“Mushrooms and Omega-3s”

“Forty years ago, when teachers were a thing; led to a whole collapse of the archaic educational system. Had to be rebooted and built from the ground up.”

“Nobody knows what those are, bud.” The young face with smirking eyes and confident chin, looked over the man; whom had found a sturdy piece of plywood, laying it over the spikes that now occupied benches, so the homeless couldn’t find easy rest. “You’re homeless anyway, bud — you don’t have any education. You can’t even afford —

“Say, have you seen this?” The old man held a palm in front of him, pretending to scroll, as if he had the means to buy one of those interactive motherboards that connected to your personal AI. “I was in that place we used to call China, just last week. They still stealing tuna from Japan though. I guess a little radioactivity never hurt nobody now.”

“Duh, dude; the Republicans cleared that up.”

“The who?”

“Surely, you are older than I. You know about…

“Nah, don’t know those people.”

“The guy with the yellow hair?”

“Oh, oh,” the gray beard seemed dismayed. “Can’t be a republican and you’re not for the people and the republic.”

“We gave you guys everything.”

“Teacher told you that?”

“Again, with this teacher stuff. Everyone teaches themselves. Truth is whatever you believe it to be.”

“Oh.”

“What?” The twenty-something was agitated; he couldn’t understand what imaginary toy the old man was still playing with.

The old man raised his palm and faced it toward the know-it-all; a light beamed.…