A Story & Poetry Contest! - @bananafish
Image Credit Pixabay.com
For @bananafish’s A Story & Poetry Contest! For more information please see the link:
https://steemit.com/contest/@bananafish/bananafish-a-story-and-poetry-contest
My Entry:
Part 1 Finish the Story:
Jim had lost his cell phone, yet still had his wallet, and room key to the hotel where he remained checked in for another week.
Even so, he didn’t feel well after what he had been through with DJ Mystery, and his search for Mercedes. Not to mention, two sleepless nights wandering through the Ukrainian countryside evading military patrols.
Jim walked through the hotel lobby noticing the woman that had checked him in with a warm greeting to her country. Now her cold staring eyes cut through him knowing of the many things that could happen in places where tourists should never tread.
He continued boldly to the elevator where a soon-to-be Ukrainian bride argued with an Australian groom from the sound of his accent.
She cried, pleading to her interpreter. “She doesn’t want get married now. She needs time in her room. You’ve been drinking,” said the older female interpreter.
“Let’s put another shrimp on the bar-bee,” the large drunk Australian man said laughing while trying to put a big arm around her.
Jim slid past them as the elevator door opened. He held his hand up to the tearstained bride and told her calmly, “you’ll have to wait for the next elevator.”
He hit the close door button twice before realizing he actually pressed the Penthouse floor button.
He then hit the close door button, noticing that the Penthouse floor button never illuminated. As the elevator door shut with Jim alone inside, and the fighting wedding party outside, he hit the Penthouse floor button again and it lit up.
Jim shook his head as the lift began to rise. He then hit the 28th floor button for his room. Only the light did not illuminate. He began to press the 28th floor button many times, and other buttons as well, only none would alight.
He had a one way ticket to the Penthouse floor in the hotel now; the hotel, a skyscraper that dominated the Kiev skyline.
The elevator continued to go up, and Jim with it. Outside, he could see the city through the glass descending before him, the effect giving him vertigo.
Finally, the elevator stopped and the door opened to the Penthouse. Jim made the dash to safe ground.
Unexpectedly, he found himself in a vaulted scientific laboratory with electrical currents jumping off the ceiling, and a thin strong woman with all the characteristics of a North Korean, playing the role of mad scientist while prevailing above the scene at a control panel.
In front of Jim, and below the North Korean woman, sat the center of all this attention; two metal discs connected to wires, one contained a banana, and the other a fish.
The elevator door closed behind Jim.
Just then the North Korean woman lifted a lever that sent electricity pulsating toward the two metal discs. An arc of spark formed in front of Jim’s eyes that connected the two discs. The power began to fade, as it dissipated entirely it revealed a living breathing bananafish that began tap dancing as it bellowed out the lyrics to an old jazz era song:
“Hello my honey! Hello my baby! Hello my ragtime gal . . .”
“It’s alive!” The North Korean woman exclaimed in triumph to the Bananafish.
Jim fainted.
Part 2 Haiku:
In the future, when the Bananafish’s talents were known around the world; the Bananafish made capital reciting original haikus on national television.
Like this one:
“Ode to the old bard –
Stories written on Steemit,
during all seasons.”
Thank you,
Cyrus Emerson
Also, available from the Author:
Steemit Blog: Contests – ebook, and now a new print edition available!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MVPT72Q?pf_rd_p=c2945051-950f-485c-b4df-15aac5223b10&pf_rd_r=JJKTKWBJWMDK97NQAVRR
Fear and Loathing in the State of Jefferson - ebook
https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B079R5KLPN&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_GsURAbAVDYNEM
Lost Angel – Introduction with Ray Manzarek of The Doors
https://www.downpour.com/lost-angel?sp=249812
Red Roses - audiobook
https://www.audible.com/pd/Fiction/Red-Roses-Audiobook/B07F2LWHPN
(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 ) Honestly for the first part, I feel so called out but a bit blepish for that DPRK mentioning. Like honestly, it just (to me) beats on the Western/Global-North propagations of the ridiculous shit they fabricate about the DPRK. My favorite is when they say X died to (Y ridiculous shit) but then X is caught on cameras all over the place in later posts by the same editorials, but they refuse to take down previous stories. Like... do they practice Necromancy there? Can I go to the DPRK to get my necromancy degree?
(I refer to the DRPK advisor that apparently was killed by a howitzer cannon but then reappeared in later coverage by those very same Global North / Western editorials... or was it the Uncle who died by hounds feasting on his balls? See how we don't even remember these stories yet apparently we cry that we care about human rights? Also have you seen how the DRPK and Venezuela has lost steam in those editorials/news-networks for a good amount of time despite the drums beating for war at all costs? I dunno, I just want some consistency of the actual reporting for these mysterious nations we love to use when we want to hide our disgraceful shit.)
However, a bit of dramatic irony we plague the DPRK with all these mystical powers yet then turn around to make their life hell with economic sanctions that would make capitalist nations crumble on the spot. Dunno, but their science community literally is like any other and the fact that they had managed to make the USA fear them to the point that they are coercing the ROK to implement THAAD missiles and do WAR GAMES litearlly right next door, but then in the same breath say they are weak and can't do shit because "lol GUMMUNISM!"... isn't a bit of hypocrisy here? - And don't bring up the nukes, for we have enormously more than them and the USMilitary has calculated a billion and one scenarios for this "weak, drone, dying, fantasyland" state. If they're weak, invade them and counter the nukes! If they are really that much of a threat, sanctions ain't going to do jack shit and you might as well- oh wait the DPRK and ROK on their own terms managed to make peace without the USA. -
The haiku however was very lovely and nice to read; especially with the hypothetical summary at the beginning.
All in all, you STEEM a good story and haiku.
(For my fellow humanicans of the future, STEEM is the liquid currency of STEEMIT; STEEM was acting as a metaphoric replacement for Steam which that relates to "The Simpsons" scene of Principle Skinner and Super Attendant Chalmers.)
Thanks for the comment. As a CIA Intelligence Officer it's important to promote the idea of a global village for the future of mankind. Just joking.
Insights from the Trailblazers game. They could win it all. "Blazers" urban slang 420.
Welcome for the comment! ~^^~
Too compact for a village, but yes :D
Hue hue hue hue
This post has been manually selected, curated and upvoted by CI mod staff team. Supporting all posts that are in high quality and don’t get enough recognition.
This post was submitted for curation by: @theironfelix
This post was voted: 100%
A tale of bananafish life, beginning at birth. I love this. Would this be considered a haibun?
Believe so with the prose part and then the haiku.
Sinister set dressing, leading to the grand reveal, ahhh we shall never forget that day, birthed in a lab, the secret reseach of North Korea combined in our multinational hotel. The look on Jim's face as we blinked open our eyes burst into a song was priceless ahaha!
You weave so much bananafish into the background, mystery, intrigue, dedication and commitment, hints of danger and sharks in the waters, thank goodness Jim found us, and who can beat a good showtune! very appropriate.
The haiku is brilliant, I adore how you have played haiku elements off bananfish elements, the seasons could be seasons in nature, or seasons in rounds, the past to present tense bringing with it the passage of time, the break that bring emphasis. I feel like we need to summon our resident haiku specialist to appreciate this!
But Jim fainted! MISSION FAILED, WE GOT A TIME PARADOX!
Thanks!
Where would we be without the Bananafish? At a bus stop on a holiday.
Glad we get to drive a sports car on the track here on Steemit with the Bananafish pushing us for faster times.
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