Free Banana Man (a Novella) by Christian Blake

Peter probably rode the bike through some bushes and got a thorn stuck in it. It was just another reminder of Danny’s terrible day.
     
    When he got home, Danny found his dad snoring on the recliner. His dad had showered and put on fresh clothes. The fire still burned. The piece of oak his dad put in was the only piece of wood left.
     
    Danny took care not to wake his dad, and he quietly set the backpack on the floor near the foot of the chair. Then he fed another piece of oak into the flames. Between those two logs, the fire would last the rest of the night.
     
    Danny went into the kitchen and hung the mail key back on the hook beside the refrigerator. In the center of the kitchen table, sitting all by its lonesome, was a weathered one dollar bill. His dad must have left it for Danny before he took his nap on the recliner. Danny didn’t hesitate; he swiped the dollar and dashed out the door. Full of renewed hope, the little boy covered in mud ran for several blocks to Cleary’s Market so he could finally buy Banana Man.
     
    Even though it was well past four o’clock, he ran as fast as he could to the small store, clutching the dollar bill the whole way there. Soon he could see the open front door. Nobody walked in or out. That was a good sign. He hoped he had beaten his friend Chris to the store after all, and maybe he would get the last copy of the comic and be able to frame it on his wall beside the first edition his mother bought him. Maybe Farmer Cleary had kept his promise.
     
    He ran through the open doorway and right up to the register. Mr. Cleary still sat on his barstool, and he still held The Valley Tribune in his hands. He smiled at the boy.
     
    Danny was out of breath, but he managed to say, “I got it! Here’s the dollar!” He slapped the bill onto the counter. “Where’s Banana Man?”
     
    Farmer Cleary shook his head slowly. “It’s gone. Your friend Chris came by a few minutes ago and he wanted it. So I sold it to him. Next time,” he said, “get here a little sooner. Sometimes a few minutes can make all the difference in the world.” Farmer Cleary stared at Danny with a puzzled look on his face. “Did you drag mud into my store?”
     
    Danny’s eyes started to water, not a lot, but enough that Farmer Cleary would have noticed if he wasn’t inspecting the floor around the boy’s feet. Danny sniffled, and quickly wiped away his tears. “But you were supposed to hold it for me. I asked you to hold it,” Danny said.
     
    “Cash is king,” Farmer Cleary said. “You’ll be fine. It’s just a comic. More will come in next month. Now get that broom again, and sweep out the floor. I can’t see it in this light, but you’ve been rolling around in the mud and I know you dragged some of it in here and made a mess of my floor.” Then an idea popped into the old man’s head. “If you want, I can take your dollar right now, and I’ll hold it for next month’s shipment. When your comic comes in, I’ll set aside a copy for you.” He winked at Danny. “Sort of like paying in advance.”
     
    “It’s a bi-monthly comic! It won’t be back for another two months.” After everything that happened that afternoon, after fighting in the mud with Charlie and getting in trouble with Officer Tibbs, his copy was as good as gone. The other boys had theirs, but not Danny. They wouldn’t be trading that issue for older comics either, not for a second edition.
     
    From the back office, Mrs. Cleary suddenly appeared. Her hair was white like Farmer Cleary’s except she had a lot more of it, and it was silky and long. She stormed into the front area, furious. Danny retreated a step. He had seen her get angry before. She whirled by Danny and immediately lashed out at her husband. “You are the meanest man in town! That boy asks you to hold a comic and you sell it from under his nose?”
     
    Mr. Cleary rolled his eyes. “Damn it Faye, this is a store. People want something, they got to pay. A