THE SCENT
One day, all the girls in our town started to smell the same. Some described it as towels left too long to dry on a humid day. Others said mulch after rain. Even heard it compared to kelp once. Eventually, there were town meetings. You see, the scent was so strong that folks from neighboring towns were encroaching on private property. Men, women, children — it didn’t matter — they swarmed to it. Peeped through Venetian blinds. Slid aside curtains in search of the source. Some pressed their faces to the fence as the girls ran the oval. Fingers numbed from groping the chain links. Blood-flushed cheeks imprinted with diamonds from willing themselves closer to the slap of sneakers on polyurethane, to the curve of a first-place thigh. We even considered electric fences but figured we’d end up with too many fried critters. Not to mention the stench of burnt feathers and fur. The idea was soon thrown out once we discovered our own town people were no longer immune. Our drivers, stuck under the spell of the scent, careening into living rooms during Monday night football. Lunch ladies losing fingers in blenders, the scent transporting them to back rows of movie theaters when they were 16. To the feeling of hands searching up blouses, interpreting the lace of their bras. Our pastor suggested we overpower the scent. We burned fields of tires. Coordinated the mowing of our lawns. Even ensured pots of coffee boiled in each house at all hours of the day. But nothing was as potent, so the girls came up with a plan of their own. Offered to be locked away in the huge vault in the town bank. We packed it with rations. Promised we’d return in a month. And before we closed the huge metal door, we glimpsed the girl’s glittering eyes in the dark. How they were like flames extinguished and reignited by each of their blinks. All it took was turning away to imagine they burned forever.
L. Soviero was born and raised in Queens, New York but has made her way around the world, currently laying her hat in Melbourne. She has an MSc in Creative Writing from the University of Edinburgh. She has been nominated for Best of the Net, longlisted at Wigleaf and spotlighted in Best Small Fictions. Check out more from her at lsoviero.com
