“Which is?”
“Cockroaches.”
I held my stomach. “Okay. Okay. This topic is over.”
“You don’t want to eat the cockroaches in the city. You want the ones in the wild.”
“Naw. I’m good.”
“Those taste better and have more nutritional—”
“No. Cain. Just no.” I waved my hands and laughed.
“Cockroaches taste like greasy bits of chicken.”
“And now I won’t be eating chicken for a while.”
“Okay. I’ll change the subject.” Chuckling, he stopped us to one side of the trail where fungus scattered across roots and covered most of the space.
“There we go.” Cain kneeled and studied them. “Hmmm.”
I watched him get up and check out the other section.
This time, he paused by a tree that had tons of fungus jutting out from the tree. The tan mushrooms had broad, oyster-shaped caps. The gills of the mushroom were white.
I watched him. “What are you looking for?”
“Edible mushrooms for dinner tonight.”
“Oh.” I widened my eyes. “We’re just going to grab some mushrooms out here and eat them?”
“Not exactly.” He grinned. “I have a recipe in mind, but we will be eating them eventually.”
“I like the sound of that.”
“You do?”
“I think you’re an excellent cook.”
“Good. But this time, we’ll be cooking together.”
“O-kay.”
He looked into my eyes. “We have a lot going on around us, but my goal today is—”
“Medicine and mushrooms.”
“As well as. . .”
“What?”
He cleared his throat. “You’re not just my lover or my possession. You’ll be my best friend.”
My heart beat fast in my chest.
“That’s the sort of love I want for us.”
“But could that sort of love come from what we’ve experienced?”
“It can, if we try.”
“Then. . .we’ll see.” I lowered next to him and checked out the mushrooms surrounding the trees.
“I love hunting for mushrooms.”
“Why?”
“I love to eat them and. . .”
I gazed at him in utter curiosity. “And?”
“It keeps my mind and body active and continually teaches me new things about the natural world.”
I turned back to them. “But, some mushrooms are poisonous.”
“That’s the biggest fear people have when they start hunting for mushrooms. Some could just make you sick. Others will kill you instantly. There’s a few that are safe to eat but need to be cooked to unlock their nutritional value.”
I smiled. “And there’s mushrooms that make you high.”
“Very high.”
“Years ago, this one guy tried to give Quin and me a bag of them.”
“Did you both eat them?”
“We don’t eat shit from some stranger’s bag.”
“Good rule.”
I studied one of them. “How do I figure out if the mushroom is good for me or not?”
“First rule before anything is this, ‘if in doubt, throw it out.’”
“I can rock with that.”
Cain took off his back pack, unzipped it, and pulled out a large plastic card showing tons of illustrations of various mushrooms. Each had a title under them, and they were all types of mushrooms that I’d never heard of. Chanterelle and beefsteak. Black trumpet and Chicken of the Wood. Comb Tooth and Hedgehog.
Cain touched it. “This is a mushroom identification chart.”
“You’re not playing.”
“Not at all.”
I peeked near his bag. “Besides the gun, what else is in there?”
“Bottles of water. A few snacks. Two pocket knives to cut the mushrooms off as well as bags to fill. There’s a digging trowel in there too to grab spring roots like parsnips and dandelions. I put this together while the hashbrowns were cooking which is why I didn’t hear the fight upstairs. I was in the pantry.”
“If you were stuck in the woods would you survive with no problem?”
“As long as I had a few tools and weren’t too injured.”
I shook my head.
Why the hell did I think I could hide from him? He’s a fucking warrior mountain man type.
He took out the pocket knives and handed one to me. “These are good to eat.”
I checked the chart and then looked at them. “These are Oyster mushrooms?”
“Correct. Grab them.”
I touched my chest. “Me.”
“Definitely.”
For the next few minutes, Cain took his time showing me how to take the oyster mushroom off and put them in the bag.
We forged on, searching for other mushrooms. During that time, not a breeze blew. The birds and trees stood still and watched us, as if they were curious about what we would find next.
There was a giddiness to the moment. Never did I think that I would be traveling through a rich forest with a knife, searching for food like my ancient ancestors. More mushrooms popped up here and there. When they resembled the edible ones on the chart, I would grab Cain to confirm it. Almost each time, I discovered good ones.
Once I found a swarm of mushrooms near a dying tree. It’s bark was dangling and slipping off of the trunk. Instead of a neat cap, these fungi had a network of ridges with pits, giving it a honeycomb appearance.
I checked the chart and called Cain over. “Hey. I think I see some Morels.”