Forgotten Stories

It was a one of those miserable, wet, autumn days and Kate didn't feel like going out. Castle had gone to one of his meetings with Black Pawn and she wasn't expecting to see him back till later on in the afternoon. It was strange how his presence comforted her these days, how not only did she miss him when he wasn't with her on a case, but she also missed him when he wasn't around on her free days …. not that that happened much, but after a morning in the loft reading, cleaning, tidying up, cooking, reading … she had reached the stage where she didn't know what to do with herself.

Then she had remembered their conversation from a few weeks beforehand about sorting out the downstairs storage room. Some of her stuff had been put in there when she left her apartment and moved in to the loft, but a lot of items had been accumulated over the years by Rick and had just been stuck in there when they weren't found to be of use or needed in the loft. They had discussed spending a weekend going through the contents and donating anything of use to local charities and dumping anything which had neither value not interest.

So she had decided to start looking at what was in there at least … there was no way she was going to decide what he should or shouldn't keep, but she might as well make a start on organising the contents; maybe make a list of what was there.

And that was what she had been doing for a couple of hours until she came across the box. She wouldn't have gone through the contents without him being present if it hadn't have been for the fact that one, it was open-toped and two, the item on the top had caught her attention. It looked just like any binder holding schoolwork or something similar, but it had been the faded picture glued on to the cover which had caught her eye.

She remembered Rick telling her about Alexis' stuffed monkey back when they were on the Candelas' kidnapping case the first year he shadowed her. She'd forgotten the name until seeing it scrawled across the top of the drawing "Monkey-Bunkey And The Naughty Banana". The picture was obviously a kid's drawing of a monkey and a banana wearing a bandit or burglar's mask, but both the text of the title and its style looked much more mature. Something about it made her pull it out and flip the cover open. She stopped, hand over her mouth as a smile spread across her face. This she had not expected!

MONKEY-BUNKEY AND THE NAUGHTY BANANA

For my little Pumpkin

By Richard Rodgers

She had almost stopped right there, feeling intrusive at turning any more pages, but eventually curiosity got the better of her and she carefully turned the slightly yellowed paper ….

When Monkey-Bunkey woke up one morning, he was feeling so, so hungry, he decided to look in the fridge for some food.

But when he opened the door … Oh dear … the only thing he could find was an old banana!

Monkey-Bunkey didn't like old bananas, but he was so hungry! His tummy was going "Growl, Growl, Feed Me! Feed Me!" and so he decided he would eat the old banana.

So he went to the cupboard, pulled out his favourite red plate and his red plastic cup and carried them to the table.

Monkey-Bunkey took his red cup to the sink, climbed up on his little stool and filled his cup with water.

Then carrying the cup very, very carefully he took it back to the table where he put it by his plate.

The text was written in large font each paragraph spread across a page. Below each paragraph was a childish drawing of the scene depicted. Kate found an old chair by the wall, pulled it out and sat down, the binder open on her lap. She was enthralled, not just by the story itself, but also because of the picture it conjured up of Castle and his little daughter. She could just picture Rick reading the story to her and a young Alexis drawing in the pictures her vivid imagination conjured up.

Then Monkey-Bunkey went to the danger draw! He pulled it open and very carefully he took out his little red knife and fork, carrying them to the table as well.

Now he was ready for his breakfast, so he went back to the fridge, opened the door and looked at the old banana.

He put his hand in to pick it up … but suddenly, the banana stood up and ran to the back of the fridge!

"Oh!" Said Monkey-Bunkey, "I didn't know old bananas could run!"

The old banana looked at him from the corner of the fridge and said … in a very bananary voice "I'm not an old banana …. Monkey face!"

By now Kate was laughing, not so much at of the story itself, as at the image her mind conjured up of Rick doing all the voices as an enthralled Alexis squealed and clapped her hands in delight. She carefully closed the binder and gently ran her hands over the picture and the cover. Her mind wandered to a possible future … of kids of her own and Rick writing and reading them wonderful stories of monkeys and naughty bananas …. she suddenly felt herself blushing self-consciously, as butterflies tickled her insides …. maybe, she thought, maybe, but not just yet!

She stood up holding the binder against her chest with the same amount of care she would take with a precious object and pushed the chair back into place against the wall. Turning off the light she locked the door and took the lift up to the loft. She desperately wanted to carry on reading the story, but had decided to ask permission, not only of Rick, but also, more importantly, of Alexis. She did not want to intrude into what could be a very personal scene and would only do so if both Alexis and Rick were happy with it.