Most mushrooms grow slowly.
A little each day.
A tiny bit each night.
Very quietly and without any fuss.
But Hugo was not like most mushrooms.
Hugo grew overnight.
All at once.
Everything, all in one go, while the forest was asleep.
Pop. 🍄
🌲 Taller Than the Trees
One morning, a squirrel scampered up to where Hugo’s mushroom cap usually sat — the perfect height for sitting on — and found nothing there.
The squirrel looked up.
And up.
And up.
Hugo’s cap was somewhere above the canopy.
“HUGO!” called the squirrel.
“Hello?” said Hugo, very far above. “Is it morning already?”
“It is. You’re enormous.”
“Am I?” said Hugo.
He tried to look down at himself.
He was very, very tall.
Oh dear.
🍄 Nothing Fits
Hugo tried to go about his normal day.
He tried to sit under his favourite tree for shade.
His cap WAS the shade. For the whole clearing.
He tried to have a quiet conversation with a hedgehog.
His voice came from so high up it just sounded like wind.
He tried to look at his reflection in the pond.
He was too tall. He could only see his stem.
“I don’t fit anywhere,” said Hugo sadly.
“You fit here,” said a small voice.
💛 John Finds the Perfect Spot
John was walking through the forest when a shadow appeared that was much bigger than any leaf.
John looked up.
“Hello up there!”
“Hello down there,” said Hugo.
John sat down right underneath Hugo’s enormous cap.
It was the most perfect, cool, round, sheltered spot in the entire forest.
“This is brilliant,” said John. “It’s like a house made of mushroom.”
Hugo had not thought about it that way.
A rabbit hopped under.
Then a fox.
Then a family of mice.
All of them sitting in Hugo’s shade, perfectly sheltered, perfectly happy.
“I thought I didn’t fit,” said Hugo, from way up above.
“You fit perfectly,” said John. “You’re just a different kind of fitting.”
Hugo’s cap went a little pinker.
Mushrooms do that when they’re happy. 🍄