username; sodafarts
name; guzmanii....just guz (rhymes with snooze) for short!!
gender; male
occupation; truffle + accidental treasure hunter!
Truffle hunting wasn’t what I planned on doing with my life. Never in a million years would I have anticipated having a career which relied so heavily on my nose, you see, because I actually spent most of my life believing I couldn’t smell anything. Turns out, the only thing I CAN smell is truffles!
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Where it all began….I remember it like it was yesterday. My friends ordered takeout from the new “supposedly authentic” Italian restaurant (via grubhub of course, because of ~the virus~, you know the one). I must admit my expectations weren’t very high; I mean, I can barely taste my food at all so it’s hard to get my hopes up.
RRRRRING
The doorbell!! By this time we were starving and I could practically feel my stomach eating itself (not really, point is I was hungry). As soon as that delivery guy opened the door, the most amazing thing - the only thing - I’d ever smelled worked its way up my nose and straight into my heart.
“WHAT IS THAT!” I gasped.
Everyone looked at me like I was crazy.
“What’s….what?? The pasta?” asked my friend with a screwy look on her face.
“Whatever’s in that box smells like heaven, that’s what!” I yelled, still reeling at the fact that I was smelling something, let alone something so amazing, incredible, enticing!
My friends huddled around the greasy takeout box to get a better look at whatever I could be freaking out about. “Black truffle carbonara…..” read my friend slowly and quizzically while looking at the receipt.
“Wait, Guz, can you actually SMELL this??!” asked my friend, finally catching on to what the big deal was.
A chorus of “No way!” erupted around my friend group as everyone came to the same conclusion.
“I certainly can smell it, and let me tell you guys, this is WILD!” I responded. “But I must admit, I’m incredibly confused…..why am I smelling something now? After all this time?” I pondered.
“It must be the truffles!!” exclaimed my friend once more. “You’ve never had them before, right? Maybe you’re just really sensitive to them!”
Our curiosity sufficiently piqued, since apparently NONE of us had ever tasted nor smelled truffles before, we began to do some digging (on the internet of course - the REAL digging would later be done by moi).
2 hours later
“Turns out, truffle hunters make BANK dude!” observed my friend. “You should totally get on that! You’re literally perfect for the job.”
Since I was in fact perfect for the job, along with the fact that I was in fact FLAT BROKE, I decided to take things a step further.
2 weeks + a few phone calls later
And so my career as a truffle hunter began! But that was just the beginning.
The very first hunt out in the field was a complete bust - I didn't find jack out there. So was the next hunt, and the one after that. After about a week of unsuccessful searching, finally I had more than a bit of luck.
My nose led me straight to a huge oak tree, smack in the middle of nowhere. Thankfully my sense of direction isn’t as compromised as my sense of smell. Not even five minutes of digging later, and I spotted the delicate black truffle among the sprawling roots of the old oak tree. Carefully I pried it out and placed it in my specialized truffle-transporting basket. It felt great to finally be able to put something in it!
But then something else caught my eye.
Right next to where the truffle was buried, I caught a glimpse of something vaguely shiny. My curiosity getting the best of me, as it usually does, I dug down a little further. Pulling up my hand I soon realized that I’d found an old locket necklace. I tried to pry it open to see if there was any picture inside, but to my dismay it stayed shut tight. Still curious, I decided to just throw it in with the truffle and see what I could do about it when I got home.
The journey back to my employer’s little office in the woods was about 2 hours, so I must admit I’d all but forgotten about the necklace. I handed her the truffle box, collected my payment, and was on my merry way home.
Not even 10 minutes upon opening the door to my house, I received a phone call - from my boss.
I groaned as my heart fell into my stomach - this was my first truffle after all, did I do something wrong? Did I damage it?
As I answered the phone I took a deep breath. “Hello?” I asked cautiously.
“Guz, my boy, where on earth did you get this!” she exclaimed. Oddly enough, she sounded happy? Hopeful? No, maybe...relieved?
“The truffle, ma’am?” I continued. “It was under a huge oak tree, I could show you exactly where, is something wr-”
“No you silly boy, the necklace! Where did you ever find this!” she replied.
“Oh! It was just buried near the truffle.” I replied, relieved I didn’t slip up.
“I’ll be darned….” she began again. “Guz, this is my locket. It was a gift from my mother - I lost it 28 years ago when I was playing around in that forest.”
“That’s so cool!” I exclaimed. “Whaddya know!”
“I don’t know how you managed to so easily find something I’ve spent 20 years looking for, but I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart!” she said. “This really is a miracle!”
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The first time it happened, with the locket, I hardly paid attention. The second time it was just interesting. Then when the third time rolled around, it became an odd coincidence….and after that I stopped counting.
Because every time I find a truffle, I find something much rarer and valuable along with it - but I never seem to find treasures for myself.
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