The Sweetest Aroma

A fragmented fiction piece.

The sensation has grown to be unbearable. Unable to move and in complete agony, I have no choice but to gaze up at the two hawks hovering above me. Thinking that maybe if they were a little closer, their large wings could possibly shield me from my blazing rival. I think this almost as if to distract myself from the fate that awaits me. The soft feathers brush against my face, surprisingly cooling me. My eyes shoot open and sheepishly acknowledge my enemy with a blinking gaze.  The raging sphere in the sky has taken me down and I know it is only a matter of minutes until the hawks finish me up. Lets hope they start with my leg. Swollen and blistered there’s no use for it anymore. I wish I could cut it off myself. But for now I am trapped in a world of pain, sweat and thirst. I close my eyes and see only Jade. My beautiful Jade.

 

**

I hear Jade calling to me from the kitchen but it pains me to leave this porch. Rex and I have grown even more fond of it since Jimmy died.  Even now I find myself constantly staring across the street to that old red house and the now empty porch. I always admired the wooden swing made for two, painted in ivory, which has faded gradually as the years passed. Jimmy would sit next to the swing and stare at his palms. I wondered if Jimmy built that swing himself, the heavy wooden seat and each individual intricate rail that lined the back all handcrafted. The rails were placed strategically so they would line the outside of the spines of the two people who would be seated there. I never knew if anyone had ever actually sat in that swing, but Jimmy had always found his place seated right next to it. After all it was made for two and it was only him. That truth was something that he apparently couldn’t bear to deal with any longer. But Rex and I do miss his stories.

I decide to answer Jade’s multiple calls after she let out the typical “Bill get your lazy a*s in here before I decide Rex is more deserving of your plate”.  I reach down and feel the grainy fur of my basset hound and mutter a frustrated “better get in there before she decides to punish us both”. With that we both sluggishly make our way through the house and into the kitchen. I greet Jade with a hug from behind and a juicy kiss on the cheek, she goes on to tell me to take my seat at the table. I do as I’m told and she places the plate of meatloaf on the table just under my nose. The aroma of the steaming beef and ketchup make my mouth water and I indulge myself in my wife’s cooking. I knew that if I ever lost this woman I would miss the smell of her cooking overwhelming the house, reminding us all of her presence.

 

**

 

You really learn a lot when you’re meeting your maker. I swear I can hear my skin sizzle under the wrath of the fireball from above. I would let the world have it, but no one’s here to receive my scolding. I dig my fingers into the dehydrated dirt. My head flops to the side and I see nothing but dirt. Why did I stray from the river? What the hell is wrong with you Bill?

 

**

 

“Each brick has its own story. A specific reason for the place in which it was chosen to be laid. Those two bricks are representative of me, placed on the bottom and the very top of the walls making this house, so that everyone knows that I was the one who started and finished this place. It was 1961 when I decided that this was something that I needed to do.  Gina said that she was looking for the man who would provide for her and keep her safe when she felt as if no one could. When I told her I could be that person, she never quite took me literally.        

I laid that first brick down that same day.  That brick followed by exactly 500 more. I decided that this was the number of bricks I would lay each day before stopping. It took me about a year to finish this damn house, a year! Do you know what someone can do with a whole year of their life?!

When I showed Gina her home, she left me in it after a great scolding. ‘Jimmy what’s your problem?’ she would ask me. Why didn’t I just buy a house? Who would want to be with someone who built them their own home? This is a question that I never understood her answer to.”

 

**

 

As I wait in bed Jade brings me in a plate of fresh chocolate chip cookies. I breathe in the aroma as I pass one under my nose and bring it back to meet her plump pink lips. As she opens her mouth to accept the offering, her breathing sends the scent in my direction and I receive another whiff of the heavenly aroma. I remember what it felt like to ingest those holy fumes. I swear that scent will accompany me until my heart no longer beats.

