MP prompt #99 Bananas
Henry strolled into the kitchen as I sat at the table with a cup of coffee, watching the morning unfold. Stretching out one impossibly long arm out, he snagged a banana from the weird hook thing Exene brought over a few months ago, insisting it was the only way to keep them fresh.
‘Daddy’, my son’s piping three-year-old voice called out from the other room. ‘I can no weach the nanas ‘n I wan one.’ Like most things in his world, Henry’s favorite treat was out of reach of his short chubby little arms with their dimpled elbows, so ‘Daddy’ came to the rescue, Handing my son the yellow fruit, he looked up at me with eyes that shone with his belief that his father could do anything.
‘Fank you, Daddy.’ He grinned at me.
‘You’re welcome, Hank, now don’t forget to throw away the peel.’ I returned that smile with one of my own, once again amazed at how in love it was possible to be with one small boy.
The light falling through the window lit him beautifully, showing every curve in perfect shadow and light as I grabbed my sketchbook and quickly captured what would become the under-painting, the bare bones of a later work in pastels. The suggestion of a curving cheek, hint of slightly protruding baby belly under his t-shirt; tiny hand grasping the banana as his cheeks filled with the flesh of the fruit, jaws working to chew a far too large bite. Henry swallowed and sighed his frustrated little boy sigh, standing still for as long as he could, even at three understanding that Daddy needed a few minutes to get the sketch right.
Finally having had his fill of Daddy’s obsession, my little man shifted restlessly. ‘Daddy, I tiwed, pway wif you art stuff waiter, ‘kay?’
‘Okay, Hank. Daddy’ll play later, let’s go feed the birds and see if the squirrels have eaten all the seeds in the feeder again.’ Tucking the pad away for now, I took Henry’s hand and led him out of to the backyard, scooping up the banana peel he’d left on the edge of the counter and dropping it in the trash.
“I called Mom and asked her to come over this morning.” My son announced, pushing the memory to the back of my mind, as he peeled the banana and began munching. “I’ve got something to tell you both and I want to do it at the same time.”
“Care to give me a preview?” I asked, knowing from the look in his eyes that I would get nothing out of him before Exene arrived.
“Nope, you’ll just have to be patient.” Henry grinned and then sighed as he saw my hands inch across the surface of the table toward the sketchpad resting there. “Dad…” He began, then shrugged and held still. “Go ahead; it’ll keep you from trying to get me to talk until Mom gets here.” He leaned just slightly back against the counter, getting comfortable as I began to sketch him.
Long gone were the soft baby curves of his body, replaced now with angles and shadows that cut more sharply, gone too was the beautiful little boy who believed his Daddy to be a god among men. He saw me now with clearer sharper eyes that took in all the faults and foibles yet still there shone an all encompassing love in the young man before me; a love that saw the man I was in the god he had believed me to be and still found me worthy of his regard.
For a breathless moment, I felt tears burn my eyelids and I had to look down at the page under my hand, to compose myself before my son saw them and became concerned that something was wrong. My little Hank was now a man, moving further away from me with his ground eating stride, into a future that would be so far beyond my realm that it as well would be an alien planet.
He would see and do things I could never imagine, but he would do them with a style and grace his father could never quite manage and for one brief moment I mourned the loss of my sweet baby boy. Henry cleared his throat and I looked up. “Are you almost done, Dad?” ‘Daddy, I tiwed, pway wif you art stuff waiter, ‘kay?' The voice echoing in my mind was my little man, but before me was a young man who would make me proud to know him, to have been a part of his world.
A knock at the door announced his mother’s arrival and he went to answer it, giving me time to order my thoughts and turn them from the past to the present, a smile curving my lips as I looked over at the edge of the counter where he had stood a moment before. As usual the banana peel was left sitting on the counter to scent the room with its overly sweet smell and I got up and threw it in the trash…maybe my sweet baby boy wasn’t quite gone yet.
Muse: Viggo Mortensen
Fandom: Real People Fiction
Word Count: 861