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 a place for my responses to the prompts from Andre the Blog Monkey's Banana Bar |
Fun times never stop at "Invalid Item"  .
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4. You order Andre's 'Drink of the Day'. As you are drinking it, you feel it slowly transform you into something/someone else.   Today is my day off so I figured I'd go into the Banana Bar and have a couple drinks and relax then go home and get some things done around the house. I hadn't tried this particular 'Drink of the Day' so I figured today was a good time to give it a try. Besides, most of his concoctions are amazing. I sat at the bar in my usual spot, three chairs to the right of the left corner of the bar (I'm a little odd like that). So, as I was saying, I ordered Andre's Drink of the Day. The bartender on shift brought me this drink the color of absinthe at the bottom that turned more yellow as it neared the top of the glass. Visual appeal, I appreciate that in a drink as long as the flavor and kick match the drink's looks. And boy did it ever! A few swallows in and I was no longer feeling like myself. But I wasn't really feeling drunk either. It almost felt like I was tripping. My body felt like it was morphing into something else and my vision was shifting constantly. The bartender came over and asked, "How's everything going over here?" It was hard for me to find the words to respond but somehow I did. "This stuff packs a punch," I said. "It almost feels like I'm changing into something else." "You are," he told me. It was hard for my mind to focus on his words, hard for me to understand what he was saying. "What do you mean? I'm still me," I responded. The bartender replied, "You are still you, but you're also not you. This drink changes those who drink it into something else." I asked, "Into something else? Like what?" He replied, "I don't know what you'll turn into. t's different for everyone. You'll turn into what your spirit truly is. I saw one man turn into a mouse and another turn into a cat. That lady over there appears to be turning into a butterfly and earlier a woman came in who turned into a man after drinking the 'Drink of the Day'. It all really depends on who, or what, you are on the inside." It was at that moment that my entire body felt flush. No, not just flush, it felt like I was on fire. "What's going on now?" I asked. "What am I changing into?" The bartender looked at me with surprise written all over his face and said, "Well, I've never seen anyone turn into this before. I believe you're the first." "The first? The first what?" I ask. He chuckles then responded, "I believe you're becoming what you truly are, a phoenix." In my mind I said, "Well that explains why I feel like I'm burning!" But to him, I ask, "Will I stay like this forever? Or will I go back to being me at some point?" "Oh, you'll revert back to your old self as soon as the effects of the drink wear off but I don't know how long that will be. That's different for every person who drinks this stuff too. You might be in here for two or three hours before going back to your usual form." Four hours later, I had become bored of seeing people changing into all sorts of living things. This one poor guy actually turned into a leech! But I was tired and ready to go home and so I decided that I would walk back to my house even though I was still on fire. I think the walk helped get the last dregs of the drink out of my system because by the time I got home, I wasn't on fire anymore and was back to being my normal oddball self. I don't know if I will ever try another of the Drinks of the Day, but who knows, I might be up for something new - in a month or two. |
3. A bad-tempered customer is driving home after a few drinks at the bar. He thinks he sees his kids trick-or-treating and stops to offer them some coins—but those aren’t costumes.        The Halloween hijinks continue at the Banana Bar. Last night we had to kick out an unruly, angry customer who was behaving as if he had already had too much to drink. He said he had a ride home. Little did we know he was referring to his own car. But we didn't know that until we saw today's paper. The front page of the paper had a photo of a gruesome wreck caused by a man running into the side of of a house on Main Street. The following was the man's response when interviewed by both the police and the paper: Man: "I left the Banana Bar at a quarter till 9 after they asked me to leave because they thought I was drunk. I wasn't though, I had only had four drinks in the hour and a half I was there. I was just having a really bad day. I'll admit I was pretty pissed off at the world by that point." Interviewer: "So what happened then?" Man: "Well, as I was saying, I was driving home when I saw some trick-or-treaters walking down the sidewalk. They were about the size of my kids and dressed like the kids wanted to this year, figured they were my two, so I thought I'd stop and give them some money to get sodas on the way home. But when I pulled up close to them I realized they weren't my kids. Heck it's not even Halloween yet! The pair turned to look at me and I saw they were the real deal, man! Two little goblins were walking down the street. In my neighborhood! I tried to speed off but I don't know what happened after that. I thought I was getting away from and everything would be alright. But then I woke up - and my car was halfway through that big three-story at the end of the road. Craziest shit that's ever happened to me man! You know what I mean?!" Interviewer: "Do you think someone at the bar put something into your drink to cause these hallucinations?" Man: "Ah, no. They never would have had the chance. I watched the bartender dude the whole time he made my drinks and after that, the glasses didn't leave my sight until they were empty." Interviewer: "So what do you think really happened?" Man: "Honestly, I think I pissed off the wrong witch. You do know they have more power this time of year don't you? I guess from now on, I should just keep my bad moods to myself." The paper went on to say that the man in question was admitted to the local psychiatric hospital for further evaluation. But you know what I think? I think it all happened. Maybe not exactly as he told it, but pretty close! I've seen some of the craziness that happens around here this time of year! |
