Mycelia
MYCELIANS LOVE PRUNES and live under beds, that’s what the book Mycelian Facts and Falsehoods claimed. I placed a plate of prunes on the floor and waited. I was old—eighty-eight—to believe in monsters under the bed, and that’s probably the reason my family put me in here. ‘Here’ is the claustrophobic room in Mountain View, a hospital for the elderly.
The reason I wanted to catch a Mycelian was because they could transport me to a better place. The book said that, too.
I heard three coins drop into the vending machine outside, and a can clatter into the bin. I scrambled to my window to see what they got. As the person passed, I strained to look, but I couldn’t see.
“What did you get?” I yelled. “What did you get, let me see!”
A middle-aged man turned, held up a can of cola, and
