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I looked over at the man sitting on the far end of the bus’ bench seat, wondering vaguely if I were being tested.

There was a banana, you see. A nice, ripe, apparently fresh and bruise-free banana…right there on the seat. Alone. And, to paraphrase Jerry Holkins, “found” is not a natural state of foods.

Now, “lying” certainly is a state one could reasonably expect from a banana. But we expect them to to be lying, perhaps with other bananas, in a produce section at QFC. We do not expect them to be lying alone on a bench seat on the Route 8 bus to Seattle Center.

It just isn’t natural.

Bravely shaking off my confusion, I hoisted the banana from the seat, with much the same gravity that one might hoist Excalibur. Shamefacedly realizing, two or three blocks later, that I was A) still holding the offending fruit, and B) handling it less like a found banana and more like a found “greasy paper bag of unknown and ominous contents”, I quickly replaced it on the seat.

As I got up to leave a few stops later, I briefly considered taking the banana with me. But somehow, I thought it would be happiest if I left it as I found it. Alone. Lying on the seat.

It just seemed natural.