Smoky Mountain Mystery 01 - Out on a Limb (22 page)

“Oh sure,” said a fellow standing nearby. “Fred, over there,” he said pointing at red-haired man across the room. “Technically, he’s just an amateur, but he’s extremely knowledgeable about mycology.”

Henry and Phoebe made their way over to Fred and introduced themselves. “We’re trying to learn a little bit about slime molds,” Henry said.

 
“So nice to meet another fan of
Myxomycetes
.
It’s a very exclusive club,” he said, smiling. “Let’s see, what can I tell you? How much do you know about them?”

“Nothing,” said Henry.

Fred smiled.
“You and everyone else.
Okay, so here’s the Cliff Notes version.
Myxos
love the
Smokies
. They grow best in temperate forests in the tree canopies of
Abies
fraseri
, common name Fraser fir, and
Juniperus
virginiana
, cedar trees. There are lots and lots of both of those kinds of trees here in this park.

“We’re
tryin
to understand why a person might be especially interested in
em
,” said Henry.

“Oh, slime molds can be extraordinarily beautiful!” Fred said. “Some of them are fantastically colorful. Others gleam like precious metals. You may or may not be able to appreciate them with the naked eye, but under magnification they’re stunning. They’re called ‘the biological jewels of nature.’”

Ugh
, Phoebe thought,
jewels made of slime.

“
Myxos
are
extremely mysterious organisms. They have characteristics of both fungi and animals.”

Phoebe and Henry exchanged bemused looks.

“And they can be used to remediate ground pollution from metals like zinc, barium, cadmium, iron, manganese, and strontium.

“In addition to their anti-microbial properties, they’re used in a non-toxic, non-immunogenic, biodegradable
nanoconjugate
drug delivery system.
Polycefin
is a cancer drug delivery system for directed delivery of
morpholina
antisense
oligonucleotides
.”

Henry burst out laughing. “I have no idea what you just said.”

“They’re used for gene silencing therapy, for the transportation of antibodies and anti-tumor drugs to specific tumor cells, and they’re being looked at as a medicine to slow Parkinson’s disease.”

Henry nodded as if he understood the explanation, but he was faking. Even Phoebe couldn’t follow what Fred was saying.

“Oh and you can eat some of them. In places in
Mexico
there’s a
myxo
they call
caca
de
luna
, that means
excrement of the moon
. They eat it scrambled like eggs with onions and peppers. I’ve read that it has a pleasant nutty taste.”

“Sounds delicious,” Phoebe said, lying.

Beauty under magnification, edible excrement, and slime powered robots seemed a rather poor motive for crime, so Henry asked. “Do any of these things have substantial commercial value right now?”

“Oh my, yes. Are you aware of the relationship between slime molds and antibiotics?” Fred asked.

Both Phoebe and Henry shook their heads. “Antibiotics are used to treat diseases caused by slime?” Henry guessed.

“It’s the other way around. Slime molds are the
source
of certain antibiotics.”

Henry and Phoebe were both surprised and exchanged a look.

“Because they grow in damp places, slime molds are prone to getting fungus and bacteria growing near them. And bacteria can be harmful to them, just as it is to us. Certain slime molds have developed the ability to manufacture antibiotics that will kill fungi and bacteria and humans have learned to make use of the antibiotics manufactured by slime molds to get rid of bacteria that causes problems in people. “

“So, it’s possible that a slime mold could be valuable for a medicine?” Henry asked.

“Yes, the discovery of a new naturally-occurring antibiotic produced by a
myxomycete
could be immensely important to medicine and extraordinarily lucrative.”

Henry and Phoebe exchanged another look.

“How lucrative?” asked
Henry.

“Well, the entire
DNA
testing industry, billions of dollars a year, is built on the discovery
of a bacteria
that thrives at 158 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s a hopelessly hostile environment for most life forms on earth. The
bacteria was
discovered in a hot spring in
Yellowstone
Park
.

The
DNA
industry didn’t exist until scientists who were attracted by the colorful stains you see around the edges of the
hot springs
found this bacteria. It takes a very special life form to thrive in that kind of heat.”

“Holy
moly
,” Henry said. “I had no idea.”

“Since you’re a ranger you might want to know that even though the unique bacteria used to develop
DNA
testing was found inside a national park,
Yellowstone
got no share of the multi-billion dollar windfall. The NPS got seriously angry about being cut out of the money, of course. As you’re well aware, the parks are always cash-strapped. So the Park Service had the law changed. Now, whenever there’s a discovery of a commercially valuable life form inside a park, the park where it’s found gets half of the proceeds.”

