Page 80 of Starrily

In response, Callie sent a spray of dirt his way. He laughed.

“Are you sure you wouldn’t rather go to a restaurant and have some pasta with truffles?”

Callie sat down. “Mr. Adventurer, giving up on adventure?”

“I like my adventure more fast-paced.”

“Sometimes, you have to be patient. Makes the final discovery all the more rewarding.”

“I think we’d have an easier way of finding a new planet than a truffle.”

“You can take a break if you want. I’m digging.” She got back onto her knees and faced away from him, scraping at the ground with her stick.

She looked absolutely ridiculous. They both did. And Simon loved it. So he picked up his stick and got back to work.

“Hey. Hey!” Sometime later—might have been fifteen minutes, might have been half an hour—Callie started scratching at the dirt more intensely. “I’ve got it. I think I’ve got one!”

Simon crawled over. In the middle of the small hole was a dark brown, shrunken bump that might be a truffle, but could also be some dried-up animal excrement.

Callie cleaned it off as much as she could and lifted it in the air. “I found a truffle!”

He smiled at the gorgeous, disgusting brown lump. “You did it!”

She squealed and hugged him, then got to her feet and did a happy dance. “I got a truffle, I got a truffle—Theia, look!”

Simon sat down next to Theia in her carrier and took a few moments to rest and relax.

“Now what?” Callie said.

“There’s a small lake nearby. We can go wash our hands and have a bite to eat.”

“Perfect! Let’s go.” Callie headed downhill.

Simon slung the backpack over his shoulder and picked up Theia. “Should’ve just given her a truffle,” he said to the cat. “That’s all she needed. A truffle.” And he followed Callie.

Simon picked a nice spot on a patch of grass by the lakeside. They washed and wiped as much dirt from their clothes as possible. Callie kneeled by the water and cleaned off her truffle while Simon put a tarp on the ground and brought out some snacks.

“I think they look better once they’ve been processed.” Callie approached, showing him the truffle. It was still dark in color and shrunken up; hardly appetizing.

“You mean, once they’re only shavings on a dish?”

She shrugged and sat down next to him. He offered her a bag of chips, and they both munched as they looked across the peaceful, mirror-like surface of the lake.

“We can take ‘find gold’ off the list now,” she said.

“Hmm.” He pretended to think. “I’ll accept it.” He looked at her as she turned her gaze toward the lake. The items on the bucket list were meant to be flexible; applicable to many different things. And seeing Callie happy, just being here with her, Simon could indeed say he found gold.

He cleared his throat. “So, what do we do with our gold? Put it on the chips?”

“Oh, we don’t know that it’s edible,” Callie said casually.

“We spent all this time looking for a truffle, and we might not be able to eat it?”

“There are many different varieties. I’d have to match it first to see if it’s an edible sort or not. It might not be that delicious.”

Simon took the truffle and rotated it between his fingers. It did look like poop. Or a heavily dried-up, half-rotten plum.

He shrugged and took a small bite.