“There you go, there are the blue ones you know already. Then there are the purple and green ones, which you are about to discover. Don’t be fooled by the colours, they are all edible and quite nutritious.” Bhosun gets comfortable on the floor.

  “What does the blue one taste like for you because the taste is also a big reason why I love growing these beauties.”

  “The blue mushroom I found sublime and at the same time, really hard to describe. It is neither salty, sweet or sour. Bitter doesn’t describe it either. It doesn’t taste like a classic mushroom. I’ve got no word to describe what I taste. The texture is quite chewy.”

  “We agree on that then, there is though one taste that comes up each time when I eat them but it’s not easy putting my finger on it. Maybe this will do, it has the taste of salt, without the effect of salt, the dryness. It’s maybe the taste of minerals we aren’t used to eating.”

  “Salt without the saltness, that’s indeed not an easy taste to describe. Let’s have another one to see if I can discover the same taste,” Henry takes another bite, chewing mindfully. “I am not entirely sure that I found it, but I guess, that gets closest to what I have as a taste. What should we call this taste?”

  “Does it become better, just because you give it a name?”

  “It does add another label but it is so unique that it may actually be worth it.”

  “If it’s important to you, go ahead and name the ephemeral.”

  “How about salt upside down, tlass the reversed order of letters as it is salt upside down. The second s is for giving the pronunciation a nice roll to it.”

  “Very creative... I won’t use it, but feel free. Satisfied now? There are two more mushrooms to taste, take a green one now.”

  “It has more bite to it, more chewiness and taste-wise, I have peppery and minty notes on the green mushroom. Perfect for snacking or refreshing my palate.”

  “And now, the star of the show, the purple one.”

  “It tastes nothing like it’s two companions. I’d say it tastes sweet, sugary and like wine without the alcohol. It is firm but juicy. Like a mushroom for dessert.”

  “Ain’t that amazing, mind-blowing? Simple mushrooms with such a huge variety and we haven’t even discovered all of them yet. What about our next discoveries, what will we discover/ create? My mouth’s already watering up.”

  “What if we create a stinky one?”

  “We’ll find a way of making it work, as long as it’s truly edible.”

  “How did you find out these were edible. I can’t imagine you just simply popping a few mushrooms into your mouth and waiting to see what happens.”

  “I am a curious cat but that curious, no I’m not. I ate my way up. First I infused some small bits of a fresh mushroom in water, then I drank that tea. First a small sip and I drank more sips with two days in between each added sip.

  Safety first. As long as my body didn’t show averse reactions, either on my skin or in my body/ digestion, I would continue eating/ drinking bigger doses.”

  “What if it had been a very poisonous mushroom or one that poisons you over time?”

  “That’s part of the risk of exploration. It may knock you over but at least you don’t stay put. Only an idiot eats everything his eyes fall on.

  That’s better as staying stuck with what’s safe. You’ll be sorry growing old. Then it’s too late to turn back. Life without risks, is it really worth living?”

  “Well hell no, of course not.”, says Henry with an indignant look in his eyes.

  “It does help to slowly advance by taking higher doses and this not only to microdose, really anything new in life. Muscle growth needs to be earned, whatever the time it takes.

  The incremental increase is very important when ingesting unknown substances. I try to increase the dose as little as possible.

  My experience isn’t like anyone else’s. What may be a threshold dose for me, may not be one for you, as our bodies are different and I have another relation to my brain than you and another bio/neuro-chemistry.

  At which particle size does taste come out? How small can I cut it? Those and others were all questions I asked myself, by microdosing.”

  “Life without having jumped into a current that pulls me away, wherever it pleases? We wouldn’t have found each other. I surely wouldn’t know you exist. You were an unknown just a few hours ago and might become an unknown a few hours later.”

  “You might be bleeding right now because you jumped into that current. Will you regret it though? Like I said, the magic of the unseen, unknown.”

  “Never. It’s why I couldn’t stay with Clarity, I needed to come into this cave and discover why I feel so drawn to a cave where I can’t see. Why my life feels so incomplete. I couldn’t leave it at that.

  Running out of that cave and being so completely lost as I was. I had a warm embrace, a home but it wasn’t fulfilling me, deeply. I felt more lost than while I was still erring in the cave. Living this daily mundane life isn’t for everybody, some have other needs.”

  “Every life will always have elements of the mundane. You can though change your perception of the mundane and find magic everywhere, spirit, consciousness. It all depends on your dose of ‘poison’ and how balanced you can stay.”

