That Stench

I wasn’t sure of what had to be done. There she was, lying hopeless, vulnerable, like a gutted pig. Blood all over, and that stench. It was a mix of the smell of humidity, butcher shop, and that of the inside of a forgotten, old fridge. I’ve always appreciated the most exotic aromas. The most unpopular of them all. The most underestimated. I love to smell the old, leather-covered books; the fresh paint over cement; the smell of a skunk at the distance in the road, where it mixes with the unpolluted air, and the scent of herbs, and trees, and loneliness; the smell of my bed: virginal, dusty, old. It smells like my evolution. The dead layers of my skin now inhabit its surface. The other I’s.

Who was I? I know my bed stores my many lives. But I can’t recall any complete episode of my life. I just recall specific actions, frozen situations. I recall things just as photographs. Who was I at ten? What were my goals? What smells did I like back then? What did I like back then? I remember the exact moment in which, impulsively, I grabbed that girl Karla’s ass in the middle of the class. I was 17. What a beautiful ass. I remember every single detail about it. The wrinkles in her skirt, the way it adhered to her body so I could see that perfect shape. It was a squared skirt. Red, black, and white. It looks just like this one. Only that this one is a little larger. Karla used to wear short skirts. She knew anybody would kill to have her. Karla didn’t use a pink backpack either. And Karla had breasts. And Karla didn’t have braces. And Karla was beautiful. She looked like she would smell deliciously.

I can only imagine she would smell like this room. Sweet, strange, misunderstood. She could smell differently now. But I don’t think so. She was beautiful. The most beautiful of all humans must smell like this. A smell that has the power to inspire, to fulfill, to complete. Could it also have the power to redeem? To surprise? A smell like the one I’m inhaling, tasting, and feeling in this precise moment. A smell that could be described as a mix of skunk at the distance with unpolluted air, old books, fresh paint, loneliness, humidity, butcher shop, and the smell of the inside of a forgotten, old fridge.
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Short-Short Story para clase "Style" en la VFS.