How does it feel? (Infatuated Fae Book 1)
How does it feel? – Chapter 6

Callie

“I don’t trust the nut. He belongs in an institution or something,” Cliff murmured.

“Oh you’re just mad ’cause ever since she got to talkin’ with Earl, you don’t get to drive Cal around anymore. Harder to get out of the friend zone now.” Cecelia laughed heartily.

“I’m sorry, Cecelia, but it’s Callie not Cal, please, and don’t you two have anything better to do than hover in my office?” I scolded. My office was barely big enough for me, and I was already feeling extra anxious today.

“Oh, exca-use me, Callie,” Cecelia said sarcastically. “Hot date with Earl again?”

I looked up with an annoyed expression from where I sat on the floor, packing my back pack to roll my eyes as hard as I could at the graying woman. She grinned back, thoroughly pleased with herself.

“Tonight we are going to check the west end of the park for the mushrooms I need. So far, we’ve managed to replace nearly every other fungi under the sun but the ones I can use.” I huffed grumpily as I continued stuffing slides and gloves into the pack. “Earl’s seen them before, I guess they are just tricky to replace sometimes.”

“I am not in the friend zone,” Cliff stated a few beats behind.

“Yes, you are,” Cecelia and I said in unison before bursting into laughter.

“Just come with me, I can take you,” Cliff said, spinning in circles in my desk chair like an overgrown child.

I finished zipping up my backpack, tucked a few granola bars in the front pocket, and looked at the odd pair huddled around me. They were my closest friends now. The thought of missing out on the butterflies hurt, but maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. Maybe that wasn’t the life I was supposed to have, maybe life in Willow Springs would be okay.

“Hello? Anyone here?” A voice echoed down the hallway.

“We’re back here, Earl!” I shouted as I struggled to pull my heavy pack on.

I had a small problem with overpacking. The huge pack made me feel even tinier than I already typically felt at a short five feet tall. What would it be like to be one of those tall, long-legged women? I should buy a pair of high heels and see. I haven’t dressed up in years.

I walked to the front and met Earl in the middle of the hallway. Fluorescent lights beamed down harshly on the haggard-looking man. Maybe I could talk him into getting a haircut? There was a handsome, intelligent man under all those disheveled layers of clothing and unkept hair. Maybe the town would treat him better if he didn’t come across quite so . . . frumpy.

In the few weeks since we had officially talked at the library, Earl and I had been getting together daily. Sometimes he felt like a magnet that I just wanted to be near. It had been so long since I’d felt that comfortable with anyone. Since Eli had left, no one felt safe, especially after the deal I made with his mother.

What an odd string of events to have unfolded. Maybe it was all the incredible gems of information that he carried and my hope of replaceing the very thing he claimed to have been ruined by, but every day I grew closer to Earl, and for once, I let myself.

Our age gap alone could make our friendship a little odd, but if I was being honest, Earl was on the fast track to being one of the best people I’d ever known. I loved bouncing ideas off him. It felt so nice to share those parts of me and feel understood. Though I don’t completely understand some of the wild things he claims to have witnessed (a horse made of only bones and a rosebush that farted and answered all his questions had been my favorites so far), I still thought of him as one of the most good-hearted people I had ever met. Weren’t all great scientists a little crazy? Isn’t that just what a lot of brain power did to you? I would ask him about getting a haircut today. He deserved to feel good too.

“Hey, you ready? Today is the day, I just know it!” I said as I greeted Earl with a hug.

Cliff shoved past us, clipping Earl’s bony shoulder in a move that sent him almost into the opposite wall.

“Hey! What’s your problem?” I shouted at Cliff, suddenly seeing red. What the—?

“Oh, my bad, Crazy Earl,” Cliff said, his face firm as he glared at the gray-haired old man. He faced us but continued his walk to the door with a sour look. “Callie, you got a Life Alert on you in case your boyfriend falls down on the trip?”

Before anyone could answer, he was through the doors. What had gotten into him? It wasn’t like Earl was a rival male or something. He was in his sixties, for heaven’s sake! I shook my head at the thought as I watched Earl take his time adjusting his suspenders. They had a mushroom and acorn pattern that really set off his faded blue Grateful Dead T-shirt.

“Sorry, Earl, ignore him,” I murmured apologetically.

“Oh, don’t worry about it, Callie. I’m used to it by now,” said the eccentric man, but I didn’t miss the flicker of sorrow that cracked across his face when he said it.

