The young man's name was Jeremy. Sancha, the girl in question, was a bit of a dreamer. She fancied herself as a princess and Jeremy couldn't argue with that. He saw her through the eyes of young love; that great, transforming power of youth.
He was walking through a piece of remote government-owned land in southern Kentucky. Massive hardwoods were all about but there were well-defined game paths to walk on. In the hour that Jeremy had been in the woods he had already spooked a couple of deer and seen a coyote. Then he ran across a little surprise.
He heard her before he saw her. Great heart-wrenching sobs that seemed to be coming from the other side of a boulder. When he walked around the great rock, there she was; a little cutie of a girl of perhaps 16. Jeremy's heart went out to her in her grief. He felt like a spy and started away, only to freeze in his tracks. It was as though his feet had anchored to the stone. The girl was seated on a rocky ledge that overlooked a cabin far below. Smoke drifted from a crude stone chimney. It seemed a very poor sort of place. That certainly couldn't be said for the girl. She was a beauty, even with her disheveled appearance. She had black hair cut short, like a boy's, and had a cute little nose and green eyes that were just now red from crying. She wore an old pair of overalls that were too short for her and bore mute testimony of battles with thorns and brush.
Jeremy feared the lady might have been distressed enough to throw herself off the cliff so he decided not to leave. The girl had stopped her crying and was wiping her runny nose on the sleeve of the ragged flannel shirt which protruded from the overalls. He cleared his throat and the strange girl stood in a flash with eyes both fearful and angry.
"What are you doing here?"
"I'm sorry. I just heard your crying and I was concerned." He glanced toward the cabin in the distance. "I was afraid you might throw yourself off the cliff."
She laughed, a little bitterly, Jeremy thought. She looked at him a bit more closely and re-asked the question.
"What are you doing out here in the sticks? You're too young to be a Park Ranger."
He shook his head as though she could never understand.
"I'm looking for a black mushroom."
She laughed and stuck her little thin hands in the pockets of her coveralls. Before she could say anything he told her the whole story of the scavenger hunt and Sancha, the most popular girl in school. He even told her about Sancha's promise to be his girl if the hunt proved successful. She listened raptly and remarked at the end, "Sounds like a fairy tale. Your girl sounds like the prom queen."
Jeremy made no reply, slightly embarrassed by the whole thing. He felt more at ease when the girl, who introduced herself as Breeze, offered to help in the search.
They set off, with Breeze in the lead. She said that she knew the woods better than anyone, because she walked in them every day. Jeremy stifled a ton of questions that popped into his mind. The girl walked with the easy, athletic stride of a mountaineer and had evidently shaken off the gloom that had overshadowed her. In the sun dappled glades she was part of a lovely mosaic of wildflowers and green leaves. Her glossy hair, shining with the health of youth and vitality, reflected the sunshine back at his eyes. It seemed he had to wrench his gaze away to pay proper attention to the rough path.
As they walked, Breeze pointed out and identified different trees and showed him the tracks of a deer next to a little stream. When she leaped the water he noticed the ragged old sneakers on her little feet. The entire end was out of one of them and showed the toe of her white sock. His curiosity about the waif began to consume him. It was with difficulty that he minded his manners and refrained from questioning her.
They found pink mushrooms, red ones, and one bright green one. They found thin ones and pointed ones and several that were as big and flat as a dinner plate. Then finally, under a shelf of rock, Breeze found it. A massive, rounded mushroom, colored an odd, mottled black. She clapped her hands in delight and danced a little jig.
"I told you I could find one, didn't I, Jeremy? Didn't I?"
He carefully broke the mushroom off at ground level and placed it in a plastic baggie which he had brought for that purpose. Then they set out for the cliff where he had found her. The sun was hanging low in the afternoon sky and it was a little cool. He gave her his heavy shirt to wear and they walked side by side where the path was wide enough. When they came to the cliff she indicated a path, almost hidden by a mountain laurel. The path trailed down the cliff.
"This is where you stop, Jeremy." She looked at him with those green eyes. He saw wistfulness, sadness and some unspoken tragedy. He nodded his head glumly, with an acute sense of loss as she turned away toward the path. Then she whirled around and was in his arms, kissing him softly. He felt her strength and suppleness and felt her tears on his cheek. Then she was gone like the breeze she was named for and he stood alone, far above the little cabin. He walked back to his car in deep reflection, forgetting the coolness, his shirt and the mushroom in his right hand. Forgetful of everthing except the slip of a girl he had only just met.
The next day at school, Jeremy apprached the table in the lunchroom where Sancha sat with her entourage. She looked up at him expectantly.
"Hey, Jeremy. Did you find what you were looking for?"
He seemed distracted and his mind appeared to be focused on something far away.
He tossed a baggie on the table. In it was a huge black mushroom, slightly the worse for wear. Then he looked at her.
"Yes, I found what I sought." He smiled. "It just wasn't a mushroom."
The End?
Hey, everyone. I saw this mushroom in the woods today and wondered if I could make a story out of it. I think I'll add a chapter to it and publish it on Smashwords as a freebie. After all, there are a lot of questions to be answered about Breeze. Wouldn't you agree?
From the author's green retreat, I'm CE Wills.
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