My friend said the best thing about his wife leaving him is that he had time to think again. All his ideas had got buried under mortgages, weddings, bills and routines. At last he had time to explore his theories once more.
He reiterated his idea that Christmas lights had an organic origin. That they were not a derivation from candles, but from something growing in the woods at wintertime. A natural fungus clinging to the trees which illuminated the darkness. He based this theory on some medieval woodcuts of monks climbing trees with lights on the branches. We remained unsure.
But that divorce had left a lot of time on his hands. He called me late at night, speaking in words overlapped, confirming he had located a strip of ancient woodland that still contained the fungus. His demand was that we visit tonight. They would shine brightest on the longest night of the year.
His wife was long gone. I worried about what might happen if I said no.
He drove us past a closed service station down a road with no marking. He parked near a broken fence. The ground was damp despite a lack of rain for two weeks. My trainers slid on every rotten leaf. But I could not leave him out here. Not this late in the year. We had to walk the last half a mile.
Every tree in the woods had skeletal branches. At the bottom of a dip in the path was a ring of trees. Unlike the others, their leaves still thrived. On several of the thicker stems sat a line of green and red lumps. The glow was dim, but enough to resemble a string of Christmas lights.
‘Not bad, eh?’ My friend said, ‘Not astonishing though.’
‘Then why did you bloody bring us here?’ I said, wrapping my arms tight around my chest.
He rolled his eyes.
‘Think what I have been saying. The fungus appears in December only. How cold it is does not matter. Weather too. This must be a reaction to a specific event. I have to see what the mould is here for. What is it reacting to?’
Something crunched across the dead leaves.
The creature has long arms, but they cannot reach us. The Christmas fungus somehow keep them at bay. Fair play to my friend. His theories are correct.
But our car was somewhere in darkness. The temperature was dropping, and the night was a long one. The longest of the year.
Line: His demand was that we visit tonight.
