I shrugged. “Okay, but how are they illegal?”
“It’s illegal to harvest anything from National Parks. If I get caught with these, here…” He pointed toward the ground and shook his head. “I’d be going away for a long time. I’ve had too many warnings already.”
“So… you sell them?” Crash asked.
He shook his head. “No.”
“What do you do with them then?”
“I cook them. Eat them.”
“You mean you’re risking jail time to eat some mushrooms that don’t even get you high?” I asked.
“You couldn’t understand unless you’ve eaten them before.”
Crash looked up at me. “I told you this was a bad idea.”
“Alright. Close it up, Marv. Let’s get out of here before that cop rolls up on us.”
He smiled widely. “You mean, you’re going to get back in the car?”
“Yeah, you’re not dangerous, so we may as well make good time,” I replied, nearly dragging Crash back around the car.
The three of us loaded back into the car and finished our ride to town. The second part of the ride was much smoother than the first half, since we knew that we weren’t trapped in a car with some psycho killer.
It wasn’t exactly a fun ride, though. The entire drive to town, Marv talked about nothing but morel mushrooms. How to find them, how to clean them, how to cook them, and what they pair best with. I never in my life wanted to know so much about mushrooms. But it seemed to make him happy to have someone to talk to, and it gave us a free ride into town since we’d lost ours.
We stopped at the first gas station we came to, and all climbed out. Marv moved around the car to pump gas, and we stood not far away, preparing to take off.
“Thanks for the ride, Marv. I hope your dinner turns out as good as you’re expecting,” I told the guy.
He smiled as he put the pump into the tank. Once he had the gas flowing, he looked our way. “Thanks, and take care, guys.”
Even Crash waved and offered up a smile. “Thanks, and sorry to hear about your brother.”
He waved his hand through the air. “Don’t worry about it. He got what he had coming to him. I told him he’d regret picking on me one day. And now look, here I am about to have the best dinner in the world, and he’s in the ground with a shovel indentation in his skull.” He let out a laugh that sucked the air from my lungs.
I casually grabbed Amelia’s shoulder and started pushing her backward.
“See ya, buddy.” I waved and turned, pushing Crash to walk away as fast as she possibly could.
We were already moving down the sidewalk when she turned to look up at me. “What the hell did that mean?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you think he killed his brother?”
“I don’t know,” I answered, walking as fast as I could.
She kept pace beside me. “Do you think he used the shovel that was in the trunk of his car?”
“I don’t know. Let’s just pretend we never even met that guy, alright?”
“Easy for you to say. He wasn’t running his fingers through your hair, now was he?”
I kept my head down as I walked, refusing to look anywhere but at the sidewalk. “I’m sorry. I owe you one, OK?”
“One? Try six.”
