'Going Places' - Aug 12th, The Year of the Minotaur
The Banana Boat departs. I am accompanied by 15 cronies, seven mariners and my skipper,
Coatimundi. I am determined to find Mimi.
'In The Jungle' - Aug 25th
Surrounded by Amazonian mulattas bent on propagating themselves, we are regarded as
animals to be mated with their slaves and then eliminated. Mimi's mother provides us with
clues in the nick of time.
'Animal Crackers' - Sept 10th
The Carashians welcome us with a song and dance. Before we are allowed ashore however, we
are told to shed our American clothes and don the islands khaki attire. Adims and Pooler
refuse to assimilate: they are summarily bound and plunged into the ocean.
'I Stand Accused' - Sept 27th
Fresh gales. I am told today that Mimi prolonged her stay in the Iyo Republic. We head for
the island at breakneck speed.
'Latin Music' 'Musica Americana' - Oct. 23rd
We have the good fortune of arriving in the middle of a revolution! The Nignats and the
Raecons do battle for the control of the radio station. Each hates the music of the other,
it seems. We are taken to the Raecon Embassy and questioned about Spanish and Negro music.
I guess the authorities want to know where our sympathies lie. I lost my pal Bornes - he
had the wrong sympathies.
'I Am' - Nov 12th
No sooner do we set foot on land, than we are arrested. We discover, all too late, that
years ago the Governor had banned music in his city. We are tossed into the dark hole of a
great acoustic guitar.
Moderate Breezes and fair weather. We grieve for the loss of Donible and Coppersmith, whom we had to leave behind so we could continue.
'Schweinerei' - Dec 15th
I am as much dazzled by this futuristic city as the Finnemanians apparently are by me.
Having never seen brown skin before, these people regard me as an alien god. Perhaps I
should settle here in paradise and let sleeping dogs lie.
'Gina, Gina' - Jan 5th, The Year of the Centaur
I said goodbye to Gina this morning. Despite my pleas, she would not continue with us -
she is too much in love. We befriend an old sailor who swears he can take us to Mimi. The
old sailor turns out to be a fugitive from law. The Minskeberg police come closer every
hour. We climb higher and higher up Hannibal's mountain. I must keep the fellow alive if I
am to see Mimi again.
'With A Girl Like Mimi' - Feb 14th
The whirlpool has claimed many lives, all of my mariners and my dearest comrades Lawrence,
Tosca, Dorsee, Raes, Ratafian, Griffith... And alack - the Banana Boat - no more!
'Table Manners' - Mar 21st
I have never in my life encountered so many trllops, scoundrels, thieves and do-no-gooders
assembled in one place. Here, among all these devils, Coatimundi and I find Mimi's sister,
Solange. We make a deal and she promises to deliver Mimi.
'Dear Addy' - Aug 12th
The shock has subsided. I want to go home...badly. This afternoon I sent a telegram to my
housekeeper. She will understand.....
On Feb 15.
The Banana Boat was shipwrecked off the Brindisi Reef. The survivors awoke on B'Dilli Bay.
They remained there for nearly six months. Here then is the true untold story of their
gruesome ordeal - the music they were forced to play, the mates they were allowed to
choose and the escape they were bound to make.
"The saga continues"
The Kid and crew escape from B'Dilli Bay in a sparsely stocked lifeboat they find in a
cove not far from their captors. After 2 weeks afloat, tempers rising and rations
shrinking, they arrive on the beach of Zylla. Tattered, dispirited and penniless, the Kid
has given up hope of finding Mimi. Two years of searching has only intensified his pain
and his loss. He solemnly concludes that Mimi is not on Zylla, and decides to end his
quest and return to New York. Now he must find a way off the island. A stroke of fortune
offers them a chance in the guise of a talent festival. They enter and win the cash prize
- but Mundi warns, the winds blow from the east, portending an ominous fallout. Alas - it
is so, their attempts to leave Zylla by sea are foiled by a typhoon. Yet a shift in the
winds carries a welcome surprise: Gina-Gina is discovered on the island working as a DJ on
an underground radio station. She induces the Kid to remain there as a symbol of hope for
the oppressed halfbreed nation. Zylla, she explains, is ruled by the tyrannical King
Nignat who, in his obsession with racial purity, has banished much of the halfbreed
population from the island. The Kid's unexpected win has brought faith to these people -
and Creole, the American halfbreed, becomes a hero to them. Nignat is infuriated and sets
out to destroy the Kid. Creole is lured into a trap and abducted. In the Palace dungeon
the King's scientist works long hours on a devious experiment - the creation of a double:
a Doppelganger - through which Nignat plans to neutralize the Kid. In the confusion that
follows, Mimi is found imprisoned on Zylla and somewhere in a dark forest Kid Creole
confronts... himself! This then is the tale of a man, a quest, dilemma and distress, and
above all, this is a tale of survival...
Chapter 8
Sanctimonious Peregrinations
...in which The Kid and his crew return to the Isle of York; in which the band celebrates
a ten year anniversary; in which Kid falls in love with the beautiful Leah Of The Seven
Winds, a circus trapeze artist, but discovers he cannot consummate his love; for the union
of Luminari and Orinari is strictly forbidden; in which Kid decides to leave his beloved
Isle of York for once and for all.
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