The Experiment, Part 1

One day after school, the five boys in the tree Fort club decided to walk over to Mr. Jones’ cow pasture and look for some arrowheads for their collection.  There was a dry creek bed that ran from the Cypress Swamp into the pasture and finally disappeared into a small lake.  It was known to the old settlers as a sacred place where the early Indians had lived for years.  There was an abundance of broken artifacts like pottery, pipes, and flint chips next to several large flint boulders exposed above ground in various locations.  This was always a sure sign that arrowheads would be made from these large structures.  The first clue was fine flakes of flint that had been chipped away from the flint boulders.  Because of their large size, the early Indians used these flint boulders to chip their arrowheads, spear points, tomahawks, and skinning knives.  Once a suitable piece was chipped from the large rock, the napping process began.  This was usually done by chipping the edges of the flint with a small tool to give the weapon the desired shape and size.  The boys spread out, covering the dry creek bed in search of some kind of visible signs.  Ronald had walked just a short distance from the rock piles when he discovered a sleeping cow lying on its side in some bushes.  The closer Ronald walked to the cow, the more he realized something was wrong with the animal.  He noticed it was not breathing, her four legs were stretched out straight and stiff, and both eyes looked to be glazed over.  With closer examination, Ronald noticed the skin around the Cow’s teeth had been removed, along with the cow’s udder (milk sack.)  When Ronald finally realized what he was looking at, he yelled to the other boys, “Hey you guys, come over here! I think I’ve found something important!”  The boys all came running to see what Ronald was yelling about.  They all gathered around the dead cow.  There was no smell, no fluids oozing out of the cow, and no green flies around her.  “That’s strange,” said Lester.  “I don’t think this cow has been dead very long.” “Why do you say that?” asked Butch.  “Well, the body is still soft. There are no ants or flies around the body. The buzzards and other wild animals haven’t tried to feed on the carcass.”  “You’re probably right,” said Allan, “but did you notice the ground around the cow?”  “What about it?” asked Lester.  “Well, to me,” said Allan, “it looks like the cow has sunk into the ground like it’s been dropped from the sky! See how the sand has formed an outline around the cow?” said Allan.  “I see what you mean,” said Ronald as he poked it with a stick to pull back some of the sand away from the body.” After analyzing the situation, the boys came up with a plan.  Butch suggested, “Why don’t we go to my dad’s store and use the pay phone to call Mr. Jones?” “I don’t know about that,” said Ronald with a little concern in his voice. “What’s the problem?” asked Butch.  “Old man Jones is a little cranky when it comes to people snooping around in his cow pasture!” said Ronald.   “Yeah,” said Allan, “he even put up an electric fence on the north side of the pasture not too long ago to keep people from taking a shortcut through his property.” “How about if we just make an anonymous call and tell him about the dead cow over the phone?” asked Ronald.  “He wouldn’t know, who was making the call," replied Butch.  The boys agreed with the plan.  Lester was nominated to make the call.

A few days later, there were all kinds of people in and out of the pasture. The word was out that something strange had taken place in Mr. Jones’ pasture.  The dead cow wasn’t the only major topic in the conversation around town – there were other dead animals found.  Some dead animals were found in Best’s pasture, Dyke’s pasture and many other farms throughout the community.  The local newspaper reported that the University of Florida was doing a research project trying to uncover the cause of so many dead animals found throughout the county.  Just about the time this news was dying down, a strange round circle was found on Mr. Hobbs’ wheat farm!  The circle was gigantic in size, and it was made right in the middle of the farm!  From the air, one of the pilots who did sky writing for Pepsi-Cola Company, transmitted that inside the circle were intricate designs similar to many of the Egyptian pictures found inside the walls of the pyramids!  There was no doubt that something very strange was going on.

The boys decided to meet at the tree Fort and maybe do a little exploring on their own.  “The best time to explore Mr. Jones’ cow pasture is at night,” said Butch.  “Why at night?” asked Robert.  Butch began to explain his reasoning and his plan to the rest of the group.  “Nighttime will give us good cover from all those curious tourists in town that are trampling the pastures,” Butch said.  “At night we can explore the whole area and look for signs that may be overlooked in the daytime.”  “What kind of signs are we looking for?” asked Ronald.  Butch thought for a moment.  “I think we should look for lights in the sky or anything that glows in the dark. Or maybe even unusual sounds – you know, anything out of the ordinary,” said Butch.  

The boys were well prepared to search the area.  They had their slingshots, frog lights, and binoculars.  If there was anything to be seen, they were prepared to see it.  The boys took a shortcut through Mr. Jones’ pasture that would bring them closer to the lake.  There were cow patties all around the creek bed and the edges of the lake where the cows had come for water.  Cow patties are what the local country boys call the stool of a cow when it is dropped on the ground.  The cow patties were in great abundance all over the pasture. Inside most cow patties there was one or more mushrooms growing.

