This is my entry into the Bananafish Story & Poetry contest
JD was biding his time at the bus stop, pacing up and down and even sideways on the cobble stones, in knight’s moves. He had just bought a pack of cigarettes and was in the process of lighting one, still paying attention to his steps. He noticed a couple approaching from the corner of his eye, a man and woman in their twenties, they made a lot of noise. JD wasn’t sure what has caught his attention first, sight or sound, but he stopped pacing and leaned against the bus stop sign post. He gazed at the cute fluffy cumulus clouds slowly grazing on the endless blue pastures, but he tuned his ear into their conversation as the two sat on the bench. He couldn’t help making sideways glances at them.
The guy was wearing stained and dusty overalls, his broad face shadowed by a baseball cap. The young woman had fancier clothing and a very fashionable, expensive looking handbag lay at her side.
“What do you mean overtime is out of the question?”
“It’s not me babe! You know me, I gladly went to work on Saturdays, but they said today that Saturday shifts are over. And also I’ll be home earlier on weekdays too, overtime is only required in special cases. They say it’s the economy.”
“This means you’ll get less money this month?”
“No. This paycheck will be the usual, the next… now that will be thinner.”
“By how much?”
“I’d reckon by a couple hundred, sure.”
“How are we going to pay the mortgage? And we also just bought that dishwasher on credit, how are we to pay it off? And that mixer I had my eyes on...”
“You’re saying that as if it’s all my fault! There’s been layoffs, I’m just glad I didn’t get the boot! Babe, I’m sure we’ll get through this just fine, they say it’s gonna pick up in four-six months.”
“Six months? We’ll be broke in six months! I told you to apply for that job in Germany, we wouldn’t be having this conversation if you did. But you can’t be arsed to learn the language now can you?”
“Enough! We’ll have plenty more time to talk this over. Will you tell me what’s for dinner?”
“I’ll meet with the girls today at the mall, so order a pizza.”
JD thought awhile about what he just overheard, and he came to the conclusion that our appetite for resources and leisure set us on a race that is constantly getting harder the further down the track we go. It conjured up an image of the bananafish in his mind, just this time bananas were credit, and the more we gorge on it, the less likely we’re ever leaving the hole… Everyone seemed to have the banana fever. JD had no debt, but he wished he had enough money for a pizza. He’ll just make an omelet instead, with nice and smoky homemade pork sausages. Pastoral delight.
By soma.unony who knows how to spell banananana, just not when to stop.
banananana - I have the same problem! And you really are going to come to mind anytime I hear someone order a JD lol
A story about the greedy bananafish of the books, and about passing glances we get into the lives of strangers and how that moment of human connection, no matter how small, can impact us. A wonderful parallel for our contests, where we each offer passing snippets into our minds. Another great entry!
(I will be saying this on all entries, these comments were remade in a quickie after realizing I had not only left them on a different machine but that I didn't import them. So sorry if this is not the usual you expect of me :c ) Again, been beaten by @calluna here to the punch and she wrote a better comment than whatever I had on that other machine. Anyways, to echo in a different mannerism, credit literally is the bane of everyone. Like to even just stop and see how one's life is restricted with bad credit alone is like DX But it takes forever to build good credit and one simple dumb mistake to lose it all. To return to the NANA, I shall copy this here:
Otherwise, I like this story about JD a heck of a lot more. Just, how would one put it, more appropriate to the excruciating parts of life~