Scents

[free]

Charles is slowly walking in a park and enjoying the sunny day. The flowers and trees, by which he is passing, emit lovely scent. He breathes it in with lots of pleasure. He has a very developed sense of smell and these things awaken in him various feelings and thoughts. As if he senses them for the first time, they bring into him the feeling of great happiness and satisfaction. Hot and dry weather makes plants emit their scents much stronger than when it is cold and humid. He, himself, has not used to grow any plants in his garden. This has been his gardener's duty, and Charles don't want to interfere with other people's jobs. On the other hand, the selection of gardener was very careful. He chose him according to a certain friend's recommendation. He was a person who understood very well how plants were grown and taken care of. Charles' garden has been with lots of colors and rich scents.

Very often, he has been spending evenings sitting in his garden, relaxing from day worries and work. He used to give himself completely to these smells and colors, with tender breeze carrying them here and there, while garden sinks into the darkness of night. He doesn't go into house with the first darkness, if the weather is pleasant enough. He just keeps turning his head from one side to another trying to guess, with the smell as a leader, which flower is it that attracts his nose.

He used to ask this kind of friends to suggest which perfume to buy, to tell him a new idea for new novel he was writing, for he was a writer. It was really miraculous! These beautiful 'advisers' never led him astray. Each novel he started being adviced in this way, was a great bestseller on the novels market.

But, this day something else comes to his mind. Since he has started this way of communication with plants his private life almost disappeared. As if he has started to imitate them, these flowers and trees. He has withdrawn from any social life, neglected his friends, left his many-years girl friened and she, seeing that he has become completely uninterested in their relationship, married another guy. With a great surprise and a bit of sadness, Charles has concluded that he even didn't care about her marrying someone else. On the contrary, he has been glad about it.

But, he asks himself, is it normal and concludes that it is not. Finally, in his own novels he wrote about such people as strange and unpleasant.

Charles suddenly stops walking, sits on a bench, takes out his little pocket mirror and looks seriously into his face reflecting in it. On his nice face he notices something that he does not like.

This must stop, he thinks...

At this moment a beautiful girl appears in front of him and, laughing, bends to him touching his shoulder.

- Charlie, you have a little grain in your eye. Let me take it out for you.

It is his neighbour with whom he sometimes shared an afternoon coffee and chat. She has been living the same lonely life as himself.

- Hey, hello Emma. Oh, no, it is not a wandering grain from the air in my eye. I have just been thinking am I normal.

- Ha, ha.... laughs Emma, why do you think about it?

- Well, you see... I've started to live like a plant. I only work for living, I don't live. There is nothing else that fills my life. It is not normal.

Emma looks at him deeply and they continue to walk together in the park where she, also, frequently likes to move and exercise her body after the night's immobility. She sighs.

- Tell me more about it!

She exclaims.

- This is somthing I am oftenly asking myself, too, but it's never occured to me to look myself in the mirror on that occasion. Not a bad idea, though.

They both laugh and go slowly walking and talking, while the city park gets more and more crowded with people going on their own business.

What happens next, you can conclude yourselves. A few months later, they got married, and, I am sure, after a few more months they must be expecting a baby of their own to be born.

[free]

Magical Perfumes

Milli stood in a parfume shop pointing with her hand to the sales girl towards a perfume in a pink little bottle with a red cover which was on a glass shelf behind the girl's back. All the perfumes were neatly aligned on the glass shelves with a mirror background, so it seemed as if there were much more of them than actually. It was a world of perfumes and all over the shop they spreaded a smell of indescribable qualities because each of these miraculous little bottles was surrounded by little clouds of humming fragrances. Milli adored to come here from time to time and test various kinds of perfumes. She did not use to buy some every time she came, only when some of them she found particularly lovable. The sales girl knew Milli very well and whenever she saw her coming in she knew what to expect. Milli did not irritate her, because she was a regular customer, but, somehow, she felt a bit uneasy because this customer was different from others in a certain way. She just breathed in deeply quickly trying to pull herself together, put on her usual smile and wished her the usual greeting.

- Here you are, she said handing Milli the desired bottle. Then she put her hands on the shop desk and waited to see Milli's reaction.

Mili opened the bottle, held her head up, as if performing a little ritual, then she held her head down and deeply inhaled the smell. It was a testing sample which was allowed to be put on customer's body, wherever wanted it. This time, Milli sprayed a bit of perfume on her palm and waved with it in the air, then she brought it close to her nose and thought deeply.

- I think this is it. She said softly, as only to herself, and gave the bottle back to the sales girl. Wishing her a nice and pleasant day, she went out.

She hurried to a business meeting and after parking her car in front of a big business building, she nodded to a doorkeeper with a pleasant smile, to what he smiled back and said.

- Pleasant day, Mrs. Milli.

- Thank you, George. She replied and went up in elevator to the third floor. In one of many offices on that floor, Mr Swift waited for her, who stood up when she entered, because Milli was already announced and expected by him.