Yea, a haircut and some new clothes would help. I would do whatever I could to help the town see what a wonderful person Earl really was. It wasn’t what I should be focusing on, but it wouldn’t hurt. If all went well with replaceing these mushrooms, I would be leaving again soon, and I wanted to leave things nicer for my new friend if I could.

With our supplies loaded into the back of Earl’s car, we headed out to the far edge of the state park. Equine and hiking trails ran throughout the grounds, but the western edge was left mostly to Mother Nature. There were no paths where we were headed, which would be both good and bad. A greater chance of mushrooms being left undisturbed, but the hiking was a lot rougher.

Approximately a hundred acres of dense woods and wildlife took up the majority of the property we would be scouting today, and I couldn’t have been more excited. I didn’t have a lot of reason to work in these parts, and it was always exciting to explore new places in the park. I was pretty familiar with Willow Springs State Park, but when Earl parked his car on the edge of the road, I couldn’t remember this section.

“I know they are this way, I can feel them,” Earl said, pausing with his door open to sniff the air like a dog.

“You said that about the last three spots,” I said, smiling at him.

Truthfully I was starting to lose a bit of hope. It had been foolish to think he had the answers to all my problems. My whole plan to replace the luna moths and the destroying angel mushrooms seemed to be slipping further and further away, but at the same time, I was having some of the most fun I’d ever had foraging with Earl.

“They are hiding from me,” he said, locking his car and grabbing his walking stick.

It was a beautiful light wood staff with designs carved intricately throughout. Swirls surrounding wild-looking butterflies and a fox covered the top third with a beautiful sun carved neatly into the tip. He told me the fox had taken him nearly two months to complete, to which I told him what a fool he was for working at the gas station instead of selling his carvings. They were glorious. He had just chuckled and said the gas station gave him free coffee.

“Maybe I’m scaring them off,” I said sarcastically as we began our trek into the forest.

“It’s much more likely that they hide in pity so that I can spend more time with you,” he laughed.

It was close to three o’clock when we had gotten deep into the land. The sun beat down brightly above our heads, though we wouldn’t have known it other than the heat it cultivated, for the trees had grown so large and thick left to their own devices that they blocked most of the light save for a few patches here and there filtering through the trees. We had been at it for a while, slowly walking around all the different trees in an effort to replace the destroying angels. Earl was a great storyteller, so it was never dull or boring. I had grown so comfortable with him in the hours spent together the last several weeks. His wild stories were like balm to my soul.

“Earl, I hope you won’t take offense to this,” I said, readjusting my long hair into a big floppy bun atop my head, “but what do you think if we got your hair cut and some new clothes? You know I don’t really care about appearances, but I guess . . .” I struggled to replace the right words now that they were forming outside of my head. “Well, I guess I just thought that maybe the town would see how great you are if they weren’t so focused on your appearance.” I nervously turned to watch him circle a nearby oak, praying I hadn’t offended the closest thing to a best friend I’d had in a long time.

“What do I care what everyone else thinks of me?” he said, keeping his honey-flecked eyes on the forest floor.

“Don’t you get lonely sometimes? I know you have people that are nice to you in town, but . . . did you ever have the urge to get married and settle down? You and Cecelia get on nicely.”

“Me? No, Cecelia is just a friend.” He stopped, seemingly lost in thought. “Once, a long, long time ago, when I was a very foolish young man still living under my parents’ roof, there was a girl. Back then, things were different though. She was from another country, and my family, being influential in the world of academics, believed her family and culture beneath us.” He smiled boyishly at me and ran his hands through his hair. “It didn’t matter in the end, I gave myself completely to work. We were only ever friends anyway, but I still think about her.”

Suddenly my brain flooded with thoughts of myself in Earl’s place forty years from now. Obsessed over my work, mad with it. No family, no loved ones. Only a town full of people who thought I had lost my mind.

My chest suddenly felt hollow. As if all the air had been sucked out. That would be me. I would be crazy Callie.

“You okay? What’s wrong, Cal?” Earl said, grabbing my elbow.

His grip was surprisingly strong for his bony frame.

His wrinkled face was close enough for me to see the gold specks that mingled with the warm honey of his eyes. I was flooded with sympathy as I watched his gaunt face search mine. Thin, wrinkled skin hung down from a jawline that once would have been sharp and masculine in his younger years. He was still handsome, but in the way you thought of when you saw old war photos of your grandpa.

