An Itinerant Mind

The Luck of the Irish.

Prompt 10: How did Andre get into the bar business? How did he acquire The Banana Bar?

So just how did Andre come to own The Banana Bar? I mean we know he's made lots of money in his long career, all those hit records and lucrative tours. Right? Ah!, but, then there was that little thing in that Andre likes to make secretive donations. Yeah, the sort that don't end up plastered all over the media in a virtue signalling semaphore party, or something.

Anyway, point being that Andre usually gave away money as fast as he made it. There's lots of good causes over the years that have found themselves on the receiving end of a mysterious stash of cash, with only the faintest lingering aroma of bananas.

So let me take you back to Andre's first love, remember, the banana warehouse. Andre literally ran in off the street and got a job there. Six years later, he'd bought the place. Andre works hard for the money, so hard for a monkey. Ahem, sorry.

Across the road from the banana warehouse was an authentic Irish theme pub. Andre was soon frequenting it regularly as he has a particular fondness for proper breakfasts, albeit supplemented with the odd bunch of the finest. He became good friends with the owner, a genuine Irishman named Shameless O'Shaughnessy. Shameless' father swore on a stack of Irish phone directories, (this was in the pre-mobile phones era), that he had not been drunk when he went to register his son's birth. No one believed him, not even himself.

Whilst frequenting the Genuine Irish Theme pub, which at the time rejoiced in the rather obvious name of 'Shamelesses', Andre made the acquaintance of Richard ~ Shenanigans INC. . The two soon became firm friends, especially when Andre learned that Richard too was a secretive philanthropist. They would spend long evenings drinking, jamming together, Richard played a mean trombone, and generally enjoying the company and the atmosphere.

Not infrequently they would plan some furtive donation or other, once they even staged a drive by donating, with Andre driving in a disguise that was basically a pair of Elton John's more flamboyant glasses, a souvenir of their time together at the Circus.

Then one day Shameless surprised them with a surprise announcement. (Hard not to really.) He had received a letter from a lawyer in Ireland, informing him that his second cousin Aimless O'Shaughnessy had, (and this was in no way contrived at all), died and left him an entire castle and estate. Shameless was going to retire to lead the life of an Irish aristocrat. The estates were by chance the largest peat bogs in the world, and Shameless could live the high life on the proceeds.

Shameless was so happy with this turn of events, that he was going to give Andre and Richard Shamelesses. (Now that is a sentence that thankfully is never likely to be repeated again in human history.) Richard declined on the grounds of sanity, and so Andre acquired the place gratis. In less than a month Shameless was flying back to his Irish castle, and Andre was bringing in decorators and re-themeing the place. Naturally he kept the breakfasts, bananas optional.

Quickly his business acumen and general love of the yellow berry, (did you know bananas are technically a berry?), ensured the now renamed 'The Banana Bar' was the huge success it has become. Of course in part this relates to his team, especially Richard's gentle advise that keeps Andre from manifesting some of his scarier ideas, and not least of which, his amazing Bar Manager Lilli 🧿 ☕ .

Word Count: 586.