When There Is Nothing Left But Love

“Let’s go that way!” Nora called to us. She spotted Tabitha and Laurel just climbing out of the hole. “What’s up, you two? If you’ve had a good rest, let’s move on!”

The two women nodded as they dusted the dirt and grime off their wrinkly clothes. They glanced at Tessa, who was still immersed in her prayers. Tabitha mumbled, “She’s so pious. Do you think God with really bless her?”

Nora shrugged. “Let’s go!”

The forest was rather humid in the morning. The soil had become loose. One could hear the soft crunching of the earth just by stepping on it.

“Ah!” Laurel screamed. Then, she squatted on the spot she had previously stepped on and began to scrape at the ground.

Very soon, we saw what had been hiding underneath the earth. It was a cluster of yellowish-white fungi. Some of them had been crushed under her feet.

Only a few short and stout ones were spared.

“Mushrooms!” Tessa, who had been reciting her prayers the whole time, promptly came forward and started digging up the plants from under the fertile soil. She wiped the dirt off and began to swallow them a few pieces at a time.

Laurel, looking equal parts terrified and worried, wondered, “Do we… eat them raw? Just like that?”

Tabitha turned around and, indeed, managed to find other mushrooms of the same variety under some rotten leaves.

She passed some of them to us. “Yes, this kind of mushrooms can be eaten raw. There used to be plenty at my place and we did this all the time. Sure, they won’t satisfy our hunger, but it’ll have to do for now. Let’s eat!”

They dug in. The rest of us, having barely eaten anything for a day, followed suit.

A while later, she looked at Tabitha, a question on her mind. “Are you sure we won’t have any hallucinations after eating these? Once, I watched the news about poison testers in the south. They usually do that

you know which ones to eat and

soil. She turned around

“Sure, but we’ll need to cook them. If not, we’ll

could have made ourselves a

Tessa shouted all of a sudden, prompting everyone else to look towards her, surprise hanging on our

decided to

body

us followed her gaze simultaneously. There was a tiny green snake, about fifty centimetres in length, hanging around the leaves of the tree next to

paying attention. The snake spat out its forked tongue. It looked like it was preparing an

to be careful!”

scanned the surroundings from the corner of my eyes. There was a branch that must have

at that ugly thing! Ah, it’s giving me goosebumps!” Nora stood close to

too. The creature

we

late!” Tessa said, her voice trembling. “This is a bamboo snake. It’ll come after

can’t just stay here

scared that she was shaking

she dared to glare at the reptile hiding among

was closest to the snake. Any careless movements and the snake could latch onto her and sink its fangs on