The office was bright and furnished in a modern office style. There were no pictures on the walls except some advertising posters. Milli comforably set in a white leather armchair and they started to negotiate. From time to time, Milli waved with her hand where she had put the perfume from the pink bottle with red cover, few minutes ago. It was wonderful how the conversation with Mr. Swift ended quickly, the contract was concluded very favourably for Milli's company. She closed her bag with a smile of satisfaction putting the contract in and left the Swift's office with a victorious expression on her face.

- Best wishes, George. She said while passing by the doorkeeper almost singing. George looked at her with surprise, for he had never seen her so happy before.

After her working hours were over, Milli left her office building in the evening that day and, wanting to walk to her home, left her car in front of it, because she did not live much far from it. She opened the gate of the garden surounding her home and resonant steps walked along the paved path to the house.

The home was empty. On a small table in the living room there was a little piece of paper, a letter whose content she could guess. She was supposing what was she going to read in it. She deeply breathed in and, before she unfolded it, almost painfully held her head up, held her hand up to inhale the faint smell of the perfume which was still lingering around it, as she wanted to remind herself of the nice business day she had had before, not to let the desperate feeling, that was expecting her after she read the little paper, break her down.

'I am gone and not coming back. I am sure you know the reason why, we have talked abut it so much. I want you to be happy. The fact that our love does not exist any more is not yours or mine fault. Accept it and go on living normally, don't cry, please. I want you to find someone so nice as I have found my Ethel. Best wishes. Roger. '

Although the letter kindly asked her not to fall into desperation, Milli threw the letter on the floor and herself into a sofa and burst into a painfull sob.

Days were passing for her in a feverish working. She devoted herself to work with a desperate passion, just to draw herself away from thinking about her husband, divorce papers, her love problems.

- But, Milli, you must continue to live a normal life. Said Samantha, her best friend while they were sitting in a cafe and Samantha was drinking coffee, while Milli was looking through the cafe's glass wall, completely lost.

- Yes, yes, I must... Replied Milli, but it was obvious that she did not listen to what Samantha was saying, she was repeating her words without understanding them. Her thoughts were somewhere else, wandering about aimlessly.

- Tomorrow I go to talk with my lawyer and Roger and his lawyer. I hope everything will go right. I don't want him to see me sad and suffering. I must do something about it.

Then, her face shone with a sanative thought. She drank her coffee quickly, said good bye to Smantha and went home.

Next morning she was in the perfume shop again. The day was bright and nice weather was granted. Milli looked at the perfume bottles analytically. All the little beauties were standing there and it seemed that there started a friendly conversation between them and Milli. She decided to try a green bottle which looked like hiding some mountain fairy tale. When the sales girl handed it to her, Milli opened it slowly with a little bit of fear not to be disappointed when she opened it. This time she did not lift her head up, as it had been her ritual habit, she only inhaled it deeply, expecting from the fragrance to understand her problem. Then, with satisfaction from what she felt, she sprayed a bit of liquid on her neck.

- Thank you very much, Terese, she said to the sales girl and with swift and nervous steps left the shop.

Terese kept watching her with bewilderment. This time Milli seemed to her rather unusual, she wondered what had happened to her. She was pale and much slimmer than before. But, without torturing herself much over this thought and other people's problems, Terese just shrugged her shoulders and put the bottle back to its place.

At the lawyer's office for divorces they set opposite each others - Milli with her lawyer and Roger with his. Roger seemed a bit uneasy, but with the first spoken words it was obvious that he was determined to get the divorce. There were no doubts about his intention not to give it up.

- So, you don't want to withdraw your request. Asked Milli's lawyer and Roger nodded.

At this moment, Milli got up from her chair, went around the table to the place where Roger was sitting and bending down behind his back, she pointed a certain spot on the divorce request which was in front of each of them. It was a part about sharing some books which they were to devide among themselves.

- I don't like this. This book...

Roger lift his head and looked at her with a strange surprise on his face. His eyes lit up and he moved in his seat with uneasiness. He blinked with his eyes and said.

- Yes, yes, you're right, he interrupted her. It is a mistake. I know that it is your favourite book, you've got it from me for your birthday. Sorry, we will correct it.

They all kept silent. Milli went back to her seat. Lawyers wrote something down in their notebooks. Roger and Milli looked at each other without telling a word but it was as if some big piece of ice started melting between them. Roger got up and whispered something to his lawyer. The lawyer said.

- We will correct some parts and, if you agree, we can meet some other time.

They agreed to meet after a week and all went out.

The same day in the evening the phone at Milli's home rang, she ran to it and almost breathlessly answered. When she heard Roger's voice her face lit up with joy.

- Milli, how about the idea that we try it again?

His voice was trembling, it was as if he was crying.

Milli jumped with joy, but she whispered back into the receiver.

- I have just been thinking abut it, darling.