 

**

            “ Let me tell you, Gina was one stubborn woman. I swear she wouldn’t even do it on purpose! Man Bill, I seriously think she would come around to tease me! I seriously tried everything and that girl would never give me any type of chance. I wouldn’t bring myself to except her rejections of my dates and gifts, I always thought one day she would give in and just give me a chance. What a waste of my time Bill, what a waste.”

**

 

I feel a rush as the goose bumps overcome my body. I open my mouth in pain as I flinch from the sudden rush and droplets of salted sweat slide into my mouth. I’m suddenly drowning in the salty moisture and am gasping desperately for air.

**

 

Last summer Rex and I walked down to the Mississippi as Jimmy had. It was said that he was found two miles from Memphis down the Mississippi, so this is where we went. Overwhelmed with the thoughts of breathlessness and suffering of my dear friend, I couldn’t bear to stay any longer. Rex and I walked up the river a few miles and then headed back home. Upon arrival we were greeted by Jades rendition of “At Last” by Etta James. The sweet lyrics matched exactly with the sweet woman that sang them. Each word floated off of her gentle lips and danced into the air and all around us, Consuming us in their melodies. My love for this woman radiates even more with each note of her angelic voice and I wondered if she ever really knew. The beautiful sounds of the woman that I love vibrates my eardrums softly and it remains echoing in my ear. I pray it never stops.

 

**

 

            “Hell yeah did I jam! Back in my day, Tony and I used to shred up that stage in Old Towns bar down town! Man we had ladies dancing on the tables for us and they would wait for our sets to be over so they could come find us. They would call me Big man Jimmy, boy those girls were so trashy; they just wanted us because we were the big shots in that bar. I would turn them down though, there’s no use in being with someone who isn’t the one you want to be with. Just picture you and Jade, imagine her not wanting you but you have the same feelings that you do. Would screwing that up with some other lady help? The answer is no and I knew that deep in my heart and stuck with it.

            Gina never went to any of my shows but she would always meet me for dinner afterwards. She loved to go to Ozzie’s and we would each get a burger and split a Strawberry shake. I haven’t been to Ozzie's since my last show though, reminds me of her. I don’t understand how someone so beautiful could be so oblivious. Gina never understood my feelings for her. Maybe she did. I don’t know. I like to believe that she didn’t so it doesn’t hurt as much.”

 

**

            Soaked by the monstrous snake of a river. I’m struggling to see any green of land. Air?! Where are you?! My lungs scream to my brain at their loudest amplitude. My eyes shoot open as if to save my life. My life that was in no way at risk. I can’t stand to see him struggle anymore. I can’t do this anymore. I head down the creaky stairs still shirtless from being asleep. Lately the night has helped when these dreams haunt my brain. I step out barefoot onto the paved road, I feel the heat of the earth under my naked soles. One step easily became well over a thousand. My trip without a known destination. I carry on walking.

**

            “You know Bill, when we first moved in I took you for a pansy. I thought you were the type of man who cries when anything goes wrong. You have seriously proved me wrong. The three years you and Jade have been living across the street seriously have changed my views on you so much. Like last June when you busted your back I thought for sure you  weren’t going to be back to work on the car for at least a year. When you walked over a month later I thought I was seeing things! What a great day! I needed my partner! I was fixing those cars at half of the speed without you here. I swear some days I felt like I only got through one engine installation! Man I miss that business, two long years we had it last though! Man those were the days.”

 

**

 

Jade will surely take care of Rex, and Jade can most definitely take care of herself, but me? I don’t need much to survive. But what I do need I clearly can’t supply for myself.

Miles down the Mississippi and even more miles from home; I suddenly can no longer take the heat. I have ventured too far to return and too far to go on anymore. I fall to the ground in an attempt to gain energy, this immediately fails as it leads me to drop onto my back out of my inability to hold myself upright. I’m left staring up at the sky unable to move. I hear the rush of the River current over the sound of my breath. Underlying those two sounds I hear the sweetest sound of my Jade’s version of “At Last”, accompanied with that I catch a hint of that heavenly aroma. Fresh chocolate chip cookies.