“I just was wondering if we both work too much? Earlier I had thought about buying a new pair of high heels and dressing up. It’s been ages since I got all dressed up, and I don’t know, I was thinking that maybe we both should get cleaned up and have a night on the town.”

Earl chuckled, but the humor didn’t reach his eyes as he watched me thoughtfully. We continued walking a bit before he finally spoke.

“Cal, I think you should get dressed up and go out. You’re young and deserve a night out. That boy Cliff sure seems into you. He must be if he got jealous over an old coot like me taking up so much of your time.” He smiled with a glimmering sparkle in his eyes, seeming to relish in the idea of making a younger Cliff jealous.

“I don’t want to go out with Cliff, I want to go out with you. I just want to have fun for a change, and I believe I would have significantly more fun with you than with Cliff.” I smiled at him so wide I could feel the forest air hit the gums of my teeth.

“Then a night on the town it is. I’m never one to turn down a pretty girl. You pick the day, and I’ll be ready. I’ll even get my hair cut just for you.” Earl chuckled pleasantly. “I know just the—no.”

I abruptly stopped to locate where Earl was and if he was okay.

To my right, about twenty feet near a few deciduous logs, Earl stood, his face frozen and downcast, looking to the ground.

“What is it, Earl? Are you all right? Did you replace something?” I asked, feeling my stomach fall to my feet.

His face was frozen. No expression. No movement.

I made it to his side in a moment, only to suck in enough oxygen to fill a hot air balloon.

“They are never far from me, even when I wish they would be,” Earl said as he stared at the perfect white mushroom, and a puzzling expression crossed his face.

“Oh my god, Earl, is this it?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper, apparently worried I might spook the mushroom.

When I looked at Earl, I expected to see a big smile on his face staring at the large mushroom.

Instead, regret and misery overlayed his worn features as he stared at me instead.

“Yea, this is it.”

Unsure whether he was sad to be near the fungi that had seemingly haunted his life or possibly the realization that our forays were over now that we had found our prize, I grabbed him into a big hug.

“Thank you so much, Earl! Now we really will have something to celebrate!” I cried as I squeezed him.

He had found it.

I looked around the trees, suddenly hopeful. The lore was that the luna moths and butterflies were drawn to this specific mushroom, and I had begun to suspect that was why they happened to be so concentrated here as opposed to everywhere else.

I saw nothing, but the luna moths were nocturnal and wouldn’t be here yet. I peeked around, unable to stop myself from searching for any other winged creatures but came up empty-handed.

“Yes, I suppose we will. I really have enjoyed spending this time with you so much, Callie,” he said, squeezing me back before he released me.

“Earl, I promise this isn’t the last of our forays.” I moved back to look into his cloudy eyes. “I need more mycelium than this one mushroom as it is. Hey, look! Nothing spooky around here now,” I said confidently.

With some of the stories he had told, I half expected a monster to leap out from the patch behind the mushroom.

He smiled weakly at me but seemed to shake himself out of whatever sadness had clutched him. “You must be lucky,” he murmured as he looked around.

“How great! Let’s collect this, it’s getting dark, and I really want to use my new microscope before we have to leave!” I practically sang. “Let’s come back tomorrow and look for more, you free?”

By this time, the dense forest had grown dull with slate-gray skies. The air felt suddenly thick and mucky. I didn’t see a storm in the forecast, but nature had no rules. No one knew that better than me. This was strange though. It was almost . . . a feeling inside. Something just felt wrong, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. It was exceptionally odd because I had just felt so happy. This mushroom could potentially be the answer to all my problems. So why did I feel like I wanted out of here as fast as possible? I couldn’t help but look around the darkening forest floor as a feeling of dread began to overtake me. The giant trees hemmed us in as the whispers of fear began to trail across my skin.

I was being ridiculous. There was nothing here.

I placed my pack on the floor, but my body screamed at me to hurry and gather the sample so we could leave.

Something brushed against my arm as I knelt to pull out my equipment.

I leaped sideways to get away from it, nearly crushing my microscope as I clumsily fell on the ground next to it.

“Fuck! What is it, Cal?”

Earl launched toward me and helped me up with shaking hands. The harsh tone didn’t sound like him, and it only made me more uneasy.

“It’s Callie, not Cal,” I said under my breath after thanking him for helping me.

He straightened his suspender strap and knelt to help me with the equipment.

“You feel it too, don’t you?” he asked, looking at my face.

