BananaNanaNana

I found the lone banana Laffy Taffy hidden beneath the pile of cloying cherries and slutty strawberries. I picked aside the Bottle Caps and Runts and brought it into the light, and it tried to burrow away again, to hide itself from view.

"Little Banana-nana," I said, "why do you hide from me?"

"Oh," the banana taffy sighed, "I've heard the children as they yell for the red one, the blue one, the cherry, the grape. No one ever calls for banana. I'd just assume save them the trouble of tossing me aside."

I picked up a watermelon Dum Dum it had crawled beneath as it slipped between my fingers. "Silly Banana-nana," I said, "Taking the word of children."

"Don't tease me!" the banana taffy cried. "I've seen the looks the others give me. They think I'm ugly, yellow, and bland."

"Well you certainly are yellow," I agreed.

"Leave me alone!" the banana taffy sobbed, curling away from me. It dove into a pile of Gobstoppers, sending them rolling across the tabletop. "Just eat the cherry ones and go away!" came its muffled squeak.

"Oh, you silly Banana-nana," I said as I swept away the Gobstoppers. "Don't you understand?" The banana taffy did not respond; it only sulked like a spoiled cat. "Listen, Banana-nana, just because some people don't like the bananas is no reason to assume that no one does!"

The banana taffy poked out to look at me. "And you think someone does," it scoffed.

"That's what I'm trying to tell you." I offered in an encouraging smile. "Just because there are kids who don't understand the perfect joy of shaping a banana Laffy Taffy into a little banana and then eating it slowly so you can get the full flavor doesn't mean that they're all that foolish." I winked at it. "I mean, even you must realize that."

The banana taffy was losing its grip on its melancholy now. It struggled a bit, almost too afraid to let itself feel hope. "I don't know what you mean," it said, but I could tell it was lying. "I don't know where to find one who could like that."

"Well," I shrugged, and I waggled my eyebrows, "there's one right here."

"No," it said.

"Yes," I corrected.

"You're lying," it tried again.

"I would never," I assured it.

The banana taffy sat a moment, dumbfounded. It never imagined that this might happen. "Well then," it said, trying in vain to be nonchalant, "you...you wouldn't happen to..."

"I think I can decide for myself what I want," I told the little taffy, and I plucked it from the mound of candy.

"Careful!" it cried, and I shushed it. I began to peel back the wrapper and it squealed. "Not so fast!" the banana taffy ordered.

"Little Banana-nana, why wait any longer?" I pulled it from the plastic and began to roll it in my fingers.

The banana taffy trembled a little. "I've never felt like this before," it said in an awed whisper.

I shushed it again, saying "I know." I shaped it into a fat tapered tube and gave it a little curve. I pinched the ends and rolled them. "There you are," I told it, holding my little taffy banana up to the light.

"How wonderful!" the taffy banana exclaimed. "Who knew this day would come? Who knew I could feel so hap-"

The rest of its words disappeared as I ate it.