense into she at all at all.”

  “Oh, darling, is what do you so?” Nursie bent down to pick up the sad little girl.

  Tan-Tan leaked tired tears, more salt than water. “Daddy ain’t come to talk to me. He ain’t tell me if he like how I sing. Is Jonkanoo, and he ain’t self even give me a Jonkanoo present!”

  “I ain’t know what to do for she when she get like this,” Ione told Nursie. “Tan-Tan, stop your crying! Bawling ain’t go make it better.”

  Nursie and Ione took Tan-Tan inside to bed, but is Nursie who washed Tan-Tan’s face and plaited up her hair nice again so it wouldn’t knot up while she slept. Is Nursie who dressed Tan-Tan in her favourite yellow nightie with the lace at the neck. Nursie held to her lips the cup of hot cocoa-tea that Cookie sent from the kitchen, and coaxed her to drink it. Cookie was an artisan too, had pledged his creations to whoever was living in the mayor house. Usually Tan-Tan loved his cocoa, hand-grated from lumps of raw chocolate still greasy with cocoa fat, then steeped in hot water with vanilla beans and Demerara sugar added to it. But this time it was more bitter than she liked, and she got so sleepy after drinking it! One more sip, and she felt she had was to close her eyes, just for a little bit. Nursie put Tan-Tan to bed with the covers pulled right up to her neck, and stroked her head while sleep came. Ione only paced back and forth the whole time, watching at the two of them.

  But just as sleep was locking Tan-Tan’s eyes shut, is Ione’s sweet voice she heard, singing a lullaby to her from across the room.

  Moonlight tonight, come make we dance and sing,

  Moonlight tonight, come make we dance and sing,

  Me there rock so, you there rock so, under banyan tree,

  Me there rock so, you there rock so, under banyan tree.

  And her earbug echoed it in her head as eshu sang along.

  Tan-Tan slept right through the day until the next morning. When she woke up Ione told her irritably, “Your daddy come by to see you while you was sleeping.”

  Tan-Tan leapt up in the bed. “Daddy here!”

  “No, child. He gone about he business.”

  The disappointment and hurt were almost too much for breathing. Unbelieving, Tan-Tan just stared at Mummy. Daddy didn’t wait for her to wake up?

  “Cho. Me ain’t able with you and your father. He leave this for you.” Ione laid out a costume on the bed, a little Robber Queen costume, just the right size for Tan-Tan. It had a white silk shirt with a high, pointy collar, a little black jumbie leather vest with a fringe all round the bottom, and a pair of wide red leather pants with more fringe down the sides. It even had a double holster to go round her waist, with two shiny cap guns sticking out. But the hat was the best part. A wide black sombrero, nearly as big as Tan-Tan herself, with pom-poms in different colours all round the brim, to hide her face in the best Robber Queen style. Inside the brim, it had little monkeys marching all round the crown of the hat, chasing tiny birds. The monkeys leapt, snatching at the swooping birds, but they always returned to the brim of the hat.

  “Look, Tan-Tan!” Ione said, in that poui-bright voice she got when she wanted to please. “It have Brer Monkey in there, chasing Brer Woodpecker for making so much noise. Is a nice costume, ain’t?”

  Tan-Tan looked at her present good, but her heart felt like a stone inside her chest. She pressed her lips together hard. She wasn’t even going to crack a smile.

  “Yes, Mummy.”

  “Your daddy say is for he little Jonkanoo Queen with the voice like honey. You must call he and tell he thanks.”

  “Yes, Mummy.”

  “You ain’t want to know what I get for you?”

  “Yes, Mummy.”

  Smiling, Ione reached under Tan-Tan’s bed and pulled out the strangest pair of shoes Tan-Tan had ever seen. They were black jumbie leather carved in the shape of alligators like in the zoo. The toes of the shoes were the alligators’ snouts. They had gleaming red eyes. The shoes were lined inside with jumbie feather fluff. “Try them on, nuh?” Ione urged.

  Tan-Tan slid her feet into the shoes. They moulded themselves comfortably round her feet. She stood up. She took a step. As she set her foot down the alligator shoe opened its snout wide and barked. Red sparks flew from its bright white fangs. Tan-Tan gasped and froze where she was. Ione laughed until she looked at Tan-Tan’s face. “Oh doux-doux, is only a joke, a mamaguy. Don’t dig nothing. They only go make noise the first two steps you take.”

  To test it, Tan-Tan stamped her next foot. The shoe barked obligingly. She jumped and landed hard on the floor. The shoes remained silent. “Thank you, Mummy.”

  “You not even going bust one so-so smile for me, right?”

  Tan-Tan looked solemnly at her mother. Ione rolled her eyes impatiently and flounced out of the room.

  Tan-Tan waited till she could no longer hear Ione’s footsteps.
She went to the door and looked up and down the corridor. No-one. Only then did she try on the Midnight Robber costume. It fit her perfect. She went and stood in front of a bare wall. “Eshu,” she whispered.

  The a.i. clicked on in her ear. In her mind’s eye it showed itself as a little skeleton girl, dressed just like her. “Yes, young Mistress?”

  “Make a mirror for me.”

  Eshu disappeared. The wall silvered to show her reflection. Aces, she looked aces. Her lips wavered into a smile. She pulled one of the cap guns from its holster: “Plai! Plai! Thus the Robber Queen does be avengèd! Allyou make you eye pass me? Take that! Plai!” She swirled round to shoot at the pretend badjack sneaking up behind her. The cape flared out round her shoulders and the new leather of her shoes creaked. It was too sweet.

  “Belle Starr . . .” said the eshu, soft in her ear.

  “Who?” It wasn’t lesson time, but the eshu had made her curious.

  “Time was, is only men used to play the Robber King masque,” eshu’s voice told her.

  “Why?” Tan-Tan asked. What a stupid thing!

  “Earth was like that for a long time. Men could only do some things, and women could only do others. In the beginning of Carnival, the early centuries, Midnight Robbers was always men. Except for the woman who take the name Belle Starr, the same name as a cowgirl performer from America. The Trini Belle Starr made she own costume and she uses to play Midnight Robber.”

  “What she look like, eshu?”

  “No pictures of she in the data banks, young Mistress. Is too long ago. But I have other pictures of Carnival on Earth. You want to see?”

  “Yes.”

  The mirrored wall opaqued into a viewing screen. The room went dark. Tan-Tan sat on the floor to watch. A huge stage appeared on the screen, with hundreds of people in the audience. Some old-time soca was playing. A masque King costume came out on stage; one mako big construction, supported by one man dancing in its traces. It looked like a spider, or a machine with claws for grasping. It had a sheet of white cotton suspended above its eight wicked-looking pincers. It towered a good three metres above the man who was wearing it, but he danced and pranced as though it weighed next to nothing.