Just Like Her

mushrooms

The mushrooms were large, with even larger light brown heads.

"I think they're poisonous," Wisteria popped one into her mouth.

"No," I grabbed her arm. "What are you doing?"

"Here," she handed me one, then swept a camouflaged bag over the picked mushrooms. "Have one. That way we can die together. Like Romeo and Juliete. Except platonically, of course. And our families aren't fighting."

"We can arrange that," I said, leaning against a tree. "My family loves fights, I'm sure they could pick on your's."

"Perfect," Wisteria said. "Now eat the mushroom."

I don't know why, but I didn't. It could have been the way she said it. "I'm not hungry," I protested, tossing the mushroom to the forest floor.

"As you wish," Wisteria bent and scooped the mushroom from my hand, shoving it into her pocket. She began to walk along the edge of the extensive graveyard, leaving her little patch of picked mushrooms. I trailed her, she turned over her shoulder and winked.

I half smiled, raising my eyebrows.

And then, seemingly out of nowhere, she said: "Oh my! Oh my! What if we could go through a portal into a mushroom world, where everyone was a mushroom! Oh! Anne, where do I find it?"

"It's, um," I looked around, noticing the Convent Mont sign at the end of the graveyard, "behind that sign over there."

"Come on," Wisteria began to sprint, frolicing and skipping like she was part of the wild. "Come on."

I walked behind her.

"What now?" she asked, out of breath although she had run maybe four yards.

"I guess we climb it," I walked over to the sign, inspecting it. Accent lights illuminated the large letters on its side. They were thick and would make perfect handholds. The only problem was the lights. If anyone drove by, they would see us.

This didn't seem to concern Wisteria. She lept for the sigh. "A whole new world!" she yelled.

I nodded, looking around.

"Come on up," Wisteria held out a hand to me, positioned precariously on the top of the brick sign.

I looked around. "I better not." Wisteria puppy eyed me. "Ok, fine."

Fine, fine.

I scrambled over the letters, scraping my knees as I hoisted myself to the top. Then, I dropped over the other side, falling on my feet and then tumbling over, shredding my skin on the thorns of a bush that protected the other side from, I don't know, eyes maybe.

Wisteria jumped after me, landing on her feet in one fluid motion.

"Oh wow," I said, after I had collected my dignity. "Yes, this is so much different. I think this bush is a slightly darker shade of green."

Wisteria tittered, running from the bush, with her arms on either side of her, twirling about. "The air tastes sweeter!" she yelled.

Following in her wake, although, like forty miles an hour slower, I quickly licked the air. "Definitely," I lied.

"I need to meet all the mushroom people!" Wisteria ran over to me, and took my hands. Her's was sweaty, and, frankly, uncomfortable to hold. But all the same, I let her pull me through the woods and back to the dance.

The first person we saw, a little outside the fake stars of the dance floor, was a small, cute girl, in a smooth green gown. "Oh look," I said, gesturing to where she was. "A mushroom, we found a local inhabitant."