© erin-leary
Coming across mushrooms whilst walking Janet asked, “Are you sure they’re safe to eat?”
“Yes. My grandmother told me if they look like a mushroom, smell like a mushroom and you can peel the skin off the top it more than likely is a mushroom.”
“I’m not sure. I don’t want to be poisoned.”
“Don’t worry. Look.” Jack ate several. Within minutes he was looking down, feeling himself leave the world.
The autopsy report showed it was not poisonous mushrooms but a combination of the copper chrome arsenate treatment of the pine fence and the toxins in the pine needles that had killed him.
In response to Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers.
The picture is the PHOTO PROMPT. Does it plant a story in your mind? Share it in a hundred words or less.
About Irene Waters 19 Writer Memoirist
I began my working career as a reluctant potato peeler whilst waiting to commence my training as a student nurse. On completion I worked mainly in intensive care/coronary care; finishing my hospital career as clinical nurse educator in intensive care. A life changing period as a resort owner/manager on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu was followed by recovery time as a farmer at Bucca Wauka. Having discovered I was no farmer and vowing never again to own an animal bigger than myself I took on the Barrington General Store. Here we also ran a five star restaurant. Working the shop of a day 7am - 6pm followed by the restaurant until late was surprisingly more stressful than Tanna. On the sale we decided to retire and renovate our house with the help of a builder friend. Now believing we knew everything about building we set to constructing our own house. Just finished a coal mine decided to set up in our backyard. Definitely time to retire we moved to Queensland. I had been writing a manuscript for some time. In the desire to complete this I enrolled in a post grad certificate in creative Industries which I completed 2013. I followed this by doing a Master of Arts by research graduating in 2017. Now I live to write and write to live.
Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist) 
That’s really clever!
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Thanks Rosey. Glad you liked it and thanks for dropping in.
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[grin]
There you go again. I reckon it must be fun to write these, Irene !
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It is M-R. though I find it surprisingly harder with a visual prompt to a written prompt. I think somehow it constrains the imagination which of course is why I prefer to read than watch televison.
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That’s an interesting point … and helps to explain the gradual depreciation of imagination in the young, I would think …
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Totally agree.
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🙂
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Oops. Great story.
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At least it wasn’t the mushies.
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Poor Jack.
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Indeed.
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Funny, though tragic since Jack is no longer with us. This whole theme has me in such a shitake mood. Let’s wok some in a little oil.
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LOL The theme has hit your buttons. Lets hope there is a little magic in there and it is not just all puffball.
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What a fun story! I really enjoyed it.
I’d be scared to touch those mushrooms in the picture.
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Thanks Ula. They look a bit old to me but I’d do what Grandma suggested……perhaps not around treated pine though.
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Damned if you do!
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Are they poisonous ones – probably they are the death angel? But hopefully my test would let me know they aren’t edible.
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I couldn’t figure it out. Originally this is why I looked them up to find out what kind they were and if they were edible, But I never did so I made something up. I love fiction for that! lol
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Yes I’m starting to like that aspect as well.
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It seems nature can hold her own in the ‘dangerous substances’ arena. Nice one.
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Good one!!
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Thanks Sandra.
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Dear Irene,
There’s a lot to be said for washing food before eating. Ugh. What a way to watch yourself leave the world. (I loved that line). Well done.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Thanks Rochelle. I wonder if washing would have helped or if it had leached into the interior of the mushroom. Thanks for dropping by. cheers Irene
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Dear Irene,
Somewhere out there, Gilda Radner is doing her best Roseanne Roseannadana and saying, “If it’s not mushrooms is chrome arsenate and toxic pine needles.” I loved the out of body sentence as he recognizes he’s moving on. Very well done.
Aloha,
Doug
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Thanks Doug. Haha. I’d love to hear her saying it. Glad the disembodiment worked. Cheers Irene
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Yep, those pine needles will stitch you up every time.
Cool tale.
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Yes they’ll make you pine away. 🙂
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Scary things. If it looks like, smells like etc, slice through the stalk and if it’s saffron yellow, it’s still a mushroom but will kill you very dead very quickly.
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I will add the saffron yellow to my list. I actually saw one today that colour but it was all saffron yellow not just the stalk.
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Poor guy! You just never know, do you?
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When your times up its up.
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There are toxins all around us. I’m not surprised! It’s not nature, but man’s interference at fault. Nice one!
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Thanks Amy.
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I was yelling, “Don’t eat the mushrooms! Clearly no one was listening”. Every story about eating those toadstools has left me anxious today. I can’t not be a doctor. Ha ha
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Just wanting to keep you in business Tracey.
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Well, that stinks! He takes all the trouble and then dies anyway. Nice one, Irene, in a deadly sort of way.
janet
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Thanks Janet.
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Jack had no chance really, did he? Great flash Irene, love the twist…and I still would never pick and eat mushrooms in the wild and will now be even more vigilant of fencing and pine needles 😉
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Someone has given me a new criteria to add – safron yellow inside stalk don’t eat. Fiction Sherri – I know treated pine is not that good for you but in combination with pine needles I’ve no idea. 🙂
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Ahh…had no idea.Still would be afraid though. Haha…well, you paint a very realistic picture Irene…and not just with treated pine 😉
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Well done! One cannot account for everything! Nice little surprise in the end.
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Thanks Alicia. Often we create our own problems.
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This story accounts for my reluctance to wild-craft edibles.
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Wise woman.
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When my daughter lived in Alaska she would just go outside and walk around her huge yard and pick mushrooms and cook them up for dinner. I helped her pick them a few times and there are many you cannot eat. Nice story!
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Thanks Joy. How did your daughter decide which ones she could eat. I can’t imagine mushrooms growing in Alaska but it must be in the brief summer?
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Yes they grow in Alaska in the summer when they have almost 24 hour daylight. She read about them and studied them and learned which ones were edible. I was helping her pick them one day and there are many different kinds of mushrooms that grow there and most are not edible.
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How wonderful. I’ve put Alaska on my wish list. A friend has just had a month in Sitka and the photos have given me itchy feet.
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My daughter lived about 30-40 miles north of Anchorage and the area was absolutely beautiful. Lots of mountains and trees. I saw quite a few moose. I definitely think it is worth seeing.
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A definite must then. 🙂
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Actually not far from the truth.. where I live we had many areas where the mushrooms where filled with radiation for many years after Chernobyl … there are several way to be poisonous.
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Yes, that does make my story hit a chord. You are in Norway are you? I guess you had a lot of fallout from Chernobyl and it affected fishing and agriculture generally. A frightening thought that your nation is living with.
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I’m in Sweden.. and we had a lot of fallout due to how the wind blew those days.
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Well, to quote Rose Ann Rose Anna Danna, “If it ain’t one thing, it’s another.” Great story, Irene.
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Too true.
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Another great short story. You surprised me with the ending 🙂
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Great. Glad you were caught unawares Joanne.
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