Junglepixiebelize - Recollections of a Gringa Pioneer
Nancy R Koerner - Copyright@2021 - All Rights Reserved
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
"Could I Eat This Mushroom?"
A gringo is walking in the bush with a Creole guy from Santa Elena. He sees a mushroom. It looks similar to the species he once “enjoyed” in college, back in the early 1970’s. He bends down, picks it, and shows it to his companion. “Could I eat this mushroom?” the gringo asks, with raised eyebrows, a sly and rather hopeful look in his eye. The Creole puzzles a moment, hesitating. Then he cocks his head, and then answers honestly. “Ya, mayn. Yu kud eet it.” The gringo grins. He is pleased. He stashes the mushroom, and takes it home. Later on, he consumes it. But it is not a psychedelic. It is highly-poisonous, and his reaction is violent. A friend flags him a taxi, and rushes him to La Loma Clinic. The gringo gets multiple emergency life-saving treatments for poisoning.
About a month later, the gringo runs into the Creole guy, who has not seen since the event, and asks him angrily: “Hey, man. What’s up? I got poisoned, went to the hospital, and almost freaking died. I thought you said I could eat that mushroom?
“Ah seh 'yu kud eet it,' the Creole responds, levelly. "Ah neva seh eh noh wa mek yu sik.”
("I said you could eat it. I never said it wouldn't make you sick.")