The
Plight of the Mushroom People
The
Plight of the Mushroom People
By: Aidan, 5th grade
Chapter 1
The Pesticide
Weoweowweow! Went the purple siren on the green ambulance as it raced through the town. The mushroom people wept silently for their friend, Johnnie, who had been sick for the past week. The pesticide had struck again. For the past year, a strange mist has appeared every month, swept through the town, and left a wave of death in its wake.
“What a terrible plight,” Jeremy, the mayor muttered. Freya, Johnnie’s mother, raised her tearstained eyes to the heavens and wailed aloud,
“Will a hero never come?” She then collapsed in a fit of tears.
Her husband, Dan, murmured, “Stop crying, dearest. Johnnie wouldn’t want it this way.” At this, she burst into a full-blown scream of heart-renching anguish.
“Oooh boy,” giggled Treya, Freya’s sister.
“This is no laughing matter!” Jeremy shouted, “Johnnie has died, and the pesticide is soon going to kill more and more of us until the mushroom people will be no more!” This hushed most of the mushrooms. Suddenly, a loud rustling echoed through the cobbled square.
“Ooff!” A small ball popped out of a yellowy-purple rhododendron bus that encircled the Dogwood forest. The ball slowly uncurled under the wary and unblinking eyes of the mushroom people. A pill bug peeped out of its shell and darted warily about, as if afraid of the mushrooms.
“H-hey y’all,” the pill bug’s unsteady, yet southern, voice squeaked.
“Hello, … Well, hello and welcome to Mush Town, home to us, the mushroom people. My name is Jeremy, mayor of Mush Town. May I ask your name?” Jeremy said.
“M-my n-n-name is D-David,” the pill bug stuttered.
“Well then, David, welcome to Mush Town.”
“I heard y-you talking about s-something called pesticide. I think I know where it comes from.”
“You do!? Tell us, please!”
“It’s on an island to the north of here. My family left because it was making it really hot.”
“Hmmmm… I don’t think any of us will be able to survive there. Will you go there and try to stop the pesticide? Please?”
“Do I have to? Well, I-I guess…”
“Good, good! Dan, go fetch a canteen. Treya, fetch the growing corks,” Jeremy said. Growing corks? David thought.
“Here, everything you need. Bye!” Jeremy said excitedly.
David then curled into a ball and rolled off. Huh, he thought. Growing corks. I wonder what they’re for. Whoa! He had rolled off a small cliff and was bouncing down the multicolored cliff side, toward a river of shimmering blue-green spring water. Sploosh! David had landed in the emerald river and was bobbing gently away towards a roaring mile of off-white rodeo of rocks and screaming water. Conk! Bonk! Clank! David was under the control of the raw power of the huge waves that were swamping the water-smoothed auburn boulders that littered the river. Suddenly, he was flying over a glittering waterfall of bluish-green water and falling towards a black pool that was hidden by a huge rock wall with a pitch-black hole at the bottom. Sploooooooosh! David was rocking towards the black hole. Suddenly, David was flying again. Kloonk! David had landed on a large shelf of rock that was jutting out just above the water line. He slowly uncurled and shook his antennae to dry them out. Hmmm, he thought. What a dilemma. He then curled back up and leapt into the water.
He was bobbing only a little while when he felt himself rising. He was trapped in the cage like talons of a huge sparrow. He peered down and saw a shimmering blue sea flashing by. “Whoa!” He shouted as he was dropped down into a haze of noxious fumes. “I’m home,” he whispered as he realized where he was. He took out the package of growing corks. It said in green italics: Just Add Water. He then tore the clear plastic package and removed the corks. He took out his gray-green canteen and tipped the water towards the corks. Boom! The corks popped out of his hand, growing so rapidly that by the time they hit the ground they were half the size of him. David grabbed the nearest one and he plunked it into one of the pesticide-belching geysers. He then covered each hole with the corks and soon, all the holes were plugged. But, all was not over. The ground around the plugged geysers was bulging, as if it was a volcano, drawing back to explode. The ground cracked and strained, emitting a groaning sound not far away from the sound of an old man’s joints. A roaring sound filled the air and the ground exploded, throwing David into the sea. He curled into a ball and sank slowly through the boiling water towards the bottom of the emerald sea. He uncurled and stared sadly at the lump of rock that had once been his home. As he sank deeper, he started to feel woozy. It wouldn’t hurt to take a little nap, was there? He was aware of something approaching him as everything faded into a hazy black.