Far Horizons: Tales of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror. Issue #20 November 2015 | Page 35

sipping their weak tea. I did it partly out of duty and
partly because I got lonely sometimes. Their wizened
voices soothed me. I should go out more, try to make
friends my own age, but it all seemed so strange, so
fraught with danger, and my garden was such a safe
haven. I counted my work shifts, checking out library
books and chatting to the other ladies that worked
there as enough social interaction. It was enough to
keep loneliness at bay.
One morning while plucking the ripe
strawberries, I found a strange mushroom, nestled
between one plant and its neighbour. Frowning, I
shuffled closer on my knees, wiping dirt and straw
onto my jeans as I did so. I pulled the green leaves
aside, peering at the mushroom closely. It resembled
a Chanterelle, having a thick short stem and flesh
that appeared like a trumpet, the edges uneven and
the middle dipped in. Normally Chanterelles were
deep yellow and orange, but this one was pale, almost
see-through, and had many tiny golden veins crisscrossing throughout. It was unlike anything I had
ever seen, but perhaps it would begin to resemble a
normal mushroom soon, perhaps it was very young?
I left it where it was, taking a quick photo on my
phone so that I could try to identify it later this
evening, and tried to push it from my mind. Only
later, after a dinner of vegetables and steak, did I sit
down with a cup of steaming tea to try and identify
it. First I flicked through my grandfather’s old book
on mushrooms, which ones were poisonous and
which were edible. Nothing fitted, only the vague
resemblance to a Chanterelle. Maybe it is a species
from another country, somehow managing to grow
here? How such a thing would find its way into my
garden was beyond me, but it could be the answer.
I switched on my laptop, looking for a database of
worldwide mushrooms and squinting as I compared
them to the photograph. Again nothing. Could it be
an unknown variety? A new species? I decided as a
last effort to upload the photo to a mushroom foraging
forum, hoping someone on there could identify it for
me or at least point me in the right direction.
I’d had never grown mushrooms, though I ate
them often enough. I knew Chanterelles were edible
but I would have to be careful before eating my new

unknown friend, many people had died from eating
the wrong mushrooms. How had it come to be in my
garden?
The next day as I made my regular walk into
work, cradling a cup of coffee between my hands
and trying to shift the sleep from my foggy brain.
It was then tha Ё$