ps: that's a damn good title! (updated)

Xenoderm 5

Coming over the lip of the crater I encounter a view that brings me back to the forests of my childhood; although, they could not be more different. With one exception: a fascinating white sphere.

When I was young, perhaps eight or nine, I remember discovering in the forest behind our Colorado home an enormous puffball mushroom. I’d never seen one before and I felt that rush of discovery and curiosity that every child knows and craves.

White against the brown forest litter, the mushroom’s surface was a complex series of polygonal cracks and was the most alien thing I’d ever seen in the forest. It seemed out of place. Something from another world, dropped there from God knows where. But as I tried to lift it, I could feel the attachment to the earth as it gave way to my grasp. Remaining in the small crater of soil was a network of thin fibers, like the hairs of mold on leftovers in the back of the refrigerator. And so my path was laid, my eyes strayed less and less towards the trees, the rocks, birds, reptiles or other inhabitants of this shared ecosystem; and was instead focused upon discovering the world of fungus.

White against the dull primer grey of the asteroid, seeing Xenoderm 5 for the first time with my own eyes is like seeing that puffball for the first time and all the rest of the occupants of my vision fade from consideration.

During my career as a mycologist I’ve held thousands of mushrooms. Now, I was going to live in one.

At least until it exploded.

(edited)