Peeling the Layers Of Youth

An adventure of Lucile, the banana barbarian

I was five the first time I said banana.

We were in the living room with my father, playing chess. I had just moved my Queen to h1, a mistake I realized the instant I made it and said banana out of disappointment.

My father didn’t say a word. He laid down his king to end the game and took me to my mother’s office upstairs, tears rolling down his cheeks.

“She said the word.” His voice was trembling when he told my mother.

“We knew this would happen, Monkey. Come here, Lucile. The time has come.”

I was so shocked I couldn’t utter a word. I knew Mom and Dad were close to each other, but she had never called him Monkey in front of me before. It was a word of love and tenderness that even the children knew should be kept private.

Three minutes later, we were in our car, my suitcase in the trunk, driving to what would be my new home for the next seventeen years. Seventeen years during which I would see my father once and my mother twice. Seventeen years spent learning a craft I had no idea existed. Seventeen years during which I discovered, tamed and learned to use in all manners my inner Musa.

Sitting in the back of our sedan, I didn’t know any of this. When asked, Mom had told me we were going to school, which didn’t make any sense because it was Sunday, and my school was around the corner, at walking distance in the other direction.

When we finally arrived, it was already dark, and I was sleeping. The bright yellow light coming from a gigantic building woke me up. The building itself was glowing, a yellow beam in the night. The building looked like a giant banana. As I would learn soon enough, it wasn’t only an appearance. But Mom and Dad didn’t care, so I pretended to be cool with it.

A giant gorilla waited for us in front of the gate, a giant talking gorilla.

“Welcome to Banana Extraordinaria, Lucile! Would you like to come with me and become a banana barbarian?”

I turned to my father and asked, “there was checkmate in three. Why did you lay down your king?”

“I knew you had seen it, and there was checkmate in seven two moves before. It was never about winning for me, Lucile.”

I opened my arm, and my mother joined us for our last family hug. “I love you, Monkeys,” I murmured to their ears.

Facing the giant gorilla again, I said, smiling, “Sir! Banana, Sir!”

This story is in response to Zane’s Supernatural Schools’ Prompt.

Here’s another adventure of Lucile, the banana barbarian.