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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Dead End (02/06/14)

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• TITLE: The Yellow Banana | Previous Challenge Entry
  By Allison Egley
  02/13/14
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"Honey, I can't see that street sign. Is this where we turn?"

"I'm not sure. Actually, I think we just passed it. You'd better turn around the next time you can."

Mom and Dad tried to navigate the directions, as my brothers sat in the back seat, and I sat in the middle row, stuck between the luggage, in our yellow station wagon. We called it "The Yellow Banana," "The Banana" for short. It was, after all, long and yellow.

"Larry? Did you hear me? I think we need to turn around."

I could almost see my dad tighten up. "Hon, I'm trying." Dad turned on the next street. "Where does this... oh great. It's a dead end."

Even as a child, getting stuck on a dead end road at night, in the rain, while lost, in a station wagon, all while pulling a borrowed camping trailer did not rank on my top ten list of ways to spend a family vacation. I can only imagine how my parents felt. Not to mentioned my dad had never pulled anything with the station wagon before, let alone a camper.

I tried to pull up on the front seat for a closer look. "Daddy? What's wrong?"

"We're lost, and we're stuck on a dead-end street."

I wasn't quite sure what that meant, but I knew to stay quiet and not ask any more questions. So did my brothers, apparently, as the whole car quieted. Clearly this would test The Banana's limits – and Dad's.

At that point, a black cat passed by. We hoped it wasn't prophetic. We were beginning to think we'd have to pop up the camper right there, pray for mercy from the strangers who lived along the street, and hope for the best in the morning.

Inch by pain-staking inch, my dad backed up, turned, and pulled forward repeatedly, until we got back to the main road. Actually, I have no clue how we really got out of there. I just know we got out of there, with none of us too worse for the ware, except, perhaps, for Dad. – and I don't know that The Banana was ever quite the same after that, come to think of it.

We finally found the campground, and for the first time, our tent didn't leak -- only because we didn't have a tent. You could say that after that nigh, my dad's tolerance for campers reached a dead-end. He hasn't come within 100 feet of a camper since.

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Author's Notes:
While based on a true story, I was only a child at the time. Many parts are imagined and/or embellished, and I have no idea how The Banana really felt about the whole situation. The rainy night is true, however, as is the encounter with the black cat. Yes, we really did name our station wagon The Yellow Banana.

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