Banana Man (a Novella) Read Online Free Page A

dragged a heavy blanket off the back of the couch and wrapped it around himself, and then sat in front of the fire, trying to get warm.
     
    On the brick mantel stood three photo frames. One was empty. Danny didn’t think much of it and turned his attention to the other two.
     
    The first was a snapshot of Danny and his father after a morning of fishing. His dad knelt on one knee beside a creek, triumphantly holding up a bunch of trout on a string line. The fish were big, at least eighteen inches each. Danny stood next to his dad and struggled to help lift them.
     
    They had gone fishing to a local stream outside of town a few weeks after his last birthday to test the fishing pole his dad gave him as a present. Danny remembered that morning pretty well. In fact, he would never forget it.
     
    They got up before sunrise one Saturday and loaded his dad’s truck with fishing gear. Not his work truck, but his personal truck: an old four-wheel drive pick-up truck. It had plenty of dents, and one fender was painted in grey primer. His mom called it a gas guzzler. His dad called it reliable. Danny liked the big truck with its big tires. He thought climbing into the cab was fun. He loved the hum of the tires on the highway, and he liked being higher than all the other cars.
     
    While they loaded the truck in the early morning darkness, his dad whispered to him several times to keep quiet and not wake his mom. Danny and his dad asked her to go with them the night before – she had a pink fishing pole and a bright pink tackle box of her own – but she didn’t want to go because of the storm coming into town. Fishing in the rain and getting wet didn’t sound like fun to her. Besides, she usually slept in on Saturdays, always waking up later than she planned, and his dad wanted to leave early.
     
    The storm that was coming in that morning wasn’t just any storm; it was a newsworthy one. Forecasters predicted it might flood one end of town, and the police closed a stretch of highway as a precaution. His mom became worried when she saw the news on television. She got worked up pretty good. She didn’t want her little boy and her husband going near a stream during a rainstorm. She asked them to stay home instead, but Danny’s dad insisted they would be all right in the truck. They would be safe even if it started pouring. She wasn’t happy about his answer. She thought it was dangerous. But she still promised to buy eggs and cheese and have breakfast ready when they got home. She always made scrambled eggs with melted cheese on top for Danny. He called them cheese eggs.
     
    On the way out of town, they stopped at Buttery Donuts. Danny picked out a glazed Old Fashioned from the display case, and the donut man plucked it with a pair of tongs and slipped it into a white bag. His dad bought a large coffee with cream and sugar. Danny got chocolate milk. Once they were back on the highway, his dad slid out the twin cup holders in the center console. He slipped his coffee into one and Danny set his milk in the other.
     
    Danny remembered the drive out of town and how the morning sun peeked over one side of the mountain range. His dad called it a fire in the sky. That sunrise glowed hot behind the mountains for several minutes. Then it crept over the hills. Crimson light streaked across the sky, igniting several trapped clouds that floated high above the valley floor.
     
    Not far outside the city, his dad spun the wheel and that big truck took a hard left off the highway and onto a bumpy dirt road with big rocks and boulders. The truck jostled and shook its way down a narrow dirt path. Danny could still remember the dust and the occasional sound of tires spinning freely beneath the truck. His dad slowed the truck down to a crawl, pressed a button on the dash, and the truck lurched to a stop. Then he pulled down hard on a big lever on the floor of the cab. That kicked in the four-wheel drive, and the engine growled low. The truck