Banana Luke

Luke ate bananas with peanut butter, whipped cream, apple sauce and marshmallows.  He ate them on his toast, stuck to pretzels at morning snack, sliced over his macaroni and cheese at lunchtime, and stacked between cookies for afternoon snack.  At dinner, he wrapped spaghetti around a banana and for desert he dipped one in honey.

Luke loved bananas.

But one day, while reaching for ketchup to flavor up his favorite fruit, he noticed his fingers had turned yellow.  The next day his whole arm was yellow and the day after that, he was completely yellow!

“Luke,’ cried his mother, “if you don’t stop eating bananas, you’re going to turn into one!”

“I’ll try to stop, Mom,” Luke said.

Luke tried to stop. He tried to stop thinking about how fun it was to peel open a banana and discover a tasty treat inside. He tried to stop thinking about how much better all of his food tasted with a banana.

But the more he thought about not eating bananas, the more bananas he ate.

The next day, when reaching for a banana, he discovered his fingers had turned into little bananas!

 “Luke, no more bananas!” cried his mother.

“Okay, Mom, no more bananas,” said Luke.

Luke had no more bananas that day.  For breakfast, he put only butter on his toast. At lunchtime, he ate macaroni and cheese and nothing else.  And for dinner, he ate plain spaghetti.  He went a whole day without eating a single banana.

But that night, after everyone else had gone to bed, he just HAD to have a banana. 

Just one little banana, he thought. Just one.

And he ate just one little banana.

As soon as he had swallowed the last bite, his feet, his legs, and his arms started to feel soft; his body felt mushy. 

And then, a banana peel started to grow over his toes, up his legs, over his arms and finally covered his whole body. 

He was a giant banana!

When his mother came in the next morning, she saw a banana sitting at her kitchen table.  She knew it was Luke.

She called the doctor.

“My son turned into a banana!” she told the doctor.

“Did he eat too many bananas?” asked the doctor.

“Yes,” answered Luke’s mother.

“There is only one thing you can do to get your son back,” said the doctor.  “Get a big bowl of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry ice cream.  Peel open your son and put him on top of the ice cream. Then cover him in whipped cream and add one cherry on top.  You will have your son back.”

Luke’s mom did just as the doctor ordered. As soon as she was done, the banana turned back into Luke!

And what did they do with all that ice cream? They had an ice cream party with their friends.

Luke still eats bananas, but only once a day, with a bowl of ice cream.