Knjigice
Learn-about book · New stories
Anna Banana
A story of crooked bananas and a golden evening
Also in: Anka Bananka (Slovenian) · Anka Bananka (Slovak)
Before the sun warmed the road, the boy was already awake. Down the red path he went, past sleeping dogs, past the smell of the sea, to where the banana trees stood in long green rows.
1
All day he worked. He carried heavy green bunches of bananas, one after another, and one more. The leaves were taller than his father. The sun sat on his shoulders like a warm hand and would not come down.
2
When the work was done, the others got coins that jingled. The boy got bananas — but only the ones nobody wanted.
3
Not the smooth ones. Not the straight ones. Not the ones that lay in neat yellow rows. He got the funny, bumpy ones that grew whichever way they liked. One by one they went into his basket.
4
He hoisted the basket onto his back and set off on the long walk home. And behind him, the bananas in the basket began to talk.
5
“Oh my,” said a little round one. “Look at your head! It's as big as a mango. You're not a banana at all — you're a banana with a head!”
6
“Look at yourself,” said the one with the big head. “You're so fat and round you can hardly sit up straight. You're not a banana — you're a pillow in a peel!”
7
“Hee hee hee,” giggled the long thin one. “You two are so silly!” The fat one wobbled. “And you? You're a shoelace! You're a string! You're a banana stretched like chewing gum!”
8
Then they all turned to the crooked one, bent like a question mark. “And you,” they cried, “you can't even make up your mind which way to go!”
9
Oh, how they laughed. They laughed and wobbled and bounced all round the basket. They laughed so hard, so long, so wide — that every single one split. Right down the middle. Crack. Crack. Crack.
10
When the boy got home, they looked in the basket and their faces fell. “Split!” they said. “Every one, cracked and broken. What good are these?” The boy said nothing. He picked up the basket and went outside.
11
He went down to the shore, all by himself, and sat on the cool grey sand. The sea came in and went out, came in and went out, the way it always does.
12
The sun was going down. It painted the water pink, then orange, then gold. It painted the boy's hands and knees and the whole basket of broken, crooked bananas. Gold, gold, gold.
13
He peeled the fat one and ate it slowly. It was sweet — so sweet — and soft and good. He peeled the thin one. Sweet too. He peeled the one with the big head. Sweet again.
14
Last of all he peeled the crooked one, bent like a question mark. It was the sweetest of them all. “You,” said the boy, “are the best banana I have ever eaten. I shall call you Anna Banana.”
15
The sea came in and went out. The sky turned soft and blue and dark. The boy sat with his funny broken bananas and was in no hurry at all. And he thought it had been a very lovely day.
16The End
