Going bananas under Covid-19

RANDOM acts of kindness are hard to come by, especially under the shadow of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.

Expecting, therefore, the experience of glimpsing even a semblance of the supposedly innate goodness of the human heart would be a joy and a weapon for battling Covid-19.

Just stop hoping that your usually scrupulous of a banana vendor would be the first to fall in line and offer you a kilo of the (silk banana) at pre-virus prices.

I had hoped wrong, with the fruit seller who owns a stall across the street from where I live in Quezon City telling me that he was selling my favorite banana variety at P110 per kilo.

Before the enhanced community quarantine imposed by the government over Luzon, a kilo of the latundan from the very same vendor cost only P70 to P75.

But he had told me — and he was not even apologetic about it and without even mentioning the ”C word” — that “

(Things are expensive today, Father).”

I took off even before banana man (big brother) could ask me if I was buying a kilo or two.

Believing in what I had heard that bananas and other fruits, as well, are good against Covid-19, I decided to walk a few meters away from big brother’s mini-grocery and was fortunate enough to see a makeshift store full not only of

(banana) but also papayas, watermelons, apples and other vegetarian delights.

The shocking answer of a store helper to my question, “How much, 1 kilo of latundan?” was “P170 (for 1 kilo).”

I also left the place in a huff, maybe because I am (tightwad) or I did not want to be ripped off.

Besides, I can buy canned sliced pineapple at a neighborhood convenience store that has remained open in spite of the quarantine.

The two incidents happened on Tuesday and they left me thinking if, God forbid, another apocalyptic visitor from nowhere came knocking and saw the price of bananas exceed that of caviar.

On Monday, my granddaughter volunteered to hop over to a supermarket that has also stayed unshuttered.

In the village where we are residents, only one member of a household is allowed to pass through the gate and only to buy groceries and medicines, with a curfew of sorts starting at five in the afternoon.

My granddaughter later called, saying she had bought more food and stuff than she could possibly carry home.

Since we have no car and no jeepney or tricycle was available, she had to improvise on how she could bring the supplies to the house.

She did and she arrived after about 15 minutes thanks to a random act of kindness of a driver of a transport company that delivers cargo — and only cargo — with the passenger not allowed to board the vehicle, which drops off the goods at one’s doorstep.

How the driver managed to drive through the deserted avenue leading to our house apparently unmolested by checkpoint minders was beyond me.

Stroke of luck or divine intervention, of which I also believe we need huge doses of?

I’ll take both, but would it be asking too much if I beg the Lord to make the rather unreasonable price of banana go away?

I guess, though, that He has far more important things to do, and one of them is to get rid of the vicious virus, not the saging vendor who tried to sell his bananas to this senior citizen, who, in the first place, was only intending to buy a kilo of the fruit, not his banana plantation, if he owns one.

The Manila Times.