The Mushroom Life

THE MUSHROOM LIFE

By

Elise Huther

 

The morning was naked and shivered with the cold of itself, in the same way it made Margaret shiver as she dressed and forgot which colors match. Blue isn’t like black or white, she thought. It isn’t a color that they say matches everything. But then they say that everything goes with blue jeans… Then she remembered that it didn’t matter. She didn’t care to impress the one person she would see today. She made a face and donned camouflage lounge pants under the tie-dye shirt she was already wearing. She looked at the clock. Nine AM. There’s no way he’s awake yet. She thought. Why should I be? She could find no motivating answer to her own question, but felt unable to fall asleep again. So she shuffled about the apartment, absentmindedly poking at menial tasks in attempt to feel productive.

She peeked in the doorway of the kitchen and thought it seemed darker beyond the threshold, though she’d flipped the light switch. Breakfast—yes, that’s what she came for. Her hand brushed over her stomach, a bit flatter with emptiness. Well, I might as well not. She wasn’t really hungry anyway. At least she didn’t want to be. What a paradox. She walked to the coffee pot. She didn’t really need breakfast. She didn’t feel like she needed much of anything these days. Food, conversation, new things or even some of the old ones. Of course, she didn’t realize that until she noticed that lately she hadn’t had any of those very often and yet she was still alive, still waking up every morning.  And I only miss them a little bit. She thought. Sleep. She realized, forming in her mind a list to sum up her minimalist survival, I still need sleep. She seemed to sleep an awful lot these days. As she pondered why this could be, she forgot that time existed.

Suddenly it was noon and she was still standing by the coffee pot, staring into the neon numbers on its clock as if hypnotized.

Shaking herself from her stupor, Margaret completed her morning routine and returned to her bedroom. She sat on her bed amidst rumpled sheets, rallying her anger so she could have a good stew before he arrived. But he was late, of course, and after she decided on a properly self-righteous speech her mind began to wander again as she stared at the splintered wooden floor. The grain drew her eyes into its flow, interrupted occasionally by discolored patches left behind by previous tenants. The pattern is kind of pretty, she thought, trying not to think of exactly what might have caused the stains. Swirls and colors, like Picasso on the floor. Picasso on the floor, she thought, but Warhol in the pantry: everything organized in patches of sameness; neat lines of consistency and soup. Alpo, too, which she had micro-waved and eaten for dinner last night, too consumed with angry distraction to notice that the Campbell’s beef stew ended up in the dog’s bowl instead of her own. Oh well. She thought when she went to wash the dishes, realizing her mistake. Casper’s food is more expensive than mine anyway.

The Labrador lay curled beside her on the bed now, heat radiating from his black fur that always carried a bit of summer with it when he came in from the sunshine. Margaret felt overheated, with the dog’s warmth by her side and the sun pounding in through the window beside the bed, but she enjoyed Casper’s company too much to change the seating arrangement. She smiled, running her hand over the velvety fur of his face. She had often been teased about her close attachment to the dog, and she knew it was her own fault that the Labrador had been her only constant companion during the last few years; her only devoted source of the loyalty and unconditional love so well mimicked in the famous connection between master and beast. “He’s the Lassie to your Timmy.” Her friend Colin had once said. “The irresistible Old Yeller to your cranky, brooding hermit.”

Her hand was knocked away as Casper suddenly sat up, ears perked. The bed shook as he leapt to the floor, barks accompanying the clicks and scrapes of his claws as he skidded around the corner.

“Margie? It’s Colin. Margie, where are you?” The call came from across the apartment in a low but smooth masculine tone. Margaret stiffened, a fresh scowl puckering her pale face. This time it took no effort to rally anger. “Margaret, come on.” Uneven footsteps clunked down the hallway. “You know I know you’re in here.” Margaret didn’t answer; she knew he would appear in her bedroom doorway in a moment no matter what she said.

“Welcome back, asshole.” She ground the words from her throat the second she spied his scruffy form, Casper snuffling eagerly at his heels.