I really didn’t want to encourage any of his unstable behavior. But yes, I felt it too.

It was the shadow of a skin-crawling feeling, the leaking drip of terror before the true fear engulfed you. The feeling was so sudden and disturbing—I felt like we were marinating in it. It was like the feeling you get when you’re alone and you know someone is watching you. No sounds to tip you off, no warnings, just a feeling. Except instead of feeling eyes on me, I felt . . . pure evil and darkness. Something hovered threateningly in the air that told my body to get away as fast as possible, that we were not safe.

Any other time, I would have searched nearby for more destroying angel mushrooms. Typically where one mushroom grew, there were plenty of others hidden, and I needed to replace a patch of several, but my mind was forbidding the thought of staying a second longer than necessary.

“Yea, I do. Are we safe?” I asked, sort of embarrassed to be admitting it out loud. Maybe I was going a little crazy too.

“For now. I’m really sorry, Cal. I hate that you are around any of this.” He stared at his feet.

The expression was as forlorn as if his favorite dog had died. I felt terrible; I wanted to help him.

“Are you kidding? You have helped me in so many ways, Earl. You have been the best friend I’ve had in a long time, and I really needed a good friend,” I said, hoping to make him feel better.

I really was grateful, but this ominous feeling was messing with my head. Was any of what he had said true? Was I crazy now? I pushed it into a compartment to dissect later, half expecting a black unicorn to trot out in front of me.

We finished collecting samples and packed up quickly. The entire time Earl seemed to be regretting the decision to bring me here.

Under the microscope, the spores of the destroying angel looked unlike anything I could have ever imagined. Where spores normally looked like tiny beige bubbles or eggs, the destroying angel spores looked unreal, like black smoke trying to escape the glass. My blood was pounding so hard in my ears that I had barely heard the thunder that began to rumble.

“We gotta get out of here, I can’t do this!” Earl shouted as a wild gust of wind dove violently through trees, shoving our jackets and clothes wherever it commanded.

“I just need to collect it!” I shouted back.

The sudden aggression of the wind made it so I had to yell. It was only one mushroom, but I wouldn’t risk coming back for it. I needed it now. Branches bare and full of foliage alike smacked and slammed the bodies of neighboring trees with each ominous gust. Earl’s cap flew off, now a prisoner to the wind.

Normally I enjoyed storms. I liked the patter of rain on my windows and the peaceful rumble of thunder. I’d fallen asleep to it many times.

But not here and not now. This was anything but peaceful. Though there was still no rain, the smokey gray forest seemed to pulse as if readying itself for something evil. I’ve never felt anything like it, and I’m not quite sure how to describe it. I was a practical woman, so it was even more unsettling to have my body suddenly react the way it was. I saw no threat, nothing but a storm. Nothing to provoke these feelings of . . . darkness?

A loud clap of thunder sent me nearly out of my boots as I jumped. Seeing Earl jump didn’t make me feel any less scared. I nearly fell, scrambling to shove items back into my pack with pure determination to leave.

I had a fleeting thought before I placed the mushroom in the container and in my pack. Was this a bad omen? I typically wasn’t superstitious, but I couldn’t help feeling weird about what was happening.

Mere moments after I had pulled up the mushroom and a few thin roots to cultivate, the oddest thing happened.

The gray began to clear from the sky above like a light switch had flipped.

The air began to clear, suddenly feeling less thick. It was as if we had popped the cork of the storm’s drain and it slowly dissipated in front of our very eyes.

“C’mon, Callie. You got that one? We should go, they aren’t ready,” Earl murmured, looking around with an uneasy look on his face. “This was a bad idea. I shouldn’t have told you about this.”

“What do you mean they aren’t ready?” I asked.

“They form a circle of mushrooms when they are fully grown, this must be the beginning. They call them fairy rings,” he mumbled, looking around nervously.

My body stilled but for my shaking hands that touched the V-shaped scar of my memories. “Fairy rings?” I asked cautiously.

“Yea. They believed they were a portal to the human world from the other worlds, that the Fae used them to travel. You’ve never heard that?” he asked, looking at me as if I were daft.

“I’m not sure . . .” My voice trailed off.

“I’ve seen some dark things around these particular mushrooms, though, so if it were a portal, it’s definitely to somewhere evil, not like the agaric mushrooms I’ve seen.”

I stared open-mouthed at him as I attempted to sort my thoughts out.

