The Fungus Among Us

The Discovery

I can remember it all so clearly, as if it had just happened yesterday. But in truth it happened over 20years ago, and the Earth and life on it has not been the same since.

It all started on a balmy August night. My fiance and I were at the park, laying on a blanket, side by side looking up at the deep, deep blue, star filled sky. We lay there quietly holding hands with our fingers intertwined, the warmth and security of this simple action was ever so comforting to me. We lay there, in the quiet of the late night, far from the lights and sounds of the suburbs that we called home. Even though the air was warm, there was a light, cool breeze that gently caressed my exposed limbs, much as my lover caressed my palm with his rough, workingman's thumb. As I watched the sky searching for the meteors of the Perseid shower, I could hear chirping of the crickets, which seemed to rise and fall in volume; the sound of the katydids up in the trees calling to each other with their constant conversations that sounds like they are saying, "Katy did; she didn't; she did; she didn't";the sounds of the night creatures rustling about in the trees and bushes that surrounded the large clearing that we lay in, as our soft breathing echoed each others' in rhythm with the life that was all around us.

We watched the sky in mute fascination as the meteors streaked across the sky leaving a bright scar behind them. We watched the sky for hours, just enjoying the night sounds and the our quiet closeness. It was truly a mesmerizing sight to behold. As the meteors kept up their race across the night sky, I was shocked to hear a booming sound and then we see several bright flashes coming from the wooded area nearby. I sat straight up and looked over at my fiance to see that he was also sitting upright and staring at me in shocked surprise. I didn't even have to ask him if he had seen what I had, it was clearly showing on his face that he had.

"Should we go and check it out?",I asked. He didn't speak, just nodded his head. He stood up and then offered me his hand to help me to my feet. We turned in the direction where we had seen the flashes of light and walked off, hand in hand toward the unknown.

We walked to the edge of the clearing and into the woods not knowing what we would find ahead, but determined to find out. In the midst of the trees and thick undergrowth, the air was thick and humid; it felt like I was trying to breathe underwater. The breeze that, in the clearing, was blowing gently and coolly, could not penetrate the thickness of the woods. We walked on and on. Never speaking, just determined to get to the mysterious, unknown that lie ahead. About an hour later we came across an odd sight. Before us, not more than 20 feet away, there were darkened, smoking areas amongst the trees. Scott, my fiance,motioned for me to stay were I was and he slowly crept toward the nearest smoking hole. I waited and waited for what seemed like hours for him to let me know what he had found. Finally he motioned for me to come to him, so I swallowed my fears and with mock bravery, I walked to his side.

I looked at him and then at the ground by my feet and I could not believe my eyes; there before us was a small, oddly dimpled piece of space rock...a meteorite...

"What should we do now?" I asked.

Scott took out his cellphone and opened up the GPS app. "We tag this site on the GPS and then go home and call Marcus.", Scott said as he tapped away at his cellphone.

By the time we walked back the clearing, gathered our belongings, walked to the car and drove home,it was after 6am. I yawned and stretched as I got out of the car,and thought that this was surly going to be a very long day. The sun was just peaking over the horizon changing the colors of the sky to hues of pink, purple and orange. Little did I know that this would be one of the last "normal" sunrises that I would ever see.

We entered the house and Scott dumped our picnic stuff in a heap in the entryway, as I went to the kitchen to start a full pot of coffee. As I busied myself with the everyday activity of making our breakfast, Scott went into the den to make his phone call. About a half hour later Scott comes into the kitchen and sits down with his coffee and waffles that I prepared for him. He quietly digs into his meal and chews thoughtfully for a few minutes before telling me about his conversation with Marcus. We are to meetup at the park with him later today and then go and collect the meteorites and samples of the soil and plant life in the area. I for one was looking forward to a bit of an adventure to break the boredom of a long, hot summer. Little did I know that I would be getting more of an adventure than I was looking for.

Around 11am we met up with Marcus at the park and got our gear together for our trek into the woods. It sure would have been nice if we could have used the quads though. About an hour and a half later we arrived at the GPS coordinance. Marcus took off his pack and knelt on the ground and started digging around for his gloves, evidence bags and sample kits. While he and Scott worked on collecting the meteorites and samples, I decided to have a look around the area in the day light. There were tall thick redwoods, stately cedars and a few thin pines in between. I tilled my head way back and looked at the tree canopy. It was dark and green and very close knit; I could only see small gaps where the sky peeked through. In the day, under the canopy, it was like dusk and cool. The ground was covered with a thick, soft layer of leaves and pine needles with pine cones scattered about. The manzanita covered the ground thickly twinkling in the patchy light with its gray/green leaves and tiny white, star shaped flowers. There were large, feathery ferns growing close to the base of the trees, and here and there little brightly colored wild flowers spotted the forest floor. And then, there were the mushrooms. I mean, one would expect to see some of them growing under the bushes and in the rotting trees, but this...this was something totally different.

There were thousands of mushrooms allover the forest floor, on the rotting trees and even on the trees themselves. I have never seen anything like this and I had spent many decades in the old growth forests and rain forests of the world doing my research. I went over to get a close look at a large grouping for them on a rotting tree, and I tell you, these were the biggest mushrooms I had ever seen. They were about two feet tall,with long thick whitish brown stems and light brown caps as big as a semi's tires. I looked around and spotted the guys not far off so I called them over and told Marcus he should get some samples of the mushrooms; some for my research and some for his.

Three hours later we were packing everything back up and heading back to our vehicles. Once out of the shade of the woods, the air felt oppressively hot and thick. I suddenly felt like I was drowning on solid ground. We hurriedly packed up our equipment and got in our vehicles and got the motors running and the air turned on. We sat and cooled off in the car fora few minutes before putting the car in gear and heading for home. Scott said that Marcus was going to go straight to his lab and get started on testing the meteorites and the other samples. In the meantime, we would go home and get a few hours of sleep, and hopefully Marcus would have some answers for us by the time we woke up.