“What’s wrong with you?” Colin replied as he shrugged his threadbare jacket from his shoulders and began picking at the rough brown stitching near the collar.

“Aren’t you going to apologize for the other night?” Margaret asked with a glare befitting some heated juvenile rivalry.

“Why? What’d I do?” He tossed his jacket on the bed. Margaret kicked it onto the floor.

“You shouldn’t have brought her here.” She said flatly.

“You said I could always come here.”

“I said you could always come here, not your friends, or your girlfriends, or whatever.”

“She wasn’t my friend or my girlfriend.” Colin’s face was a mixture of defense and apology. “I was really drunk—“

“You’re drunk right now.”

“I’m not drunk. I’m hung over. There’s a big difference. Anyway, my DD ditched me so a barista gave me a lift.”

Margaret scoffed. “Yeah, a lift and a—“

Colin tossed his hand up, as if to wave away Margaret’s verbal darts. “Yeah, she came in. I know. I was drunk. I’m sorry, ok? It’ll never happen again.”

“No, it won’t. Give me my key back.” Margaret demanded.

“Margie, come on; you don’t really want that. Besides, you don’t want me driving all the way into the city when I’m hammered, do you? You know I need a place to crash. You’ve always been ok with that; why are you so pissy now?” The apology was disappearing from his face

“Because now you’re bringing skanks into my home.”

Colin rolled his bloodshot eyes. “Just cause you’re a prude doesn’t mean everyone else has to be.”

“Having some kind of moral standard doesn’t make me a prude!” Margaret said smugly.

“Of course it’s easy for you.” The nastiness of Colin’s tone began to measure up to that of Margaret’s. “You’re not any better than me, you just never have the opportunity to show it. It’s pretty simple to maintain standards when you’re locked up here alone in your room all day, day after day after day after day—“

“Stop it, Colin!” Angry hurt registered itself on her face. “Agoraphobia is a real and debilitating psychological condition. Which you’d know if you cared enough to crack the cover of that book I gave you.”

“I didn’t have to read it.” Colin countered. “Psychological condition. You know that means its all in your head, right?”

“That doesn’t mean I can control it!”

“Maybe you could if you weren’t too proud to ask for help. Or is it just because you’re too scared to leave your apartment? Sorry, I get confused trying to figure out what’s just a personality flaw and what’s some weird tick in your brain.”

“I’m too proud? Have you ever set foot in an AA meeting?” Margaret asked as if she already knew the answer.

Colin’s  head drew up in indignation. “Of course not. I’m not an alcoholic.”

A pause followed, thick with Margaret’s astonishment. “You really think you’re not an alcoholic?” She finally asked, now more concerned than sarcastic.

Colin’s eyebrows crawled toward his uneven hairline. “You really think I am?”

Margaret’s concern turned back into anger as memories of evidence supporting her accusation flooded her mind. “What?!” Her eyes narrowed. “I haven’t seen you completely sober since before we broke up junior year! You know that’s what ruined our relationship; you were always drunk or hung over!”

Colin winced.

Margaret continued without skipping a beat. “And for the past year you’ve been sulking around here all the time. When was the last time you held onto a job for more than a week? You dropped out of college, drank yourself broke, got evicted from your apartment, and now I have to tuck you into my couch almost every night! Why do you think I don’t have any booze around? I didn’t want to enable you!”

“’Enable’ me? Fine.” Colin spat. “I’ll stop cleaning your dog’s shit out of the lawn. Maybe once I quit enabling you, you’ll get evicted too!”

A moment of silence passed. “…You clean up after Casper?” Margaret’s voice was suddenly small.

“Well someone has to, and you won’t go outside. Why do you think you haven’t heard complaints from your landlord?” Colin replied, his voice still sharp.

“Why didn’t you tell me about it before?”

“Cause you never threw a fit about me crashing here before.”

Margaret looked down at folds of the off-white cotton sheets she’d wound her fingers in, her long dark hair making a curtain that blocked her profile. “Oh. Well. Thanks. Sorry.”

“Whatever.” Colin sighed. “I’m keeping the key.”

“Yeah, ok.”

