There's Something in the Woods

It was a beautiful sun drenched spring morning and Hillary was carrying her basket up the grassy path on her way to gather wild garlic in the woods. When her basket was full she would take the garlic home and pickle it. People in the village loved the wild garlic and would pay her well for it.

She came to the entrance to the thick woods and veered off the path toward the spot where the garlic grew thickly. Nobody knew the location of this patch. If they did there would be too many people harvesting it. You had to be careful how much you thinned out the patches because you could deplete the crop.

Along the way she spotted several small patches of the vivid green shoots, which look like spring onions, growing here and there but she kept walking deeper into the woods. A pungent scent soon told her she had arrived at the place where the wild garlic grew in abundance.

She loved this little hardwood forest, loved the peacefulness, the birds singing and the sound of other tiny creatures scurrying around in the trees. Looking around her, she set down her basket and began harvesting the delicate shoots with her trowel.

All of a sudden Hillary felt uneasy.  The morning had begun like any other, but something seemed different now.  She glanced around trying to understand why she felt this way. She thought she heard a twig snap somewhere off to her right and turned her face in that direction listening carefully.  There were no other sounds, but she had an eerie feeling that someone was watching her.

Still feeling uneasy Hillary sighed and went back to her work, her basket was filling up nicely soon she would have enough. She felt a chill and looked down at her arms which were covered in goose bumps. She decided she would make a creamed soup with some of the wild garlic for lunch. That would be delicious and warm her up at the same time.

She just couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched from the woods and was relieved when her basket was finally full. She stood up ready to retrace her steps and head home with her harvest.
Suddenly she heard something crashing through in the woods.  She spun around and watched in horror as two uniformed officers rushed out from the trees.
“You have been caught poaching wild garlic Miss.” One of the officers said sternly.
“You are going to have to come with us.”

“Poaching?” Hillary said in what she hoped was an innocent voice.

“In Quebec, it is strictly illegal to gather wild garlic bulbs for commercial purposes.  You are putting the crop at risk.” The other officer stated.

“Are you kidding me?” Hillary replied. “The forest is full of them!”

“You are allowed 50 bulbs per year for your personal consumption and you have at least twice that amount in your basket.” said the first officer.

“Well. I guess I wasn’t counting” Hillary stammered.

“Yeah, right.” muttered the officer “Now please come along quietly.”


513 words