4-Banana
He was fat and short. Blondish, light-skinned, an arrogant look about him, Banana had studied. Gustavo had met him through Emílio, at the Cubicle in fact, so many years ago… Banana lived near there, he made the Cubicle a kind of office. He studied but not too much. He didn’t like to work. His father had left him a huge fortune, that’s what people said, nobody knew how Banana made his living, not him or his mother. It was known that his mother told him what to do. He spent his day between the Cubicle and home. He didn’t do anything else except drink a few bevvies and talk. He talked a lot but said very little. He didn’t talk about anything with any interest. He wasn’t sure himself if he had any interest as a person. Nobody could understand why he talked so much. The truth is he did, but maybe he talked for the sake of it, to feel less lonely, for company, it ended up being all the same. He was a person incapable of heroic acts, different from the absolute ordinariness which Dayna talked about. Though she seemed to be wrong, because she was an extremely interesting person, while Banana, a completely ordinary person, was extremely uninteresting. He didn’t talk about any specific subject, which seemed to be absolutely in keeping with the time and space which they lived in. In fact more people talked more and more about nothing at all, though they did talk. Spaces like the Cubicle were quite full, full of people who talked about nothing. It was Emílio who introduced Banana to Gustavo. Gustavo was somewhat impressed by Banana, from their first meeting.
- He only says banalities, exclaimed Emílio.
- They should change his name to Banality, instead of Banana, then!
- It’s not worth it: Banana doesn’t even deserve to have the name he was given, a long time ago, changed. In fact it was curious watching a Banana conversation. He talked about illnesses, he mentioned a friend who died recently, he described the evolution of the illness, all without a trace of emotion, and also without a trace of knowledge. That is because Banana had no knowledge about Medicine, he couldn’t even give such a description if he wanted to, though the idea that Banana didn’t want to describe anything lingered in the air. It was also possible to hear Banana pontificate about people who suffered from famine like someone who mentions it has started to rain. All things were like this, devoid of any interest, their only interest was in being talked about, always superficially, without the slightest intention or ability to analyze them. He also mentioned the friends he had had who had moved away. There was no hint of nostalgia, he didn’t miss them. He just spoke about them for the sake of conversation. Talking about others was to follow a tradition.
- He is not the worst of them!
- He isn’t, Emílio? No. He sometimes, rarely however, ends up badmouthing; most of them are capable of something else: “bad- doing”.
- Hum, I see. That was Banana’s life. He always greeted Gustavo when he saw him, though, like in everything he did or that you could imagine him doing, without enthusiasm. Gustavo returned the greetings and usually left it at that. Emílio described Banana’s personality to him, several times. It wasn’t necessary, just one time would have been enough for Gustavo to understand.
- He is weak! Totally incapable! Emílio always referred to Banana like that, when he spoke about him. Gustavo went for long periods without seeing him, only because he didn’t used to hang out at the Cubicle, the so called “office” where Banana could always be found. It had been rumoured