The Special Knife "This is the day Mom!" Sunshine beamed as he was getting his hat on to adventure off into the woods for mushroom hunting. "OK, lets hurry before the deer eat them up!" I said. " I will get a bag to put them in." Sunshine said. "Good idea, I will get the special knife." I said. The special knife we use only to mushroom hunt. It has always brought us luck when we go mushroom hunting. The knife is 3 inches long with a mother of pearl handle. "Mom, I think I am old enough to carry the special knife." Sunshine said while making sure the bag didn't have any holes in it. "Sunshine, this is a very special pocketknife that was given to me by some friends. Plus it's dangerous to carry a knife. You always have to have the blade down in the handle when you're not using it. If you fell in the woods with the blade out you could get hurt. I don't want that to happen to you. What do you say for now, you carry the bag." I said. "OK Mom." Sunshine said. "I bet I find the first mushroom!" Sunshine grinned. "Oh yeah, OK son the bet is on." I said. "Here's the deal Sunshine, you find the first mushroom and I will clean your bedroom for a week. If I find the first mushroom you will have to make my bed for a week!" I said. "Deal?" I said. "Deal!" Sunshine said. Off to the woods we went in search of the first mushroom of the season. As we entered the woods we wanted to be very quiet not to disturb the deer that were probably munching on our mushrooms. We checked all of our favorite spots from the years before. Not a sign of mushrooms anywhere. We walk for about 30 minutes and Sunshine suggested that we take a break. We found a big oak tree that was near the creek and sat down. We sat quietly for about 10 minutes listening to the creek and the birds. Then Sunshine got up and said, "I think I will check out this area Mom, it looks pretty good." "OK, I am going to cross the creek and look on the other side." I said. Sunshine went quickly to work looking under the May Apples for mushrooms. Just as I was about to cross the creek I hear. "MOM I FOUND ONE! HURRY I NEED THE KNIFE!" I turned and saw Sunshine jumping up and down because he found the first mushroom. I walked over to him to check the mushroom to make sure it was a morel mushroom. Sure enough he found the first one. Just as I was handing him the knife he said, "Watch it Mom you just stepped on a mushroom." I looked down and the mushrooms were everywhere! Sunshine began cutting the mushrooms off at the bottom of their stems. He found 24 mushrooms in just that spot. He then looked at me and giggled, "Mom, don't forget to clean my bedroom." "Yes Sunshine, for some reason I don't think you will let me forget." "Sunshine are you going to keep checking this spot?" I asked. "Yes, it is a pretty good spot don't you think?" Sunshine asked without looking up. "Yes it sure is, I think I will cross the creek and check that spot out." I said. I crossed the creek, and started looking for mushroom. I went to move some branches under a bush, when all the sudden a wild turkey came flying out! He started to gobble and I started to scream! I am not sure which one of us was scared the most. I started laughing, Sunshine quickly ran across the creek to see what was the matter. When Sunshine saw the turkey he was laughing too. "Let me see if we have enough mushrooms for dinner tonight Sunshine." I said. "Oh we have plenty." Sunshine beamed. Sunshine then began to explain, "The reason I found the mushrooms was because I am lower to the ground then you are Mom." "That very well could be Sunshine." I said. "Let's get home and get these mushroom cleaned hon." I said still kind of shaky from getting surprised from the turkey. We started to leave when Sunshine said, "Mom, the knife, its gone." "Lets go back to where you were and find it." I said. We looked under every May Apple and every branch, the knife was nowhere to be found. Sunshine looked up at me and said, "Mom, I am so sorry I know that was your special knife." He then added again, "Mom, I am sorry." "It is OK Sunshine." I said. "Mom, I didn't mean to lose it." He said "Honey, I know you didn't do it on purpose." I said. "Sunshine did you ever think that maybe you lost it for a reason?" I asked him. "No, why would I do that Mom?" Sunshine asked. "You don't understand Sunshine. Here we are in the woods, and you lose the special knife. What if someone was here and needed a knife for an emergence or something." I said. "I didn't think of that." He said. "Well, whoever finds it will be special and very lucky." I said. "Mom, you don't have to clean my bedroom this week." Sunshine said. "Oh yes I do because tomorrow we are going to have a bet on who is going to set the table for dinner for a week. I don't plan to lose!" I said. That night we enjoyed the mushrooms Sunshine had found. I went to clean Sunshine's bedroom and noticed that he had picked up before I went in to clean. We woke up early so we could spend the day out in the woods mushroom hunting. As Sunshine and I were getting ready he asked, "What knife are we going to use?" Dad stood up and gave me the pocketknife that was in his pocket. "Mom will you cut the mushrooms I find." Sunshine asked. "I don't think so young man, you find to many I want to hunt them too you know." I said smiling at him. Again we started out for our day of mushroom hunting. We walked into the woods and there at my feet was a big mushroom. I looked at Sunshine and said, "Well big guy guess who gets to set the table for a week?" "That's OK it beats cleaning my bedroom for a week." He grinned. Sunshine began looking and cutting mushrooms. We hunted mushrooms until we were at the big oak tree buy the creek again. We decided to take a break and drink some water. "I am ready for that turkey today, in case he decides to jump out again." I said. "I think I will check the spot where I found all the mushroom yesterday." Sunshine said. "OK lets check that spot then go across the creek." I said. We began picking all the mushrooms that had come up over night. "I am going to go on over across the creek." I said to Sunshine. "OK, when I am done I will be right there." Sunshine said. I began looking for mushrooms and was on guard for the turkey. When all the sudden I heard, "Mom I found your special knife." I walked over to where Sunshine was standing. He pointed into the creek bed. There in the water was the special knife. "Sunshine, it isn't my knife I didn't find it." I said. "You mean its mine now?" he asked. "Yes, it is yours. I told you a special person would find it." I said. Sunshine quickly reached into the creek and got the special knife. He dried it off and put it in his pocket. Sunshine then turned around to me and gave me a big hug. "When we aren't mushroom hunting I will have to keep it for you until you get older." I said. "OK Mom, but we better hurry home I have a table to set for dinner." Sunshine said.....The End