Late, en route to a job, my sugar suddenly drops causing me to feel faint.
Stupidly skipping breakfast in my frenzy to leave realize, if I don’t eat something fast I’ll be in big trouble.
I have no cash, no time to go to the bank, so I hop to the 24 hour fruit vendor standing half asleep on the corner. You have to wonder, who the hell’s buying papayas at 3 A.M., but there he is, in all his sleepy splendor.
“Excuse me,” I say, “but if I promise to pay you later, can you front me a banana?”
As an aside, a banana, like a rocket, spikes your sugar right up.
Fruit kid, all of 20, doesn’t respond, just stares at me like I’m a ghost from banana past.
I repeat myself. Before finishing my sentence, he grabs a half dozen, shoving them into my open tote.
“No, no,” I say, “I really only need one, and I promise to pay you the quarter when I get back (4 for a dollar).”
He then adds another 6, like I was Cheetah.
I look at my watch. Shit, I gotta go, thanking him over my shoulder, bananas hanging out of my bag like drunken sailors, sailing to the train.
The law of the jungle, according to writer Anne Lamott…
keep calm and share your bananas, so as the number 6 tooled down Lex, I passed them out to everyone on the car. 🙂
SB
Susannah, the most hilarious things happen to you! If you’d had a better fruit assortment you could have worn them on your head like Carmen Miranda. I bet those riders are still talking about the banana lady, ha ha!
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I wonder if people know who Carmen Miranda was. I can see her with a medley of fruit on her head. It’s true, strange things do happen to me, but the best part was, everyone happily accepted a banana. Only in New York Skinny. 🙂
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There are kind people everywhere although the fruit guy probably knew you! That was a nice surprise for others who ran to catch the number 6 without their breakfast!
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Yes, I’ve actually brought him tea on two occasions when it was very cold. I forget what I do. Hence, enough bananas to bake a pie.
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He was, perhaps, overcome by your beauty, just as dizzying as your sugar….hey, it’s a thought – and my story, btw.
Scott
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I really don’t think that was it.
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Dang, either that guy likes you or he really wanted to get rid of his bananas. At least you know who to be nice to now. 🙂
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I have been kind to him in the past, but one, maybe two would have been quite enough. It was funny.
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I know if life hands you lemons, you’re supposed to make lemonade. I would not have known how to handle surplus bananas. As usual, you featured in a grand and generous tale.
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If I had kept them, believe it or not, they would have been practically back from being in my bag. they apparently ripen in the shade, so to speak.
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Something tells me there could be another essay floating around WordPress that starts with the line “Just when I thought humanity was dead, a woman handing out bananas boards the Number 6.”
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And you could write it…:)
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I’m a banana junkie myself. Wish I was on the train car with you.
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You would have gotten two…:)
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