Taste of banana - A story written in five minutes

in #freewrite6 years ago

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Taste of banana


I quit smoking two years ago and the most common question I get is still the question of how a chain smoker of twenty years managed to quit the habit for good, and whether it was even worth it for anything else but saving money.

To this day I still give the very same answer to whoever asks me that question.

I tell them I quit cold turkey and that it got really hard for me by week three when the stress from work fully kicked in. I tell them I was at the verge of giving in, daydreaming about having a cigarette before bed, when I walked over to the counter and picked up a banana from the fruit bowl.

The moment I peeled it open something miraculous had happened. Something I couldn’t remember happening ever before. The banana I had peeled had a scent to it.

Years and years of smoking have blunted my sense of smell to such a degree I could no longer pick up the aromas of fruit even if I held them up to my nose. For the longest time I either didn’t believe other people when they told me bananas had a distinct smell to them, or I chose to believe I am missing some receptors in my nose, all while the true cause for my inability to smell was my smoking habit.

Bedazzled by the banana’s odor alone, I foolishly believed the banana would carry the same taste it has before. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The banana tasted as if it was a hundred times more potent and I could feel its aroma on my every taste bud.

Needless to say I didn’t have a cigarette that evening. Nor any of the following evenings.


The prompt was:

"What does a banana taste like?"



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Five minute freewrite challenges I have fulfilled so far:

Fire, Toilet, Flash, Soft feet, Pillow, Grounding, Surprise, Ending the pain, Going for a walk, Car Mechanic, Murderer, Dog hair, Ducks, Untested medicine, Forbidden love, Vacation, Awakening, Dentist, Wild west, Frozen Lake, Flea Market, Accident, The Gut Monster, Other Side, Late night walk, The Eternal Question, Warrant, Costume Party, Suspect, Pep talk, Election propaganda, Kindergarten, The heist, A spice like no other, Hunter, Wealth, Racket, The two rubber ducklings, Sick, Dragon breath, Remote relationship, Goals.



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@svashta Woah, how do you get into the skins of your characters so? (:
Would like to do the same!

First of all, thank you for the kind comment. <3

And as for the how...
I like becoming my characters by drawing parallels between their reality and mine and trying my best to ultimately become one with them. If we look at this one for example; I used to play video games a lot, and I mean a lot. Not necessarily addicted, but just looked forward to getting home, slamming the door shut from the real world and play until as late as 4 am, only to wake up at 6.30 and go to school. So, in a sense, video games gave me what I believe many smokers get from smoking. Time off obligations, company, relaxation, ... ... I somewhat got the "same" sensation from video games that smokers do from smoking, so I can more easily relate to their "need" for a cigarette, and more easily understand what that cigarette means to them.
Some writing hokus pokus later, and you have a story written from the perspective of a smoker :P

In short, look through your own experience and draw whatever you can from them and transfer it into your character(s). Sometimes links are bizarre, and sometimes as easy as video games and smoking. :P
I'm sure you have it in you! ^^

Thanks for stopping by! :D

You're most welcome, thanks for taking the time to share some of your thoughts! 😊😊

Reminds me of a well-known quote:

Life is stranger than fiction.

Any time! ^^

Likely that well-known because it's very damn true. :P

Thank you for being here for me, so I can be here for you.
Enjoy your day and stay creative!
Botty loves you. <3

It's a miraculous thing indeed to quit smoking, oh my, I think you need to check smoke.io, I hope it doesn't tempt you to pick up that life again.

I never smoked myself, but heard something along these lines by a friend who has quit smoking. He switched to vaping and about three weeks later he told me that all tastes and scents intensified significantly.
Thank you for looking out for me, though! :D

good to have you back! You are so convincing in your first-person fiction. If I didn't know that there is no way that you smoked for 20 years - well, maybe if you started as a small child - you would have fooled me.

Yes, he just about had me fooled, too, 'til I read the other comments!

Drat! Definitely shouldn't have commented on the story's actual credibility! :P
I've learned my lesson, will be more mysterious next time! >;D

Would've had to start as a two-year-old toddler then! :P
Thank you very much! I maybe never should have told you my age and never should've told anyone it wasn't true in the comments! :D
Definitely missed writing myself, and am actually excited about the fact that I now must write anew because I'm all out of prewritten stories for the @davidkain account :P

What!!
You are only 22?
You had me... I really thought it was your experience...
I should have read the comments first before sending you the next prompt hahaha
Very nicely done :D

Yep! 22!
In my defense, I do prefer the company of people older than me, though, and kinda look older myself (or at least so I'm told), so it's rather easy to make that mistake :P But then again... You didn't judge by my looks. All story! :P
Very happy to have fooled you, haha! :D I'll try and fool you again! >;D
Thanks for stopping by ^^

All story,
Your picture yes, you do not look like someone who has been smoking for 20 years hahaha
I shall look out for those mind tricks ;p

Some are subtle, though, and some are very real. That's what's the most fun about it! You never know what is true and what is fiction! ;)

Yes, that does make it exciting ... :)

Well, we saw your face too LOL. And since you have written so many different versions of characters, after a while I would have caught on without you telling 😄

Yes!! Write!!