  “Poison?”

  “We generally begin our paths with some kind of poison or pain and there’s plenty to choose from. You’ll begin letting go, picking up again and letting go again. Should you completely live without them or rather find a way to live with them in harmony? What does real harmony look like anyway?”

  “Where’s the harm with a little poison?”

  “Like I said, the dose. There might come a moment where even that dose begins stopping your advance.”

  “Advance to where?”

  “The path you’ve chosen, if I’m correct is one of continual evolution. Eventually to continue your evolution, choices need to be made.

  You begin feeling a need to limit some of your stronger resisting behaviours, to stay coherent to yourself. To make choices that at first glance seem counter-intuitive. The choices can be very varied.”

  “Will the need alone suffice to break through old habits that deter me from my continual evolution?”

  “Need in the sense of thoughts no. A thorough change of attitude is needed and a lessening of importance of whatever your ‘problem’ may be.

  Every person is different and will have an easier or harder time. Then again it is not about completion but about trying and not giving up. To love a little more for every wisdom earned. Enough philosophising, are you done eating? If so, I can show you around.”

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  “Yes, I am stuffed for the moment.”

  ‘‘Good, while we walk around, let’s collect all the mushy mushrooms and put them on the compost heap, they have been of the utmost importance, so thank them while you’re at it.

  From the entry to my hearth you enter into a main corridor leading to all the other spaces. First on the left is my sleeping room even though I can sleep anywhere in this cave.

  Sometimes those I am fortunate enough to meet, leave me something of personal value to them, which to me has far more value than many other gifts. The acquaintances I value the most I hope to carry with me in my heart.”

  The bedroom is like an alcove with many small niches that have bones shaped into figurines, different crystals and strangely shaped rocks in them.

  “I’ve planted mushrooms here and there so I have some light, to find my way. Most of them only glimmer with light, as the decomposing mushroom also breaks down it’s bioluminescence. Around the corner is the natural pool, with a channel to my farm.

  Behind the pool, is the entry to my mushroom garden. Ah look at that mess. Most mushrooms have cropped and released their spores and then wilted. The grow beds are one brown sludge with some mushrooms here and there, that are still in good condition.

  The space itself is a wide tunnel. Wide enough to have two main lines running all the length of the tunnel. Each line consists of two water paths that delimit the space, in between which run multiple channels perpendicular to the two mainlines and then parallel to each other with one mushroom grow bed each.

  The grow beds are spaced out left and right and then left again from channel to channel so as to have a maximum surface for growing mushrooms. Each grow bed can be closed off for maintenance on both ends.

  The delimiting water lines feed in new water and let the waste residue flow out of the grow bed. The second pool down the line collects waste water and mineral residues.

  Over time the residue adds up to quite a lot. Periodically I clean out the second pool, which also feeds my growing compost heap. Before I continue with my tour and explain all the spaces, let’s gather the brown residue everywhere and dump it on the heap.”

  “Sure thing, I also love it tidy in my home. Whenever we get back from a trip, the first day is lost to organising and putting everything where it belongs.”

  “Thanks for that Henry, maintenance is so important on a farm. There’s always something to do and you can’t just walk away, if you want to continually harvest fresh mushrooms. I eat quite a lot of them, they are so tasty.”

  Bhosun and Henry clean their hands in fresh flowing water, after they throw out the last of the brown sludge.

  Henry remarks that; “I didn’t know these mushrooms can become so mushy, they cling to everything, it smells awful and yuck.”

  “The yuck is how you know you used to deal with something real. Real food goes to waste, that’s natural.”

  “Yuck I just don’t want to eat it at all.”

  “Just out of curiosity, do you still remember the sublime taste? Never forget that! That’s a real treasure often overlooked. You need less for the same effect on your body. Hehe I am dreaming about eating again.”

  Henry nods, with a growing smile.

  “So, where were we, oh yeah the pool, where waste residue settles down. You can imagine that all grow beds release organic matter and this goes somewhere and not all of it settles out. I imagine that a lot of finer matter lives on, on its way through the cave, allowing where water isn’t high enough for new mushrooms to grow.

  Each line that feeds a grow bed is dug in a way to allow natural water flow all the way down. It took me quite some hammering and chiselling to get the water flow just right.

  Just imagine beginning with an uneven floor in which you craft channels all the way through, which need to evenly slope down just enough for the next one to be slightly lower.