In the silence that followed, Colin shuffled across the room to sit on the edge of Margaret’s bed. They sat together for several minutes in the awkward way of two shamefully prideful people who realize everything, but will admit to nothing. Margaret’s gaze got lost in the sheet’s tiny, cream-colored weave. Her gaze followed one thread in particular as it made its way through the others and out, into the rest of the fabric.

Colin broke the silence. “You really should try to get over that agora-thing.”

“Phobia.” Margaret clarified without looking up from the sheets.

“Whatever.” Colin waved away the explanation. “You should try to get it fixed. You’re missing a lot of life, festering in here.”

“I’m not festering.” Margaret groaned in exasperation and threw her head back, eyes closed. “Look, can we please not talk about this anymore?”

Colin studied Margaret for a moment before answering, his face grimly contemplative. “Ok.” He said softly. “I’m going to walk down to the general store; do you need anything?”

“I’m not an invalid.” Margaret stated shortly.

“I know, that’s not—“ Colin stopped, then sighed and shoved his fingers through his shaggy brown hair. “I was just trying to help. Bye, Margie.” He said, rising from the bed to retrieve his jacket.

“Bye.” Margaret said. A moment later, in a quiet voice, she called, “Thanks.” But Colin didn’t hear her; he had already disappeared down the hallway.

After some minutes Margaret rose from her bed to open the window. She wasn’t afraid of the world through the window. The screen blocked what would otherwise have been a hole in the wall; it held at bay those wide-open spaces that threatened to swallow her. The only time the screen was removed was when Margaret tended the flowers in the window-box, but she hadn’t done that in quite a while. Mushrooms had pushed up through the wilted flowers, boasting their creamy caps and graceful stems. They made her feel guilty when she opened the window, this fungal evidence of her neglect. She left the window open, though; she liked the sounds and the feel of fresh air on her skin. She disliked, however, the smell of sweltering July that oozed through the mesh. Humidity and heat: a recipe for decay. It put a bad taste in her mouth, like stale salt and mistakes constructed by things she didn’t do. So many things. She sighed, then called Casper down from his blanket-den on the bed, to which he’d returned during the argument.

“Come on,” Margaret said wearily. “Let’s get you some fresh air.”

~*~

When Colin let himself into Margaret’s apartment later that day, he found her at her kitchen table, crying and scribbling frantically on sheets of white paper.

“Margie, what is it?” Colin asked, rushing to her. He picked up one of the papers she seemed to be finished with. “What’s this?”

“Casper ran away!” Margaret sobbed.

“What? How?”

“I let him outside just like always but he saw another dog and ran off after it.” Margaret took a breath. “I tried to go after him but…it smelled like exhaust and I couldn’t make myself go outside so I just called and called but he didn’t come back.” She sniffed and brushed her wrist across her eyes.

“How long ago?” Colin asked. Margaret looked at her watch.

“An hour and twelve minutes.”

“I’ll go find him.” Colin stated resolutely, snatching up the “Lost Dog” flyers and turning toward the door, staggering just a little. Margaret could see the buzz he’d acquired while he’d been out.

“No, Colin.” She protested. “I’ll make some calls. You shouldn’t be wandering the streets.”

“Chill, Margie. I’m fine. I’ll find him and be back asap, you’ll see.” He insisted. “I’ll call you later.” He gave her shoulder a quick squeeze and left her staring after him, unintentionally studying the tacky taupe paint peeling from the door which he’d slammed shut, the sound knocking back her feeble “Thank you.”

~*~

Through pacing and praying, Margaret managed to calm herself somewhat in the three hours that followed. She knew she was reacting rather severely to the flight of a pet, but it was her pet, her Casper. She thought of his black form bounding over ten years of memories. From his sharp puppy teeth to a frost of gray around his snuffling muzzle; from her awkward girlhood to reserved young adult life; from hours of fetch to arthritic hips; from walks in the woods to afternoons in easy chairs. From place to place, adventure to fear, one year to the next; from sorrow to song and back again. A warm black softness always at her feet; her puppy who trusted her unfailingly.

