Seriously Weird: Seeds of Distortion

back to where James was waiting.

No dogs. What a relief!

That's when I saw a bush with multi-colored berries on it. They were small, and bright, like plastic beads, red, yellow and blue. They looked like sweets, so I grabbed a big handful as I ran past.

When I was a safe distance down the street I looked at the berries.

"Yum!" said James, when he saw them.

"They're not sweets!"

"Can I have one?"

"No!"

"Aw go on!"

"They might be poisonous!"

"I won't eat it. I just want to hold it, and look at it!"

"OK."

I passed a bright red berry to him.

"Mmm raspberry!"

"Mmm arsenic!" I said.

James tossed the berry in the air and caught it a couple of times, then he handed it back to me.

"How can you tell if its poisonous or not?" he asked.

"I've heard that people can eat whatever a bird eats?" I said.

"I don't believe that," said James, "Besides, how come the berries were still on the tree? Why did the birds eat them all? They must be poisonous."

We walked on, thinking.

"How about the dog then?"

I looked at Killer, who was trotting along at our heels and panting.

"Dogs can eat anything," I said, "Dad said they've got acid in their stomachs. That's why they eat everything. It doesn't hurt them."