Recently, I made a call out to my followers on Facebook to send me some GIFs to have short stories based on. This was my first commenter:
Enjoy!
I was stuck waiting for my car to get serviced. There was an unusual amount of people waiting for theirs to be ready as well. I thought I picked a good time when the majority of the population would be at work, but I guess a 10 o’clock in the morning timeframe was more convenient for these folks as well.
I cursed myself for not bringing something for me to do while I waited. After scrolling through my newsfeed for the twentieth time in the past hour I decided to put my phone away and take in my surroundings.
I hadn’t noticed, but the smell of gasoline had finally left my nose. I think I’d been there too long. When pungent smells don’t bother you anymore, that’s when you know you’ve settled into a place. That’s how crazy cat ladies live their lives in their cat-pee-smelling homes. They grew accustomed to the smell.
The small television mounted in the far corner of the room was showing infomercial after infomercial. I was about to look away when I saw a commercial for a small town car dealership. The mascot was this dancing banana with pom-poms on their hands. It looked like a nine-year-old drew this animation. I couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight of it.
“Come on by to Ripe’s Automotive Group where we’ll get you the most a-peeling deals — with no credit required!” The voice screams from the television as the dancing banana continues to move all around the cars shown with its big eyes and happy go lucky smile.
One thought ran through my mind: Who has the last name Ripe? Whoever it was, they were genius. I wondered when they knew that they would be a car dealership owner. Did they come up with the banana mascot before they came up with the business plan? I couldn’t figure out why I was so fixated on this, but it helped pass the time.
I hadn’t noticed, but a couple of other folks were watching the commercial with me. “I’d go to the dealership just to see if they have someone actually dressed in a banana.” A calm voice commented to the woman beside her. The woman had a funny-sounding cackle in response. I didn’t want to seem like I was eavesdropping so I tried to stifle my laughter. It didn’t work. Soon the whole room was laughing with each other. I don’t know why I was laughing as hard as I did but I ended up in tears.
My name was called not soon after. Even though we all had a shared experience over the dancing banana guy, I was glad to be finally out of that place.
On my drive home, something caught the corner of my eye. It was someone dressed as a banana on the side of the road waving pom-poms in the air. I took another quick glance and there it was: Ripe Automotive Group. How have I not seen this place before? I laughed for the duration of the way home.