As a large cloud floated in front of the moon, the pasture land became very dark.  When the boys’ eyes adjusted to the darkness, they could see the mushrooms in the cow patties glowing with a bluish green light.  The whole pasture was aglow with these strange lights!  At first the boys thought it was a swarm of lightning bugs feeding on the mushrooms, but on closer observation, it was apparent that the lightning bugs were flying in the air all over the pasture.  Lester bent down to have a closer look.  He picked the mushroom out of the cow patty and held it up to the sky.  “Look at this!”  The mushroom was still glowing with a faint bluish-green light.  “Wow!” exclaimed Robert. “What do you think is making these mushrooms glow in the dark?”  “It’s probably a chemical reaction inside the mushroom,” replied Lester.  “I have read about some plants that glow in the dark under certain conditions. I believe it’s something like the phosphorus that glows in salt water. Whenever something disturbs the salt water, a fluorescent blue-green light glows with a similar color of light in the water.” continued, Lester.  “That sure is neat.” said Butch.  “I wonder how long it will keep glowing?”  “We need to go to the library and look up this kind of mushroom,” said Lester.  “Let’s put the mushroom in our binoculars case and take it back to the tree Fort.” said Butch. “What are we going to do with it back there?” asked Allan.  “Well, we can draw some pictures of what it looks like, so that we can identify it from the pictures in the books in the library,” said Butch.  As the boys were looking around, a reddish-orange glow suddenly appeared in the northern sky.  The object was directly over the lake when it suddenly disappeared into the lake and vanished from sight!  The boys were all speechless.  “I don’t believe what I just saw!” exclaimed Allan.  They all got down on their knees and stared at the lake.  The water was smooth – not a ripple was showing on the lake surface.  “I don’t believe this,” said Ronald.  “There are no waves, ripples, or any disturbance on the water. I could’ve thrown a rock into the lake and make more ripples then that object made as it dove into the water.” said Robert.  The boys decided not to press their luck any further, and to head back to the tree Fort.

After a good night sleep, the boys were rested and eager to start off to the library.  “Hold on, you guys! We’ve got to draw some pictures of this mushroom before we leave the tree Fort.”  There was always a spiral notebook that was kept in the tree Fort at all times.  And beside the notebook there was a jar full of golf pencils the boys stored for such emergencies.  Lester tore out five sheets of paper from the notebook that left little holes on the edges of the paper.  The mushroom was placed on the windowsill to give all the boys a good look to draw from.  By now the mushroom was beginning to lose its shape.  It had shriveled up and was very wrinkled.  It had lost its original color and shape, and of course it did not glow.  When the boys were finished drawing, Lester collected the papers and said, ”Make sure your name is on the paper you drew the mushroom on.”  When everybody was ready, they used the emergency rope to slide from the clubhouse to the ground.

Inside the library, the boys all sat at the same table.  Lester went to the card catalog and found the information to look up wild mushrooms.  All the boys went to the section on mushrooms and found a book of their choice.  Lester handed out the papers with each of their names clearly visible in the right-hand top corner of the page.  Although the papers had a red margin line and blue lines across the page, the boys were able to draw a fairly good representation of the shriveled mushroom.  The lines on the paper helped guide their pencil from line to line.  Robert didn’t like the perforated edge of the paper, so he borrowed some scissors and cut away the jagged edge.  Lester read from his book in a soft voice to not disturb other people in the library.  All the boys knew that Mrs. Smith was a stickler for not having any unnecessary noise in her library.  She was exceptionally clear that she would not tolerate people talking and disturbing other people while they were reading – especially young students.  Anyone who broke the rules was asked to leave the library; if during school time, the offender was sent to the principal’s office for detention.

Lester began reading, “This is the sacred mushroom of the pre-Columbian Indians native to this part of the country. This mushroom was used for religious rituals to enter into the spirit world of their ancestors. The mushroom if eaten may cause hallucinogenic visions, sickness of stomach, and vomiting.”  “What does hallucinogenic mean?” inquired Ronald.  “From what I can gather,” replied Lester, “it’s kind of like a scary dream or a bad nightmare. The Indians used their shaman or witch doctor to guide them through their ordeal. There is a footnote that says, “This could be a very dangerous mushroom and could cause psychiatric repercussions to the person eating the mushroom.”  “What does it say about the mushroom glowing at night?” asked Butch.  “Nothing,” said Lester.  “But I believe it has something to do with all those strange sightings, dead animals, and crop circles found in Mr. Jones’ pasture!” he said.

The boys left the library and went home for supper.  The dinner conversations were all about the dead animals, the tourists, and of course the circle in Mr. Jones’ wheat farm.  Lester asked his mom if she knew anything about wild mushrooms.  “I know they are very dangerous, and that you can die from them if you eat the wrong ones,” she said.  “When I was a little girl, my friend and playmate Suzy Snow ate a wild mushroom from the pasture, and she died a horrible death.”  “What do you mean asked Lester?”  “Well, the house doctor couldn’t stop her from vomiting; she had diarrhea really bad and finally bled to death. Her mother said Suzy suffered terribly. My advice to you boys is, do not eat anything out of the woods that can make you sick. That includes mushrooms, wild berries, and anything else that has a milky sap to it.”

That night while Lester was in bed, he thought about the wild mushrooms and what he had read about them in the library.  “If a wild mushroom can do all that, no telling what a mushroom that glows in the dark can do to a person,” he thought to himself.  As Lester began to drift off into the dream world of sleep, he couldn’t know that there was a saucer-shape disk circling above the Earth.

(Part One of the novella by George F. Kohn, author of Holiday Favorites series available on Amazon.com)

To read the rest of the story, order your copy of The Experiment, published for Kindle e-readers and paperback.  Amazon search: Holiday Favorites by George F. Kohn.