A man sitting nearby who’d been overhearing their conversation called out, “It’s one of the marvels of nature how diverse the plant life becomes just a couple of inches outside the park boundaries!” The crowd of volunteers guffawed.

Henry thanked Fred and
he
and Phoebe headed for the door. They passed the frog guy again on their way out and Phoebe stopped, transfixed.

He was saying, “The Marine toads of
Texas
,
Florida
, and
Costa Rica
have a love affair with certain sounds. They’re huge creatures and they have a low pitched mating call that is uncannily similar to the sound of truck engines gearing down. This means they have a fatal attraction to any road where there’s a steep hill and truck traffic. They hop into the road looking for love and die by the thousands.”

“Ouch,” someone said, and Phoebe winced.

“We think of frogs as being noisy creatures. But the frogs themselves live in a quiet world,” Van
Landingham
said. “They can’t hear each other.

“Humans are unusual in that they have wide spectrum hearing, from 40 cycles per second to maybe 22,000 cycles per second. I’m older, so I can only hear up to about 16,000 cycles per second. But frogs’ hearing is tuned to a narrow spectrum of sounds made only by their own species. They are totally deaf to the calls of frogs of another species.

“We hear a symphony of sounds coming from a pond at night, but each species of frog is sitting there in a silent world, thinking they’re alone, waiting for something in their own pitch range that they’re able to hear.”

How sad
, Phoebe thought. Frogs were just like people. It was so touching, and tragic. All of us were here on earth together, side-by-side and yet isolated by the limits of our perception.
Lonely even in a crowd.

She would’ve stood there forever listening to the man, utterly enchanted, so Henry took hold of her arm and led her out of the building like a wayward child. Before she was pulled away, she turned to see if Van
Landingham
was wearing a wedding ring. He wasn’t.

“That’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever heard,” she said as Henry propelled her toward the front door. “Can you believe that guy?”

“He’s amazing,” Henry agreed.

“The Frog Whisperer,” Phoebe said, with awe in her voice. “
Waneeta
would
love
that guy!”

Jill was cooking lunch. She boiled potatoes for potato salad and eggs for egg salad. She shredded cabbage and carrots for
cole
slaw. She replenished the urns of sweet and unsweetened tea and started the coffee.

The mystery woman was still resting peacefully in the back of the store with Doc watching over her. She’d not regained consciousness.

After a couple of hours, Doc came out for a break and sat on a stool at the counter drinking iced tea, waiting for Leon to arrive and spell him.

“I was
wonderin
if there’s a special place where unconscious people can go visit each other that the rest of us are shut out of,” Jill said.
“A sort of spiritual chat room.”

Doc nodded thoughtfully.

She stirred mustard into to the potato salad, and said, “
Whadda
ye reckon is
goin
on in that other place?”

“I’ve often wondered about that,” Doc said. “There are lots of people who live with one foot in this world and one in another. They’re partially present in this material world and yet, at the same time, they experience a reality in another place, like Phoebe’s dreams.

“I like to think they all keep each other company in that threshold place,” he said.
“The autistic, schizophrenic, and senile people.
And the dead who watch over us, and maybe even the angels.
I believe there’s a community of souls who hover at the door between worlds.”

Jill smiled at his description.

“I suspect they have the liveliest sorts of conversations with each other,” Doc said. “We just can’t hear it.”

***

Finally, in the afternoon, during
Leon
’s shift, Ivy woke up.

She was disoriented at first, and thrashed about in confusion, so
Leon
caught both her hands and held them gently in his.

“Hey there, girl,” he said softly, “Don’t be scared.
Everythang’s
alright. You’re safe now.”

His voice calmed her. She stopped flailing and lay with her eyes open, trying to focus on him and then the room.

“Can’t see,” she mumbled hoarsely, “… all blurry.”

“You got a hard lick on
yer
noggin. We found you
sittin
way up in a big old tree. We fetched
ye
down here to White Oak, but we didn’t tell nobody what we done, so whoever did this to ye, they got no idea
whur
you’re at. You’re hid real
good
. Nobody can find
ye
here,”
Leon
said. “Can you tell me what happened?”

“Shot,” she croaked in a ragged, weak voice. “Somebody … got my crossbow.”

“Do you know who it was?”