Scented

At a friend's place last week, I got a whiff of dried eucalyptus. In the way that only sense memory can make you instantly time travel, I was eleven-years-old and riding my bike down the path to the beach by my house. Other aromas of childhood pull me back to damp foggy mornings, fireplaces burning, and wet cement near a chlorinated pool.

I wondered what smells will bring Bob back to this time and place. The only thing I could think of? Dog pee. Levi has a small incontinence problem when he gets excited and I can never seem to get the smell fully removed from our living room. Maybe the ick smell of our air conditioning system at the beginning of the season? I had to dig deeper. I took the issue to my friend Karen who suggested the smells of baking and Thanksgiving. Then I came up with freshly cut grass on a baseball field. The sweet smell of the jacaranda trees that line the streets in our neighborhood. Cinnamon Christmas candles.

I will ask Bob when he's a grown up.