by
Stephanie
ong ago a rich woman named Adora had a beautiful daughter whom she loved very dearly. The girl's name was Dianne. Adora also had a widowed comadre named Glenda who had two daughters -- Clarisse and Karina.Everyday Glenda would go to Adora's house and say, "Come Adora, let's go to the river to bathe and I will shampoo your hair." And they'd go together to bathe and have a shampoo with gugo and lime juice. Then one day Glenda pushed Adora into the deep part of the river and said, "Now you'll drown!" and then she went to Adora's husband, and said, ""Oh compadre, your wife fell into the water and drowned." The husband began to weep. "What will happen to my daughter now? Who will cook our food and wash our clothes?" Glenda said, "Compadre, don't break your head over that. I'll send you your meals and my daughters will wash your clothes everyday." And for one week she took care of the food and the laundry of Dianne and her father. In the end, the father said, "Glenda, it is better if I marry you, and you and your children come here to live. Then you'll not need to send food to us and come for the laundry." "Yes, compadre," answered Glenda, smiling because that was what she had wanted all along. After the wedding she and her daughters moved into the house. One month later, her new husband went abroad to attend to their business there. As soon as he left, they made Dianne work like a servant. Glenda sent Dianne to the river to wash all the laundry before breakfast and told her to wait for the clothes to dry there. As soon as Dianne got home in the afternoon she had to cook supper and wait at the table. Very often there was nothing left for her to eat. One day when Dianne was in the river crying because she was very hungry, she heard a voice behind her and said, "My child, why are you crying?" Surprised, she turned and was terrified to see a huge crab. But the crab continued, "Don't be afraid, Dianne. I'm your mother. Your wicked stepmother drowned me and I became a crab. Tell me, why do you cry? Maybe I can help you? Dianne gladly told the crab her woes and ended with, "And now I'm always hungry. How can I work?" "Oh, Dianne, I can help you. I'll bring you food everyday," promised the crab, and everyday she brought Dianne fish and shrimp to cook, bananas and mangoes from trees that grew on the riverbanks, and even beans and greens growing on the sandy river islands. And Dianne stayed in the river as long as she could, playing with her mother who helped her with her laundry. The stepmother wondered why Dianne didn't grow thin and why she was so eager to leave in the morning. She told Clarisse to spy on Dianne. The next day Clarisse followed Dianne to the river and after an hour she came back to tell what she had seen. "Mother, you'll not believe what I say. A big crab gave her food! She called it 'Mother'. It gave her fish, chicken and fruits." "Is that so?" said the stepmother, and that night she ordered Dianne, "Tomorrow I want you to bring that crab for us to eat; else don't ever enter this house again." How sad Dianne was! Next morning she went to the river sorrowfully and told her crab-mother about the stepmother's command. The crab said, "Don't cry, my child. Do what she says. But do not eat a part of me, and after supper gather the pieces of broken shell and put them in a pot and bury the pot at the foot of the kitchen steps." That's what Dianne did, and do you know what happened? The next day she found a tall coconut tree growing right where she had buried the pot. "Mother!" she said embracing the coconut trunk. Plop! A coconut dropped behind her, splitting open when it fell, and Dianne saw that it contained fried rice and beef steak. Joyfully she hid the coconut among her laundry and left for the river. That evening she cheerfully washed the dishes and then sat on the kitchen stairs to talk to her mother. Everyday she had food to take with her, and again the stepmother wondered why Dianne did not complain. "Karina," she said to her second daugther, "Find out why Dianne does not even grow thin." And Karina spied on Dianne and saw her bring along a coconut picked from under the tree at the foot of the kitchen stairs. When Dianne opened the nut in the river, there was delicious food enough for the whole day. Karina ran home to report what she had seen and the stepmother said, "Is that so?" And that night when Dianne arrived, the stepmother told her, "Dianne, tomorrow I want you to cut down that coconut tree by the kitchen stairs. It is very dangerous to have it there. We might be hit by falling nuts. " Dianne wept but she said nothing. She crept to the tree and said, "Mother, she wants me to cut you down. What shall I do?" The tree answered, "My child, do what she says." So the next morning Dianne got a bolo and began to cut the tree down. The stepmother and the two daughters stood by to watch. "Ah," they jeered, "cry all you can. You thought you could eat better food than we!" And they laughed so hard that they didn't see the tree sway toward them as it began to fall. Crash! The tree fell right on them and the wicked stepmother and her two bad daughters died instantly. Then Dianne's mother stepped out from inside the stump of the tree and embraced her and said, "Oh Dianne, we are happy together again!" Soon the father went home. He was surprised to see that Adora was still alive! Dianne and Adora explained to him everything that happened. And they lived happily ever after!
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