  Luckily water and gravity is all I need to check whether I dug right. One drop of water will run down the whole line without my help, as long as all the grow beds are clean.

  I say so myself but this is some masterful engineering. Luckily I found quite a strong stone that allows me to work and shape other stones and minerals. I can’t dig these channels by hand.

  The farm is directly next to the space I felt might be right for you. It is quite spacious here, you can rest your wounds and make it your home.”

  “It looks perfect, it’s dry and calm. What more could I ask for?”

  “Yeah, install yourself and we’ll continue our tour afterwards.”

  “That looks much better without all that weight on your back.”

  “It feels so good to just settle down, this continual moving around in the darkness, takes its toll.”

  “Oh tell me about it, sometimes you gotta lick your wounds and take a breath. One more thing is the toilet space. It is the furthest removed from everything, since there is little in here that aids in decomposing.

  A special kind of mushroom grows there. They’ve always grown out of the fruits of my digestion. After a while of seeing them grow and perish, I tried some out of curiosity and I feel these aid at making me be at peace with myself. There is no glow to them yet they seem quite edible. It’s like digging for pearls in excrements.”

  Henry interjects: “Literally in excrements… Oh dang, you sure are a peculiar fellow, just the kind of type I like.”

  “Peculiar? That doesn’t even cut it, I am my own. Well as I was saying, they take me there and hopefully back again. I don’t know but you might quite like them. They are unlike anything I’ve ever known before.

  I find a little diversity arise out of nowhere and my creativity is heightened too. They have kicked my ass too at times but that’s part of the deal with everything hitherto unknown.

  They glow more on the inside than the outside. I’ve made them a part of my regular diet. I don’t exactly eat them every day. I tried a few cycles and to me every other day works just fine. When I eat a small handful of dried ones, then I travel without moving. Miraculous is the world of mushrooms. What more could I want?”

  ‘‘They do indeed sound interesting, so much so, I’d like to try them too, once I’ve settled a bit in this new world.”

  “There’ll be a time for that soon enough, once you feel ready. That settles the tour of my home. What do you think of it?”

  “I think”, as Henry’s face is consumed by a happy smile,”this is going to be lots of fun, and some darkness.”

  “Hey, that’s the spirit. Now that we have eaten them, let’s study how they look. Keep in mind that you can always ask me questions throughout my explanations.

  It helps work my concentration and not losing my train of thought, a valuable asset in life, especially for you, as I feel your brain might have been through a lot.”

  “My brain might have been through a lot? We’re getting personal already? Well yes there may be some truth to it, but geez, slow it down. I’ve just been through the tumbler on overdrive.”

  “The cave can rip you to shreds, make you question everything, which is always a worthwhile activity, but at some point, you gotta rein it back in and heal the damage you’ve done unto yourself.

  We can only deal with so much at a time. It’s a bit like ploughing the field and weeding out the plants you seek not to grow in your field. Roots are of course sometimes deeper than you assume but keep at it.

  Eventually you’ll end up with a wrecked field, as if lots of meteors have struck down, leaving big craters. You are in that phase right now.

  It looks disorderly, water can’t naturally seep through the earth any more. Some parts drain better than others. What though if you left it exactly as it is, and work with what you have. These meteor strikes have been necessary.”

  “I want my field to be even all the way, nice linear rows and no weeds at all.”

  “That’s like a dead field to me, believe me, that won’t make for rich terrain. What is best, is a war torn field, earth upheaved, trees partially dug underneath and big rocks sprawled all over.

  At least that’s what represents best a real field, allowing for very different niches that can nourish different animals, plants and beings.

  You are in the best place you could ever be, just don’t stay stuck, the road always goes on. Really, you should congratulate yourself to allow yourself to have this experience in the first place.”

  “Why would I congratulate myself for mangling my brain almost into non-existence?”

  “It’s what you were in reality living with all the time, with all these intruding ways of being that weren’t your own. Now you finally see the battlefield your head has been, to get rid of them. What little that is inherently you. Astonishing isn’t it, not very glamorous right?”

  “No there really isn’t any glory in coming face to face with yourself.”

  “Anyway we can begin with the blue one, it’s anatomy, to have a common base of understanding for the different parts of that mushroom.

  To begin describing a mushroom you closely observe every part of the mushroom, shape, colour and texture, using all your senses. As a mushroom is a growing, living organism, to better observe it, you also need to observe all of it’s stages of growth.