Banana Man (a Novella) (2 page)

A single, lonely bike stood upright in the bike rack, fully exposed to the pouring rain. It was his. Danny would be the only kid biking home in bad weather that day. Normally he didn’t like that too much, but today was comic-book delivery day and his friends were trapped in detention. And the other kids taking the bus or riding home with their mom would probably get stuck in traffic. The roads were slippery and dangerous when it rained. Any comic-book collecting kid going home in a car would most likely be late getting to Cleary’s Market. But Danny wouldn’t be late. His bike could dart through traffic and cut between the houses and get to the store much quicker.

Danny pulled his grey parka over his head, getting ready for the sprint through the rain. But it wasn’t going to help much, and he knew that. The parka was made of heavy cloth. It would soak up the water, not repel it. What he needed was a raincoat.

He took a tentative step from under the awning and looked straight up at the stormy sky. Thousands of rain drops streaked toward his face. He kept his eyes open for as long as he could before he dashed across the wet asphalt to his bike.

Danny knelt before his bicycle in the rain and spun the combination lock as quickly as he could.

A tall boy with wet hair and a yellow raincoat approached. His name was Chris. The boys had known each other since first grade, which was a long time for kids of their age. He was one of Danny’s best friends, and they lived a few blocks from each other. Chris was an avid comic book collector too. He stood beside Danny’s bicycle, fidgeting with the handlebar. Chris looked like he wanted to ask a question, but was hesitant to ask. “Hey Danny.”

“Hey,” Danny said, barely glancing up from what he was doing. He didn’t have time to chat in the rain. He needed to get home as soon as possible if he wanted to make sure he got one of the three copies of Banana Man.

The rain splattered against the asphalt to either side of him while he worked that combination lock, spinning the wet dial to the appropriate numbers. The lock popped open, and he yanked his bike from the rack and began unwinding the chain. He had looped it several times through the front rim and wrapped it twice around the frame, like his dad taught him. He started unraveling it, and thought about his dad’s advice that it was never a good idea to lock only the front tire. Sometimes people stole everything
but
the tire. His dad always taught him good stuff.

Chris finally asked the question that was on his mind: “Can you buy me a copy of Banana Man? I got detention with Billy and Tom, and I want to make sure I get one in case they beat me to Cleary’s.” Danny couldn’t help but appreciate the desperation in Chris’s voice, not in a mean way because Danny was a nice kid, but for the first time in a while the fact that Danny rode his bike home from school gave him an advantage.

The boys competed fiercely for the latest edition of comics. Danny didn’t realize that Chris was collecting Banana Man too. It didn’t matter; Danny was all but guaranteed to get his hands on a copy long before his pals got to Cleary’s. He’d buy the comic and be home framing it before they got out of detention. “Sure,” Danny said. “Give me a buck and I’ll get one for you.” He wound the wet chain into a ball and stuffed it into his backpack.

“I don’t have it but I get my allowance tomorrow. I can pay you back.”

If Danny had an extra buck he’d gladly buy a copy for his friend, but he didn’t have so much as a nickel to his name. “I don’t have an extra buck,” he said, slicking his hair back so he could see. It had been awhile since he got a haircut and sometimes it got in his eyes, especially when it got wet. “I have to borrow a dollar from my dad for mine.” Danny put on his backpack and cinched the straps. He wiped the bike seat as best he could to get the water off and then climbed aboard. Drying his seat didn’t make much difference; without his raincoat his clothes were nearly soaked through to his skin, and he still had to ride home in the rain.

Chris let out a sigh of disappointment and absently kicked at the ground with his sneaker. “Dang. I guess I’ll miss this one.”

A boy shouted through the rain from across the courtyard, and Chris spun around. The twins, Tom and Billy, stood by Ms. Jacobson’s outer classroom door under the eave. Billy made an exaggerated, wind milling gesture with his arm, beckoning Chris over to them. Chris said to Danny, “I gotta go. See you tomorrow.”

Danny sat on his bike and watched Chris run across the courtyard to the other boys.

A few days earlier, Chris and the twins chased a little girl named Susie around the playground during recess. When they finally caught her behind those big tractor tires buried halfway into the ground, they took turns yanking her pigtails. They even took one of her pink bows (Chris ended up with it – he had a crush on Susie – and pinned it to his bulletin board at home). She ended up crying, of course. She ran straight to a recess teacher and told on them. The boys tried to hide but they got caught, and all three of them got in trouble. Now they had to stay after school in detention and write an apology letter to Susie.

Ms. Jacobson stepped outside and greeted the boys with open arms. Even though they were in detention, and technically being punished for bad behavior, she was still their favorite teacher. She was Danny’s favorite too. She’d be nice to them, and probably give them juice and a couple of cookies before detention ended. She wrapped her arms around Tom, Billy, and Chris, and ushered them through the open door and into her classroom. When she stepped back outside to kick the door jam free, she spotted Danny across the courtyard sitting on his bike in the rain. She watched him for a moment, unmoving, and then smiled real big before waving good-bye. He waved back. Then she closed the door.