She remembered the day he became hers. “You watch this little guy, sweetie.” Her father had said the day the cancer finally took him. He winked, weakly bundling the clumsy puppy into Margaret’s chubby child arms. “That there’s my prize pup, from the best hunting stock in all the Midwest. I need you to take real good care of him for me, ok sugar? I might not be around to make sure he’s cuddled real good, or got a good bed to sleep on and a playmate, and plenty of biscuits. You’ll do that for me, won’t you Margie?”

Tears began to well up in Margaret’s eyes again as she thought of how she’d failed both of them now; where Casper was and what is he doing, and is he scared and why suddenly in his absence did she feel claustrophobic when normally small spaces were what she craved? If only she’d brought herself to run outside after him…

She jumped at the intrusive ring of the telephone.

“Margie…” Colin rasped over the line. She could hear traffic noise in the background; sirens and honking car horns. He must be calling from that old crusty payphone by the intersection, all the way downtown. “I’m sorry Margie, I’ve looked everywhere. I’m so sorry. I’ll keep looking but—“

“No,” Margaret cut him off, condensing her voice into a reasonably stable stream. “No, it’s ok. Don’t apologize; it’s not your fault. Go flirt with a waitress; I’ll look into putting an ad in the paper.”

The traffic babbled to her during Colin’s pause. Then he chuckled dryly. “You know me well.” He said, a head-shake in his voice. “See ya.” He hung up before Margaret could reply.

“Thank you.” She murmured to the now-deaf receiver, wondering why she was never quite quick enough with those two words.

~*~

The bump on the other side of the wall might not have woken Margaret if Casper had been there to fill the room with the comforting sound of his breathing, but in this new silence the noise jerked her from the depths of REM. She sat up in bed then froze, listening. There it was again, like a tumbling against the wall just outside the apartment. Her heart pounding, Margaret rose from her bed and crept to her door. Closing one eye and standing on her tip-toes, Margaret pushed her open eye close to the peephole. There was Colin, his sprawled body warped by the fish-eye lens, his hand clasped around the neck of a bottle covered in a brown paper bag. A cough expelled itself, followed by shallow breaths.

Margaret’s jaw clenched. Frustration and disgust welled up in her chest and threatened to fill her, until she saw two more bottles and an empty sandwich wrapper on the ground. He’d been sitting out there for a while, she realized, waiting for her to wake with the morning. The anger seemed to seep out of her toes then, deflating her. She opened the door and looked at him, there against the wall in the corridor, and she ached. Her body ached, her heart ached; he looked so, so tired. He was only twenty-five and already worry-lines were beginning to settle themselves along his brow, just visible through the thatch of hair that had fallen over his face. Silently Margaret bent down and helped the semi-conscious Colin to his feet, and they stumbled inside where he fell forward across her bed.

“I didn’t flirt with any waitresses, Margie.” He slurred into the covers.

“Shh, I know.” Margaret said soothingly.

“I kept looking…then I bought some…some stuff…then I came here…” His mumbling was barely distinguishable. “Sorry, Margie…”

“Hush, it’s ok.” She said as the ache in her heart increased. She busied herself repositioning her friend’s limbs to fit his entire lanky form on the bed. “Thank you.” She tried to say it in time, but Colin was already snoring.

~*~

Moonlight spilled cool and white through the window, illuminating Colin as he finally began to wake up. He groaned and dragged himself up onto one elbow, disoriented. He glanced around trying to figure out where he was. He wasn’t too worried, though; he’d woken up in far worse places than a soft bed. He heard Margaret before he saw her, sitting on the floor, her back against the dresser next to the bed. She was humming quietly, some tune Colin didn’t recognize. She appeared to be staring out the window, but her gaze was absently focused on the space in between; some nothingness of middle-distance.

“This sucks.” She said flatly, having heard him shifting on the bed. “And it’s going to keep sucking because I never change anything and nothing is changing around me.” Then she thought of her missing Casper. “Nothing good, at least.” She amended.

