It was late when Caruso and Kumiko arrived back at the compound. As they were both still affected by the truthbuttons, their plan was to avoid other Foresters and make a hasty retreat for their rooms. But after Caruso walled them up and into the compound, they were quickly confronted by Ferris.
‘What took you so long?’ Ferris asked, looking between the two of them.
Caruso was determined not to implicate Kumiko, but to his horror, found his mouth opening ready to spill forth any information asked of him.
‘It’s my fault,’ Kumiko answered first. ‘I accidentally brewed a tea with truthbuttons. Then told Caruso everything about the shroom circles. We talked about it for a long time.’
Ferris just stared at her, his expression unreadable.
Caruso broke the silence, ‘But it was me who left the truthbuttons in the pot, and me who asked her the questions. She couldn’t help but answer.’
Caruso wilted under Ferris’s heavy gaze. He wringed his hands, and looked at his feet.
‘Kumiko, wait here, I’ll deal with you soon. Caruso, come with me.’
Ferris led him to Niko’s room. Once inside, Ferris explained the situation to Niko, and left them alone.
Niko looked closely at Caruso’s eyes, presumably checking his pupils, then proceeded to ask a bunch of questions. Caruso confirmed that the tea was a complete accident, and that he was powerless to avoid asking Kumiko about the secrets of the shroom circles.
After establishing the events, Niko then inquired into Caruso’s reaction to the information: if he resented being lied to about zonewalking, if he is now considering returning to Jamala, if he intends to inform civilians about what he has learned, and whether or not he still wishes to become a Forester. Niko circled him as she asked the questions.
The questions were easy to answer. The truth spilled out without thought or filter. He said he didn’t like being lied to, that it made him feel like a child, but he understood why it was necessary, and he held no resentment. Caruso added that he was glad this all happened. Before he had felt like an outsider, but now, being privy to all their secrets, he felt more like a Forester, that his position here felt more secure.
When he was finished, Niko sat there considering everything, then told Caruso to hand over his Forester necklace. Her demand was a hot slap in the face. He burned with shame as he slipped off his stone disk and passed it to Niko.
She untied the thread, removed the disk, and stashed it away in her drawer. Then from the same drawer she pulled out another disk, this one larger, with geometric patterns engraved on its surface. This one was perfectly round with no flat edge—the full Forester disk.
She tied the leather string through the stone, then walked over and ceremoniously slipped it over Caruso’s head. ‘You are now inside our circle of trust. I see no other logical path forward other than officially welcoming you as a full Forester.’
Caruso sighed with relief. ‘So, you’re not angry with me? I thought for a moment you were kicking me out.’
Niko smiled. ‘Before getting to see the outcome of your mushroom cultivating challenge with Kactus? I'm not the only one eager to see how that ends. But in all serious, I have no desire to waste a good Forester, which given your response, you clearly are. This is why I love truth buttons, they expedite the whole trust building process with simple honest conversation. Too often, conversation devolves into a tiresome game of hiding one’s own desires and fears, while lacing each sentence with subtle manipulations and posturings. It’s refreshing to cut through all that nonsense, isn’t it?’
Caruso nodded, he stared down and fingered his new necklace. ‘Conversation was never my strength. Truthbuttons make it nice and effortless, though.’
‘You're a good boy, Caruso.’ Niko leaned forward to tie his knot. ‘Now it’s probably in your best interest to head straight to bed.’
—
Caruso spied a plate of savoury shroom cakes on the kitchen table as he walked passed. No one else was around so he slipped in for a quick bite. His mind went to Niko and how she was one of the oldest Foresters. Caruso had always thought of her as the oldest anyway. But there was a big difference in being fifty years old compared to five thousand, or fifty thousand—at least he assumed there must be. That kind of age was impossible to comprehend.
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‘You look troubled,’ Miranda said, arriving to wipe the table with a citrus smelling rag.
‘I guess I am a little bit…I was wondering, how long have you worked here?’
‘How long? Uhhh,’ her eyes dropped down to Caruso’s new stone disk, then widened. ‘Oh.’ She took the seat beside Caruso. ‘You just found out, huh?’
‘Kumiko told me everything. Wait, so you know as-well?’
‘Well, after I turned 300 and still looked like this, I began suspecting there was something afoot,’ Miranda said with a wry grin. ‘But yes, after they brought me here, and Niko deemed me trust worthy, they told me about the anti-aging thing, and that the Godshroom would eventually fly them off into space, and when it does the shroom circles will collapse and I can safely return to Jamala. Strictly, I’m not a full Forester. I don’t have a slimekey. I’m stuck here in Zone 3 until the Godshroom and all the Foresters leave.’
‘So you’re really 300 then?’
‘Closer to 400 now.’
‘I wish you weren’t that old.’ Did I say that out-loud?
‘What difference does it make?’ Miranda snapped.
‘I guess I liked the thought of you being closer to my age.’