“Bye Danny!” Susie said as she stomped her feet into a shallow puddle near the bike rack. She was the girl the boys teased during lunch recess. She climbed into the front seat of her mom’s station wagon, pulled shut the heavy door, and hugged her mom. Danny watched the two of them as the rain’s tempo increased, his clothes soaking up more rainwater and getting heavier by the minute. He might not be getting a ride home from school today, but that was fine with him because he’d be getting a copy of Banana Man. Wet clothes would certainly be worth it. From inside their car and behind the busy windshield wipers, Susie pointed at Danny and said something to her mother. Both Susie and her mom waved to Danny as they drove by.

He checked his watch: 3:00pm. He had plenty of time to get home and borrow the buck from his dad and then get over to Cleary’s. His friends wouldn’t get out of detention until four.

Last month he missed out on the latest comics because his buddies beat him to the store, but this time luck was on his side. He would have first choice from the latest shipment, and the only issue that mattered this month was Banana Man.

Danny gripped the handlebars and pedaled away from school, heading home in the driving rain.

He rode for about ten minutes, taking numerous side streets to get to his house. However, he avoided Tucker Street and the alley behind it. There was a mean dog named Charlie that lived in the alley. The dog enjoyed attacking little kids.

He had seen the dog only one time. Tucker Street Alley provided a nice shortcut to the post office and his mom’s favorite grocery store on the other side of the railroad tracks. Not too long ago, during a weekday evening, his dad sent him to pick up the mail. It just so happened that his dad sent him to the post office at the same time Danny’s favorite cartoons were on television. He didn’t want to miss them, and like any kid would have done, he tried to hurry so he could get back home before the cartoons ended. He tried to save time by taking the shortcut. It was the closest he ever came to getting bitten by a dog.

The frothy mouthed dog sprang at him the moment Danny neared an overgrowth of bushes. It scared the boy to high heaven, and Danny ran all the way down the alley, over the tracks and highway, and straight to the post office without stopping. On the way back home he walked the long way around by crossing the street at the traffic signal. From that day forward, Danny avoided Tucker Street Alley.

He rode his bike around the final corner to his house only to see the driveway was empty. His dad’s work truck wasn’t there which meant his dad wasn’t home yet. Normally his father got back from work at the same time Danny got home from school or at least close to it. But lately his dad had been working overtime to pay some unexpected bills. At least that’s what he told Danny. All Danny knew was that his dad left the house earlier in the morning and got home a little later in the day.

Unlike the neighbor’s houses which appeared warm and inviting with their porch lights on and cars in their driveways, his house looked empty and cold in the dreary rain; almost lifeless, and a little spooky. But Danny didn’t get scared easily. He was always brave. It took a lot to scare him.

Some of the neighbors had fires going inside their homes. He could see dancing firelight through their windows. Smoke billowed out the tops of their chimneys. A nice, warm fire sounded cozy. He planned on making one when he finally got back to his house, but since his dad wasn’t home from work yet, Danny couldn’t borrow the dollar, and that meant no comic book. There was no reason to go home, at least not yet.

Danny didn’t slow down when he got near his house. He kept right on pedaling.

CHAPTER TWO

Cleary’s Market

At Elm Street he turned and headed toward Cleary’s Market. Although he didn’t have the money to buy the comic, he wanted to make sure it was on the rack. And maybe he could ask Mr. Cleary to hold a copy for him in the off chance the other boys beat him there.

The small neighborhood store was an old one-bedroom house with a pitched roof that Mr. Cleary gutted and transformed into a small market. On the outside, it still looked like an old blue house, one with badly chipping paint. Three steps led up to a wood porch. A hand carved sign hung by two chains directly above a wide front door. The sign read: CLEARY’S MARKET.

On the inside, at first glance one might think the shelves were empty. They weren’t. The goods were sparse by design. Mr. Cleary liked space between the products, and he never kept more than three of anything on the shelf. He stocked mostly basic household necessities and some food, and always maintained a strict rule of never having more than three of the same item: three cans of beans, three rolls of paper towels, three bars of soap, and so forth. Mr. Cleary kept an accurate count of his limited merchandise. Whenever someone bought something, he would mark an inventory sheet he kept on a clipboard hanging by the register.

For the kids, there were a couple racks of candy and two video arcade machines – Asteroids and Missile Command, and a giant floor-to-ceiling refrigerator filled with ice cold soda. A spinning magazine rack was jammed between the arcade games, perfectly positioned to showcase the comics to kids.

Other than the comics, Danny loved the tall refrigerator full of soda pop. Whenever he had extra change, he would buy a new flavor just to try it out.

Danny and his friends always stopped by the market on their way home from school. While most kids sunk quarters into the arcade games or bought packs of gum or maybe a candy bar, Danny and his pals stopped to see if any new comics were on the rack. Each of them had their favorites, and sometimes those favorites overlapped. That wasn’t always a good thing, but the boys usually worked it out by trading older issues. Other than the big shipment that arrived on the first of the month, sometimes Mr. Cleary received other comics at random times. That didn’t happen often. Still, it was always a good idea to stop by after school in case a new comic book came in.