text: Keith liked to watch the fish. To see them shoot through the water like silver bullets was always captivating. Their streamline forms so elegant and beautiful, the water parting before them with a graceful bow as they twirled and danced in their private watery world. To be admired such as these fish was Keith’s dream. Sadly, Keith could never be on the receiving end of such admiration and desire. How could he? Keith is a banana. A lowly, rather typical, dull, banana. There was nothing special about Keith, and he knew it. He was much the same as any of the other bananas in his bunch where they sat squarely in a wicker basket in the food court. The only thing to set him apart was his rather peculiar dream of becoming a fish. Or at least to be seen as a thing of beauty much in the same way he saw those wonderful fish. To be craved and envied as much as those slippery angels that torment him with their lustrous figures and tantalising performances. He’d watch their lithe bodies dart back and forth, envying their grace and slender frames compared to his sluggish rounded curves. The other bananas didn’t seem to care much for the fish, or of anything at all for that matter. They didn’t spend their days longing to be something they weren’t, something they never would be. They didn’t do a whole lot of anything, Keith thought. They just sit there in silence, blissfully unaware of the magnificent splendour taking place right in front of them. Oh how they were missing out on nature at its finest. This was a good thing, Keith thought. It was a good thing that he was the only one capable of appreciating the finer things the world has to offer. It contented him to know that the spectacles of the fish were for him and him alone. If only he could venture further, beyond the confines of the bunch, beyond the food court, beyond the barrier that separated his mundane existence from their splendour. To join them in their watery performance. To be seen as something as remarkable as them. But alas, he was not destined to penetrate the firmament which held back the briny heavens that those beautiful fish lived in. He would just have to live with the fact that he was nothing but a simple banana who would never be seen as anything more. It was a shock when, one day, while enjoying the show, Keith felt a sudden rush of air as he was hoisted into the sky. A great being held him as if he was nothing, a tiny insignificance in its mighty grasp. His stomach dropped as fear crept up his spine and filled his heart with dread. The ground swayed and tumbled in a dizzying display of colours as he was lofted ever higher until he was staring into the face of God. Then he saw it, in the eyes of the deity that swept him away. Staring back at him was a look of joy and of lust. A warmth seeped throughout his entire being as the opulent diamond blue eyes drew nearer, a smile forming across a widening maw. This warmth was what Keith had craved all this time. The feeling of being wanted and appreciated for just being himself, a banana. He couldn’t believe that God had chosen him, an average and clunky fruit, over that of the silvered works of art swimming behind them. As his outer layer was slowly peeled away, despite the pain it causes him, Keith closed his eyes with a smile on his face as he welcomed what was to come and basked in the delight of being desired even more than those remarkable fish.