I suddenly felt sick; my nerves had gotten the best of me.

I needed to talk to my family, to the sweet woman that was the closest thing to a mother I had since my own had passed. I needed to ground myself, get a firmer grip on things. I’d been working too much, and now it was catching up to me. Had they written? It had felt like ages since I’d heard from them.

Though the air had almost fully cleared, Earl began to shove things in my bag in an attempt to hurry me along. If someone had wanted to shock my nerves and frighten me into a heart attack, now was the time. My body was so on edge I nearly forgot how to zip my bag, unsure of what was real anymore and what wasn’t.

We threw our supplies on our backs and quickly headed out the way we had come. Only the hurried footsteps on the forest floor sounded as we quickly shuffled through the wild forest to get as far away from the area as our feet would carry us.

Neither of us spoke the entire way. My mind was too full of questions to sort out a sensible one to ask Earl. It wasn’t until we were in his car on the way home that I settled myself enough to speak.

“You’re not crazy, are you?” I asked quietly. “I want to know every unbelievable thing you know about the destroying angels. I believe you,” I said with a shaky breath.

I could easily understand how Earl had been trapped in his dedication to replaceing out more about these mushrooms. It had been two hours, and my mind was in overdrive, trying to make sense of everything.

“No,” he stated. His wrinkled face looked tired now as he stared at the road ahead.

“No, what? No, you’re not crazy? I know, I don’t think I ever really thought you were. I think we should contact the North American Mycological Association and see if they can’t send some others out this way to locate more—” I rambled.

“No. I don’t want you telling anyone about these things, and you won’t be working with me on them anymore. I’m sorry. This was a mistake, Cal. I thought I wanted you to see them, but I don’t. I don’t want you anywhere near the darkness,” he stated, not removing his gaze from the road.

The air went out of me like a balloon. Did he just not want to share his discovery with anyone else? I was stubborn and knew I would wear him down so I brushed it off, not wanting to upset him further. He seemed really upset ever since we had been near them. I would convince him at dinner tonight to let me help.

“Let’s talk about it at dinner tonight. We have so much to celebrate. We should go to Marion! I know it’s two towns over, but they have that good steak house, and I really want to get dressed up!” I said excitedly.

The gloom and unsettled air were brushed off completely.

His demeanor instantly shifted from grumpy statue to boyishly charming. “Roadhouse? I can get us a senior discount there! You sure you want to waste a dressing up on me? I’ll be the luckiest man in Marion,” he said with a wink.

“Do you have anything nice you can wear?” I asked, hoping it didn’t sound too harsh.

“I have a suit I haven’t had a reason to wear in years. Taking a smart, beautiful, kind woman out to dinner sure seems like a good reason,” he chirped, still smiling. “But Callie?” he asked, his face suddenly falling. “Don’t go back to those destroying angel mushrooms, okay? If you do, I’ll never forgive myself. We will replace another way to get you what you need,” he cautioned.

I nodded, knowing he was just worried and looking out for me. I already had all the information I needed, so there was no sense in upsetting him.

“Earl, if you were thirty, heck, twenty years younger, I think you would be causing me a lot of trouble right now.” I beamed at the older man as he puffed his chest out a little.

Earl dropped me off at my house and left to get a haircut straightaway with the plan of picking me up for our fancy dinner at eight. I offered to borrow Cecelia’s car and pick him up, but he vehemently declined, muttering something about women driving a man around in his day. I couldn’t help but feel like a burden making him drive me all around town, even though he said he enjoyed the company. He was old and worried about me driving at night. Aside from being frail, though, he did seem to be incredibly healthy, and the few times I’d needed help from him, he was surprisingly strong despite his frail-looking features.

My boots were already half removed by the time I stepped onto the cold white tile of my entryway. The backpack landed with a thud as I neatly tucked my boots under the bench by the door and continued onto the surprisingly light pack, removing the specimens that needed refrigeration. After putting away what was absolutely necessary and electing to leave the rest for the morning, I hurried into the shower, excited to get ready for our dinner date.

I was oddly eager to get dressed up. Maybe it was the fact that I hadn’t seen myself in anything but pajamas and a khaki-green uniform in a long time, but I was thoroughly looking forward to going out and feeling like a normal human for once. Maybe it was also the fact that I could get as glammed up as I wanted, and I knew my date wouldn’t assume it was so he could have sex with me. Yes, that was a definite plus. I giggled at the thought.