| 2. You’ve put that stuffed monkey in the cabinet, in the closet, in the attic, but no matter where you tuck it, it always shows back up at the bar. On Halloween night, you come in to find it watching you . . . That damned monkey! No matter where I put it, it always shows back up! I put it in the closet and the next day it was back at the bar. I even checked the closet to make sure someone wasn't playing tricks on me, but the monkey wasn't in there anymore. I am pretty sure it is the same monkey every time because it had a little hole on its head near its left ear where the stuffing had begun to pop out of the felt of its fur. I put it in the attic, it was back in it's spot at the bar the following day. Put it in the basement with lots of other old toys, and by the time I climbed the stairs back up to the bar, it was sitting at the bar again. I finally decided to put the evil little thing in an old cedar chest and lock the chest. The monkey remained locked in that cedar chest for at least two months, I kept checking to make sure. But then last year, Halloween night came around. When I walked into the bar for my shift, there the monkey sat at the corner of the bar, mischievous grin stretched across its felted face and stuffing popping out of that little hole next to its left ear. One arm was circled around a bottle of 99 Bananas schnapps and the other uplifted like it was waving to me. I could have sworn I saw a nefarious twinkle in each of its black buttoned eyes too. "What is going on here?" I wondered aloud to myself. And the monkey chortled. I still have absolutely zero idea how a stuffed monkey can chortle, but I swear it did. And then it moved its raised arm and placed it in its lap! I'd love to tell you that it was a puppet on strings, but that would be too easy a way to write off the craziness. Besides, I looked - and there were no strings attached. I looked around to see if I could find another reason for the weirdness surrounding the monkey's appearance, movement, and sound. Maybe a speaker that would have been responsible for the laughter I had heard, maybe some other way of making the toy monkey move. But it wasn't robotic and there wasn't a speaker in it or anywhere around it. "Holy shit!" I exclaimed. "This little bugger must be a relative of Chucky or something!" I decided right then and there that the Banana Bar really was full of haunts. I backed out of the bar determined to only come back during the light of day or at least when someone else was there too. The idea of a crazy, possessed stuffed monkey was just too much insanity for my mind to process at that moment. Word Count ▼ |
| Day 1 Prompt: It’s late at night, and you hear footsteps in the bar—but you’re definitely alone . . . or so you thought. It was after closing one October night and I was alone in the Banana Bar making sure everything was cleaned and stocked for the coming day. I had pulled late-nighters before, so I was at ease with the eerie silence of the empty bar. I had gone to retrieve more booze from the back room to replace what had been consumed earlier that day and when I came back towards the front of the bar, something had changed. At first, I couldn't put my finger on what was different and the not-knowing began to give me the Willies. Then the smell hit me. The rich scent of a Havana cigar was creeping through the air. It was subtle but it was definitely there! I walked around the bar, looking for the source but couldn't see anything in the room that could have caused it. The smell became stronger as I neared the stage though, and it began to saturate every breath I took. I looked around but as far as I could tell, I was still the only one in the bar. So, I attributed the smell to my vivid imagination and shrugged it off. But as I turned my back to the stage and was returning to my task at hand, laughter filled the room: deep, throaty, good-humored laughter. The smell of cigars also mysteriously increased greatly in the same instant. I was thoroughly creeped out. But then, who wouldn't be? I turned around and saw an apparition sitting in an old chair on the stage. My brain ran rampant with all the possibilities of what I was experiencing. Surely I'm going mad! Maybe I shouldn't have drank that last Banana-colada, or any of them for that matter. That's it! I'm just having drunken delusions! But the apparition spoke to me and as he did so, his form solidified. It was George Burns! "What's going on? Are you really here? How? Why?" I asked to the shade of the old comedian sitting in front of me. George laughed at my befuddlement. Words exploded from my mouth, "You can't really be real. This is all just my mind playing tricks on me. It's been a long day, I've had too much to drink. This has to be all in my head!" But George laughed again and said, "I'm real enough. Andre asked me to come by and visit with you for a spell. He told me he thinks you need a little more laughter and fun in your life. And after what I have just seen, you do indeed. Sit down and we'll share a cigar and some laughs." "But, George, you're dead! How can you be here?" I sputtered. He chuckled. "The best part of me isn't dead, just my body. Come on over and have a seat." So I did as he suggested and pulled up a chair next to his then went and poured myself a stiff banana martini. I knew it was going to be a long, long night. While I was pouring my drink, chattering laughter came from Andre's tree next to the bar. Andre descended the tree and made his way to the stage to join in on the fun, climbing up into one of the ficus trees that bordered the back of the stage. It was indeed a long night, but I learned a lot about myself through talking with old George. He even roasted me, although I am no celebrity. George and Andre helped me remember how to truly laugh. How to enjoy life, no matter the banana peels on the road in front of me set there to trip me up. At the end of the night, as we could see the sun begin to rise over the sea, I thanked them both for their efforts in reminding me that laughter is important in life and told them my goodbyes. George just chuckled. As his form was dissipating, his last words hung in the air, "Goodnight Gracie." Word count ▼ |
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