Logging Off

The next morning, you head off on your trip.

You are decidedly pessimistic for the first half hour: the ground seems to be a huge haze of unremarkable biomass. At some point you take a wrong turn into a field of wildflowers. You take a photo of your favorite one to identify later: tiny and white, with five notched petals that resemble the cherry blossom emoji, only narrower. The path slopes back into a shady, wooded area and you trudge along, grateful for the shade. As you dutifully scan the ground, you notice a small, unusual protuberance nearly obscured by a pile of leaves.

It looks exactly like your printouts: a pale beige-white mushroom, top-heavy and highly textured. You use your fingernail to press into the stem and carefully tear it open to check if it’s hollow inside — another tip from the printout.

Your first morel. And by your feet there’s another quiet shade of white.

All in all, you find five morels. At home, you decide to make a triumphant first post. You arrange your morels loosely on a plate and take a photo.

You spend a few minutes deliberating over a username and a suitably anonymous avatar. There’s a field to choose your gender: Male, Female, None specified. You choose the last option and write a brief post to the What did you find today? thread:

chaparral Hi, I’m new here but just went on my first foraging trip and found a few morels!

You refresh the page, feeling restless, and then convince yourself to go to bed and check for a response in the morning.

When you wake up, five people have added a reaction to your post: four thumbs-ups, and a face expressing Wow! or maybe Great job!

myco_mouse Welcome! Wow, you really dove into this! Hope to hear more about your foraging adventures. And feel free to post what you do with the morels to the recipes thread!

For the rest of the day, you’re struck by a sense of goodwill towards the world. You check the forum every few hours to see if anyone else has said hello.

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