“Yeah, looks that way.” Colin grunted, pushing himself into a seated position. Margaret looked around at him, mildly surprised that he didn’t try to talk her out of this cynicism.

“Thanks.” She finally managed to say to him, looking back toward the window.

“For what?” Colin asked.

“For not trying to convince me that things will get better. I hate that; people making guarantees that don’t exist and making predictions they know nothing about. I mean, no one can make promises like that. Why do they keep saying it?”

“I dunno.” Colin shrugged. “I’ve always thought that was just a band-aid myself.” He rolled onto his stomach, propping his aching head up on his hands. “But I have to say Margie, you think this stuff is so big, and it doesn’t have to be. Not if you don’t make such a huge deal out of it. So I drink too much. So you stay inside. So what? We’re only hurting ourselves, so what does it matter, if that’s how we want to live? Besides, I’m too tired to change things up. It’s just not in me, Margie. This stuff is home, you know? Crappy as it may be, it’s home.”

“But this isn’t how I want to live.” Margaret sighed. “Well, it is I guess. But it’s not how I want to want to live. I need things, and I hate that. I wouldn’t mind having nothing, if I didn’t need things. I don’t want to live like that, needing so much and only having half.” She thought of all the things she hadn’t realized she truly needed until now, so much more than only sleep: Casper, small spaces, help…and Colin. “I don’t want that for me.” She took a breath. “And I don’t want it for you, either.” She looked down at her hands, clasped in her lap. “I know all we ever do is fight, but I don’t like seeing you like this.”

“You think I like seeing you how you are?” Colin chuckled dryly. “I bet it hurts me more than it hurts you, kid.”

“So we’re not just hurting ourselves?” Margaret asked with a wry smile.

“No.” Colin wasn’t smiling. “No, I guess not.”

Silence stretched for a long while then, and soon Colin’s snoring began to punctuate the air. Margaret’s thoughts unwound like kite string. The moon was high, it’s angle causing the silvery light from her window to stretch in warped rectangles across her floor. She sat for a while, just breathing. Her eyes followed the ribbon-like shadow of a pane, her focus dipping up and down with it as it trickled over the wrinkles in the dirty laundry she’d neglected to put in the hamper. It led her gaze to the base of the window, where she again spied the flowerbox just outside. She couldn’t decide if the dim lighting made dead flowers look better or worse. The mushrooms in the window box seemed to glow in the moonlight, though.

I never wanted this. She thought, glancing back toward Colin and then down at her own hands. Who would want this?

On sudden impulse, she rose and walked to the open window. She pressed her palm to the screen, feeling the night air through the mesh. Would it really be so bad to expose her hand—just her hand—to the outside? After all, she still had the walls all around and the ceiling above, the floor below. Margaret focused on these defenses, anchoring herself in the safety of the small space. She took a breath and wrestled the screen from the sill. Reaching her hand out into the still air, Margaret slowly spread her fingers, then let the moonlight slip between them as they curled into a fist then opened again.

She plucked one of the fungi from the dirt, holding it up for her eyes to slide in and out of the feather-like grooves on the underside of the cap. Accidents. She thought, wondering at how anything at all could grow in that box she never touched. They’re accidents. They weren’t cared for, pruned or watered. They weren’t purposefully planted in tilled, nourished soil. They just grew; they are just growing. What do they need but a surface to stand on? She wondered. What helps them live except to be left alone? They grew in her pitiful excuse for a garden when nothing else would. How convenient. She thought. It’s when they’re neglected that they thrive. She popped the cap from the stem with her thumb and crushed it’s foamy flesh between her fingers. That’s what I need. Margaret sighed. A mushroom life.

She replaced the screen—she couldn’t bear the thought of leaving that hole gaping in the wall—and curled up on the foot of her bed, next to Colin but not touching him. He smelled like scotch and gasoline, and a little like wet dog. The latter scent made Margaret’s heart plunge, thinking of her Casper alone somewhere in the shadows of the city. Tears began to trickle from her eyes, increasing to a steady flow over the bridge of her nose and across her face to her temple. They dripped onto the sheets, wetly beating the guilty rhythm of her powerlessness.