We Leave Together, стр. 42

“We’re gonna find out which ones make someone sick,” he said.

“Why?”

“You’ll see,” said Djoss.

“Why, Djoss?”

“Hush,” said Djoss.

Djoss led his sister out of town. He avoided the hill where their parents were probably still sleeping, in the poplar grove. They walked up a dry streambed. Tiny frogs leaped away from them like grasshoppers. Rachel tried to catch one. Djoss grabbed her hand and tugged her up the hill.

“Come on,” he said, “We’re doing something important.”

He led her into the shaded forest.

“We’re looking for mushrooms,” he said, “Any kind of mushroom. When you see one, give it to me, okay?”

“Okay,” she said.

The forests smelled like cool rot. Red cedar trees smothered in moss sank in the weight of the rot in the air. The roots eventually let go. The trees collapsed into more rot. Two children strolled over the huddled mass of ruin upon ruin like flies landing briefly upon a battle in progress, unaware of the mass dying all around.

Djoss reached into a fallen stump, and he pulled out two different kinds of mushrooms.

“Here, hold these in your skirt,” he said, “but don’t eat them. They’re probably poisonous.”

Rachel gathered her skirt up in her hands so she could hold the mushrooms. She sniffed the air over her skirt. She curled her nose. “They’re going to make my dress stinky,” she said.

Djoss grunted. “Rachel, you already smell awful,” he said.

He led her deeper into the woods. “We’re following the stream so we can find our way back,” he said.

Djoss climbed between roots and ferns searching for mushrooms.

Some were brown, some black, some spotted, and some covered in yellow flecks, as diverse as bugs under stones.

When Djoss and Rachel had found a few dozen different kinds of mushroom, he led her back to the stream, and back to the village marketplace.

“Don’t drop anything,” he said, to his sister.

Djoss went up to the mushroom lady. She frowned. “Didn’t we tell you kids to leave?” she said, “Go on, then. Scat.”

Djoss grabbed a mushroom from Rachel’s dress. He held it up in the air for the woman to see. “I’m going to eat this mushroom,” he said.

“Don’t be a fool, boy. Look, some of the mushrooms out there might really harm you. Don’t be eating things you don’t know is safe.”

Djoss shoved the mushroom in his mouth. He started to chew. He smiled with chunks of mushroom squishing between his teeth. The mushroom lady didn’t seem to mind.

Djoss reached for another mushroom. “That first one tasted squishy,” he said. He held up the next mushroom. “This one looks better.”

The mushroom lady spit to protect herself from evil. She took the mushroom from Djoss’ hand. “Fine,” she said, “You want to know bad enough you’ll eat bad mushrooms to find out? Show me what you got.”

Djoss opened Rachel’s skirt. Fungus spilled from her dress and bounced in the dirt.

“If you touched any of these,” said the lady, “you be sure to wash them hands of yours off in the salt sea. Some of this stuff be nasty, nasty.” She took a long stick and speared three of the mushrooms. “Those three can make a fellow real sick. Real sick. Mayhap kill. They’d kill you if you ate them, easy. The one you ate will be making you pretty sick later, but it won’t kill you. Nobody to blame but yourself, you foolish brat.” She kicked the rest of the mushrooms on the ground into the street, and away from her little stand. “I ain’t telling you which ones of those are good and tasty. I don’t want you kids going after them and selling them, too. Strictly business, mind you. But, I don’t want you getting sick.”

The mushroom woman tossed the mushrooms on the stick off into the piles of trash around the marketplace.

Djoss was sick for a few days. His mother stayed with him, and left only to bring him food. Rachel told about the mushrooms, but her mother didn’t punish Djoss for it. Djoss was very sick.

When Djoss got better, Rachel’s mother went back to the village, to cast fortunes for coins. It wasn’t a very large village. When the village ran out of fortunes, and out of things to move, the family would move on to a new village.

***

Djoss’ father lounged in the grove, sleeping off alcohol with his huge arm resting over Rachel’s back. She had closed her eyes. She had curled up tight. She didn’t want his hand on her back. She wanted to pull away from him—to run away from him.

She heard Djoss. He said, “Hey,” and he seemed to trudge up to the poplar grove. The hand moved off her back. She didn’t open her eyes right away. Instead, she listened to the sound of eating, but it wasn’t normal eating. Her father had something pressed against his ear, and the thing inside of his head was eating something from the inside out. That’s how he ate.

“This tastes like shit,” he said.

Djoss snorted. “You don’t like it, you go get something for yourself.”

“Where’s your ma?” He’s talking and he’s eating at the same time. Rachel can hear the chewing, smacking noises of eating, and she can hear them speaking like they’re not eating anything. She’s afraid to open her eyes because she’s afraid she’ll see the creature darting from the ear, its black, centipede body wiggling in and out of the man’s head like a bug tongue.

“I asked you a question,” said her father.

Djoss didn’t say anything.

Rachel heard her father standing up. “Whatever you got, you eat it. It’s awful.”

“You know that’ll just make me sick,” said Djoss.

“I’ll make you eat something else and it’ll make you sick, too,” said her father.

“No,” said Djoss, “And back to Elishta with you.”

She heard the sound of hands striking skin, hard. A body tumbled to the ground. The body rolled towards her, and then she heard the body cursing and it wasn’t Djoss, or her father, really. She heard the sound of vomiting, but it wasn’t human