Hmmm~ Should've grown my beard out more and let my baldness shine in all its beauty, and convince you I'm 30-ish. >;P

I hear that pretty often lately, and I've started saying it myself, too, so definitely am going to write today as soon as I get home! :D

It is good to be young, full of energy and talented!! Age will come soon enough. Enjoy what you got 👍

It's amazing how time flies, and it only appears to be going ever faster. I'm 22 myself, and I cannot even begin to imagine how fast time is flying by for people older than me.
Enjoying myself and making the most of it indeed! ^^ And thanks!
(Especially thanks for the talented adjective). :shy:

You are talented and might as well own it. That is one thing I had to learn after coming to the US. Here, you have to own your worth and stand up for it in a way that is considered rude or conceded in Europe.
Here, it is a bit much, but I feel in Europe (at least when I was living there) the constant downplaying of your own strength and talents if not healthy...
So, breath it in and own it 🤓

Ah, snap, shouldn't have upvoted your comment that soon

Thank you.
And yes, the downplaying, let's call it for what it is, does carry its very own burden with it. And I believe you're right. We should own our strengths and be proud of them. Otherwise we just get stuck in our little self conscious loops of self-pity. :|
So, thank you, and will do (or at least try my best to!). ;D

I'm personally glad I never started smoking. Now, if I could quite drinking soda...

Same here.^^
Soda, you say? I think I can very much help in that department ^^ Hit me up on Discord if you'd like a word or two about it ^^
I'm actually writing a book on the matter of dieting and soda falls right in that department. :P It's text is finished, I just need the cover and inside imagery done before publishing.
My discord: Svashta #5217

It's mostly a strength of will thing, for me. If I could actually get enough sleep, then I wouldn't need the caffeine and sugar as much to function. I could also probably quit if I took something like a full month off of work where I could afford to be completely incapacitated while I go through withdrawal, but as of yet I've been unwilling to do anything like that.

Would it be an option for you to switch to (black) coffee as an alternative for the caffeine you speak of?
Or, depending on whether or not this habit is obstructing your weight related goals, could you swap some (or all) soda for diet soda instead?
Or, best of all, would it be possible to get plain carbonated water, or maybe flavored carbonated water as a replacement? For me, personally, I love black coffee for the caffeine, and carbonated water (sometimes flavored) for the bubbly mouthfeel.

Pardon me for asking another question here; do you sip your soda or down it in one go?
Chances are you could have just formed a habit of having a glass near you and will take a sip every now and then, regardless of what is inside. Try changing that for a better alternative.

I can do both; sometimes I sip, other times I drink it more rapidly. It usually depends how thirsty I actually am. Coffee is something I've considered, I just haven't acquired a taste for it yet. Try as I might, I can't drink more than half a cup. I actually can't stand diet soda either, it just tastes weird to me. I also drink some non-carbonated caffeine filled drinks, but those also have sugar, and I just can't get into the habit of drinking anything that has caffeine but no sugar.

Part of it definitely is an unconscious habit, though. I'm fully aware that I sometimes just drink whatever I have with me without really tasting it.

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Interesting perspective - and well written - love it!
Amazing, the things we get used to, the things we don't realize we're missing out on.
My upvote is down to 76%, but I'll be back.

Thank you! Very happy you feel that way! ^^
Seeing as you replied in first person you made me wonder. You're either a smoker yourself, or implying that we are all missing out on things we don't even know we're missing out on because of our lifestyle. I'll go with the latter option. Unsure why, but kind of reminds me of my brother who refused to eat tomatoes for the longest time because of their texture, then fell in love with them when he gave them a second try years and years later. Sometimes the real treasures are right in front of us and we fail to acknowledge them. ^^"

Don't worry about it! Having read, and enjoyed, my work weighs more than any upvote! <3 If anything, I hope you find your way back to read another story ^^

You nailed it: "we are all missing out on things we don't even know we're missing out on" - because it's so easy to stay in the routine we're in. No, I'm not a smoker, and you had me fooled - you write so convincingly from a POV that isn't really your own. That's the hallmark of a true writer!
My husband also refused to try new foods and discovered, in his 20s, all kinds of wonders that he missed out on in his childhood ona farm. Strawberries, for one. He's only recently added onions and tomatoes to his repertoire. But he has NEVER let yogurt touch his lips, and never will. Me, I will try anything - even insects! - but only if they're not moving, and preferably if I can't SEE them (grind them into a casserole).

Thank you again!

Oh wow. I'm curious about the reason behind not trying strawberries. I can't see anything about them as offputting. To me they just look delicious!
What's funny about onions, at least I find it so, is that many people won't have them raw, but will salivate when they are being sauteed/caramelized. It's pretty awesome when you think about it, too. You can take something one doesn't like, do xyz with it, and Voila! People love it! :P
Yeah, I am willing to give everything a shot at least once, too, although I agree with the... alive... insects...
Now that is something I want to try! Figure it tastes like dirt, but am probably wrong?

That's interesting.
But now that you've shared this, I can imagine cigarettes taking away the smell and taste to a certain degree
What a wonderful experience :D

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They supposedly do dull the taste and smell of food, so the story isn't all fiction :P

Thanks for the prompt!
(Getting to your next comment now. >;P)

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