An hour later, I had gone so far as to paint my nails a deep red (it was the only bottle of polish I could replace, and likely from when I was sixteen), my hair sat patiently in giant rollers as I perched atop the bathroom counter, and I attempted to finish my makeup. The YouTube video I had watched said a smokey eye was easy, but I earnestly begged to differ. I had already scrubbed it off and started over at least three times, concluding I had looked like a bandit-eyed raccoon. Eventually, though, I accidentally smudged in the right spot, achieving a sultry, smoke-like appearance that I was pleased with. I wiggled my loose wisdom tooth back and forth with my tongue, a new nervous habit I had picked up. I swore I would get it pulled soon before it grew more painful, but I never found the time, and the thought of being all loopy from anesthesia made me nervous. Next month.

It took me an agonizingly long time to dig about my closet and replace the box I was searching for. Several boxes littered the walled edges of the small closet, and the one I wanted was hidden farthest in the back with the least amount of use.

I set the beaten cardboard container on the bed with a small grunt. The box had been through a lot of moves, and to be honest, I didn’t know why I had even kept it. More likely than not, I had assumed it was full of training equipment or something. I liked pretty dresses and fancy hair and outfits, just not on me. What did I need to dress up for?

I supposed the box in front of me answered that question.

I grabbed one of the blades from a scattered training box and cut open the lid to rummage through the clothes, setting out a few on my bed that could potentially work. Thankfully I was an excellent packer and had vacuum sealed each item because I wouldn’t have time to wash them. I snorted at the slutty ones I would never actually wear and attempted fruitlessly to remember how I had acquired them. Some of them seemed ridiculously small.

On went a pair of black pumps with an elegant yet feminine pointed toe that I used to wear to meetings.

When I was younger, I had actually been scouted by a few modeling agencies at a local mall a couple of years in a row. It had set Claire—the lady that cared for me after the accident—off into being an incredibly disappointed dance mom. She was supportive of my career, but every time I signed up for science camps instead of cheerleading or opted for more academic challenges than, say, modeling—which I’m quite certain they asked everyone at the mall anyway—she pushed even harder to force me into a mold I apparently appeared to fit better in than academics. I didn’t blame her. Honestly, I likely would have followed that path had she not pushed so hard. I had a tiny rebellious streak, I supposed.

With the memory of my family and a squeeze of my heart, I walked to the small wooden desk in my kitchen, opened the large leather-bound book that rested atop the worn surface, and pulled an unread letter from the first page of the book. I shuffled back to the brightly lit bathroom to finish my tasks while I read over the latest letter from my adoptive mother. Plans of travel and enchanted little places she could take me to, whenever I was able to visit, were scribbled across the pages and followed up with a sparkling butterfly stamp near her signature that I knew she had added just for me. She was so incredibly sweet and thoughtful. I startled out of my cozy reflections with a glance at the time.

I pulled off the perforated plastic of a red “all day wear” lipstick tube and read the instructions before painting it on my lips. It was most certainly expired, but I would try and ignore that as it made my already pretty full lips look absolutely pouty and voluptuous. I snorted in the mirror and tried to wipe it off, but true to my usual luck, it wouldn’t budge.

Debauched red lips and over-sexed smokey eyes stared back in horror as I rubbed vehemently to remove the red lip to no avail. What was in this stuff? Maybe I should put it under my new micro—

My microscope.

Oh my god.

I had left my microscope in the forest.

No.

The case wasn’t with me in the car.

In a flurry, I frantically ran to the front door, throwing coats and anything else, making sure Earl hadn’t grabbed it.

But in a flash of memory, I knew he hadn’t. I painfully remembered everything I had hurried to place in Earl’s car in our hysteria to leave the forest, and the hefty black case had not been there. I needed to call him and check.

I was so close to reaching my goals. How could I mess up like this?

But then Earl would have to stop what he was doing to take me over there and hike into the woods again. That had to have already been so taxing on him and his aging body.

How embarrassing! This isn’t how you treat equipment with the price tag of a car. He would think me unprofessional, and then he definitely wouldn’t let me work with him on this new mushroom adventure, and I needed to replace more of those mushrooms.

But how would I get there? The back end of the park where we had been wasn’t actually that far from the end of my property if I went through the woods and didn’t take the roads. I would have to. I couldn’t leave it out in the woods to get ruined.

There was only one way I could think of to get that far back into the woods and back before anyone knew I was gone.