‘And I used to think your youth was refreshing, but now I see it just makes you immature.’ Miranda stood up to leave. ‘Just so you know, I don’t feel old. I feel the same now as I did when I was your age. And compared to everyone else here, i’m still young.’ She stormed off to the kitchens, leaving Caruso feeling like an idiot.
Caruso followed her. She was busy cleaning a pot that Caruso suspected was already clean. She scrubbed it furiously, determined not to look at Caruso.
‘Shit. I didn’t mean to offend you, Miranda. It’s just I’m struggling to come to terms with all this. Everyone is so unfathomably older than me, it just feels kind of lonely.’
‘I felt that way too, at first.’ Mirando put the pot on the drying rack.
‘Also, I accidentaly drank truthbutton tea before, so I tend to speak without much thought.’
Miranda turned to look at his eyes, ‘Truthbutton tea? I thought your eyes looked peculiar.’ Miranda exhaled. ‘Maybe I was a little harsh before, I guess I don’t like being reminded of how old I really am.’
‘You don’t look old.’ Caruso offered. ‘In fact, you—’
‘You shouldn’t be here talking to me!’ Miranda said, cutting him off. The smile returned to her lips. ‘You realize I could get you to say a lot of embarrassing things, right?’
‘I don’t think you will, I trust you.’
‘Well I’m glad to hear that. But still, it feels wrong. Besides, anyone could drop in here for a late night snack. Let me walk you to your room. You can take the shroom cakes with you.’
‘Thanks. You’re always so kind, and thoughtful, and pretty…okay I see what you mean…it’s true though.’
Miranda’s face blushed poppyshroom red. Caruso stuffed a large shroom cake into his mouth to stop him saying more. She walked him to his room, cutting through the shroom gardens in the cool night air. To prevent Caruso from getting a word in, she talked the whole way, telling the story of her past—how she grew up in Pali, a city on the distant eastern shore.
‘I was around your age when mushroom mania swept through the city. Back then, I worked in father’s restaurant, in Pali, as a kitchen hand. Everyone was talking about the new mushrooms that would solve everything and make everyone rich. I was enchanted by the tales of travellers, and blinded by the promise of a better life. So I convinced my two younger sisters, we packed our things and headed west, to travel the Great Mushroom Road to the new city of Jamala.
‘Looking back, it was foolish. Things in Jamala weren’t as easy as we heard, tens of thousands had come before us, leaving little opportunity and rising prices. We couldn’t afford rent, so were forced to camp in the growing shanty town within Zone 1. Luckily the edible shrooms were just as plentiful and even more delicious than we’d heard, but we couldn’t afford a stall in the mushroom markets to sell any. We had no money, and no prospects. My sisters talked of working in a brothel, but I promised them I would find a better way. Afterall, it was because of me we had travelled.’
The stone path they walked upon was almost at Caruso’s room. He turned them back out into the garden so he could keep listening to Miranda. Her voice was delicate and soothing and he wanted to hear the rest of the tale.
Miranda obliged him. ‘I became obsessed with all the new flavours in Zone 1. I spent every waking moment cooking and experimenting with new flavour combinations, and realized I had a knack for it. So I took a chance and borrowed from a shady loan shark, enough to put a proper roof over our heads, and to buy my very own food cart. There I could cook and sell my own meals. I thought it would solve all our problems. I knew that my food was good enough for the fancy restaurants, that it would be only a matter of time before I was discovered. But no one seemed to care. Customers didn’t flock to my stall as I had hoped. And while I waited to be noticed, the interest on my loans spiralled out of control. I had a few devoted regular customers but not enough to pay the debt.
‘One of my regulars was a Forester, and he offered me the job in Zone 3. I knew it was a one way ticket, and that I’d never again see my sisters, but the money I could send back would solve all their problems. I still think I made the right choice.’
Shroommoths flickered above the purpleveils in a pink electric cloud. Caruso found the one with a tattered wing, and helped it reach the purpleveils like all the others. He smiled at it, knowing its three-day life span would no longer be an issue, it would live as long as the Godshroom was here. They circled back around the path, back towards Caruso’s room.
Miranda continued, ‘Some day soon I’ll have to return to Jamala, I’ve been dreading the thought of starting all over again. You see, I can cook, but only with mushrooms. Once the Godshroom’s gone, all the shrooms will die with it.
‘But I’ve got a plan now. It came to me when I heard you talking with Orange and Kactus. You got me thinking, what if it’s possible to cultivate shrooms once the Godshroom is gone? If it is, then not only can I keep cooking, but my dishes will become a rare delicacy and I’ll have nearly 400 years of experience over everyone else. This time. I’m sure I’ll be the greatest chef in Jamala! I won’t be able to do it without your help though.
‘Anyway, I believe this is your room. Thanks for listening to my ramblings. Now you go straight to bed and have a good night’s sleep.’
Miranda gave him sweet smile and Caruso was pleased she left before he could ruin the moment by saying something stupid.