banana cards
Banana Surprise
by Robert Walton

So much sugar!
My brother and I were in awe
As we watched our mother
Pour cups and cups atop
A meringue atop
Bananas and cream,
So much cream.

It was bridge night
And all the ladies
Would want a decadent bite
After serious business,
Before carrying on with further
Serious business.

We knew we’d get some,
Even though banishment to our bedroom
Would follow swiftly.
Mom popped it into the oven
(just to make the top go golden)
And left us to watch
While she went back to play a hand.

We watched
Little ghosts of smoke
Creep from around the oven door
Followed by their burly parents.
“Mom!”
My brother squealed.

Mom came in an instant,
Flung open the oven.
And found flames
Leaping from the banana surprise.
A damp dish towel smothered them,
But the meringue was charcoal black.

After drastic surgery,
She served it anyway —
Head held high
And armored smile in place.
My brother and I peered at our portion.
It looked okay,
But tasted like burned socks.

After the ladies left —
Eleven small bites missing from eleven servings of surprise —
Mother squinted at her recipe.
“What does that say?”
I looked and ventured, “three tsps.”
“I thought it said three cups,” she sighed.

IMAGE: “Gone Bananas” playing cards, available at Zazzle.

banana pudding

PHOTO: Banana Pudding with Meringue Topping by Stephanie Frey. Ingredients include: Brown sugar, white sugar, eggs, flour, milk, bananas, and vanilla wafer cookies. Recipe available at allrecipes.com.

walton 1

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Robert Walton retired from teaching after 36 years of service at San Lorenzo Middle School. He is a lifelong rock climber and mountaineer with ascents in Yosemite and Pinnacles National Park. He’s an experienced writer with published works, including historical fiction, science fiction, fantasy, and poetry. Walton’s novel Dawn Drums won the 2014 New Mexico Book Awards Tony Hillerman Prize for best fiction. Sockdologizer,  his dramatization of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, won the Saturday Writers 2020 Everything Children contest. His “Mansa Musa’s Wisdom” was published in Cricket Media’s February 2022 issue of Spider magazine. Visit him at chaosgatebook.wordpress.com.

PHOTO: The author near the summit of Lembert Dome, Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite (July, 2009).