Garbage: The Untold Fear of Fruit

It sat there waiting patiently, as any piece of fruit does. Waiting to be picked.

Banana was keen to please the next person with a sweet, fruity urge, after seeing so many of its brethren go before it. Seeing the joy it brought to small children, adults, even those awkward teenagers who hate anything healthy – even they can't resist a banana for a quick energy boost or sugar fix. So convenient a snack are we! Pack us in your bag, we might get a little bashed, a touch bruised, but there's a thick skin there to protect our nutritious insides.

But despite all the smiles that Banana saw others bringing to the faces of the hungry, the expressions of satiation that blossomed forth, Banana couldn't help but fear it.The careless flinging into the garbage of so many spent shells...was that any way to treat something that asked for nothing, but gave so much? To be tossed aside, ungratefully discarded without a thought for the carcass of a banana, no decent burial or cremation – was that a way to treat something that once was so wholesome? Banana thought not.

The fear of being garbage was too much.

Banana was ripening nicely now and knew its time would come very soon. How long did Banana have? A day? Half a day? An hour? Minutes.....seconds?!

Banana had to break free before that same fate befell him that had already befallen so many...but what was that?!

Click! Squeeeek...

The kitchen door opened. It was dad. Phew! Banana was safe – dad never ate fruit. Except that one time he thought some raisins were chocolate buttons in a muffin. How disappointed he had been!

But there was something about the situation that Banana didn't like. Banana could feel it in every nutritious morsel of its saccharin-sweet, ripened, wisened body.

Dad was approaching Banana... A turmoil of emotions threw themselves around in Banana's thoughts.

No! I don't want to be Garbage!
Pick me! I'm tasty and healthy!
You could do with eating some fruit.
But wait, don't throw me down like mum and son did to my siblings...please...
Take me, but treat me nice!
I don't want to be squished into that smelly, dark, dank place...the Garbage can!
But you should eat me before I'm too ripe! I -

Dad picked Banana.

Dad peeled Banana.

Dad chomped and chewed and ground Banana in his mouth.

Dad chucked Banana's skin in the garbage.