My wife and I and the couple we invited stared at the stranger as we all sat in the living room, sipping coffee or tea. Something about him looked familiar. He looked as if he had been to my house before. Maybe that’s why no one questioned him when he walked in the front door in his nondescript clothes and unremarkable appearance. He just sat down, smiled, was polite, and hardly said a word.

Or at least that was my perception of the stranger. My guests however, reacted differently.

Neighbor Phil took a big sniff and smiled when the stranger walked in. Phil claimed the character was as loud as his over-the-top Hawaiian shirt and plaid pants. Later, Phil said he and the stranger were trading quips all evening. I didn’t see or hear any of that.

However, Phil’s wife, Marlene, thought the stranger was repulsive. She put her hand over her nose and recoiled when the man walked into the room. Later she told us that the man smelled like he hadn’t taken a bath in a while, and his dirty purple shirt had grease stains. And rude! Marlene said that when she reached to stab a goat-cheese appetizer with a toothpick, the stranger knocked her hand out of the way and grabbed three pieces with his fingers. And there was dirt under his fingernails.

My wife smiled at the man, because she thought he was my friend. Later, though, she told me something was unsettling about him. Who comes to a casual dinner party in a three-piece suit, she reasoned, unless they are going to steal something?

I do not understand what my guests saw in the stranger. My wife keeps telling me it’s because I have no sense of smell.

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Challenge

Write about a smell... as if it were a friend

Write about a strange scent you smelled on a walk through the trees, or at home in your living room as if it had it's own personality and feelings. You can only use smells and it has to be within 300 words

Finder in Words

• 35 reads

Smudging

I smudge my home

with white sage

periodically.

I move room to room

watching the smoke

scented snake

slowly twirl into

cervices and corners.

I feel the cleansing

clearing away

negativity

stale thoughts and feelings

that get stuck

invisibly adherent

making you stuck

making you stink

wither trapped dying.

The fragrance lingers

long after

the smoke floats away

into nothingness

leaving a freshness

purifying the space

my

mind body soul

call home.

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Challenge

Write about a smell... as if it were a friend

Write about a strange scent you smelled on a walk through the trees, or at home in your living room as if it had it's own personality and feelings. You can only use smells and it has to be within 300 words

TheOliveTree in Words

• 53 reads

Talking with TeaTree.

Why?

'Why?' what?

Why are you always in my room? It's creepy.

To have a roommate?

The fact I don't have one.

How is that scary?

First of all, I said creepy, not scary.

Same difference.

That's not the point-

Then what's the point?

THE POINT IS-

Why are you yelling?

The point is, I don't have a roommate, right?

Right.

Right, so why are you always here?

I don't know.

Okay, so if you are here, then why does no one else ever notice you?

Wow, that's creepy!

I know right?! It's almost like that's what I have been trying to tell you!

Then why didn't you just say that?

Keyword: trying.

Oh, I get it now.

You are so annoying.

I'm sorry. All I want to do is help you.

How?

I know you think too much. You get so stressed, the thoughts push against your head, and it hurts you so much.

...

I just want to help you.

...

I want to take the pain away, I want to calm you down.

You're so sweet.

I thought I was annoying?

Yeah, you are. Annoying, but sweet.

...Yeah.

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Challenge

Write about a smell... as if it were a friend

Write about a strange scent you smelled on a walk through the trees, or at home in your living room as if it had it's own personality and feelings. You can only use smells and it has to be within 300 words

batmaninwuhan in Words

• 40 reads

Talcum

one of my grandfather's chess sets was ornately carved, with scrimshaw on the whites and careful etching on the frame. the pieces were all hand carved, none was alike, black and white, king or pawn. strangely, it smelled of talcum powder. i have a strong memory of playing with this subtle, light, ellusive scent. it is much rarer today. barbers and hair salons stopped using it, so is it discontinued from being used as a deoderant or certainly as baby powder. perhaps it is one of those things that are gone for good. but once i catch it, i go back to the good old, toxic days, where chemistry was mostly unknown in its consequence.

sniffing a chess board, i must have scared my grandfather..

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Challenge

Write about a smell... as if it were a friend

Write about a strange scent you smelled on a walk through the trees, or at home in your living room as if it had it's own personality and feelings. You can only use smells and it has to be within 300 words

The Struggle In Us All

Chapter 453 of 500

WhiteWolfe32

No Friends

i was born

without a sense of smell.

the aromas that

the other children danced with

were ones i never got to meet.

there was no telltale sign

of past rain.

there was no birthday morning

with the smell of bacon.

i never got to befriend

the candles my mom put out

at parties

or meet up with

the smell of my dad

cooking pancakes.

i never made friends with the smells in my life

because i never even knew they were there.

i watch people laugh as

they recall their childhoods

with just a twitch of the nose.

some people say smells are like

old friends,

forever keeping you company

and reminding of good times.

if that's true,

then i have no friends.

but it's never bothered me

because i never had any

to begin with,

and maybe i'm better

on my own.

after all,

maybe i won't have friends to laugh with

to play with,

to love with.

but i also won't have poisoned friends,

bad smells, bad memories, full of

toxic waste and

fire-tinted nostrils.

i had no choice

in the way that i am.

i guess my very essence

repels those who might wish

to befriend me.

if smells were friends, then

i'd have none.

but at least i don't have

any enemies.

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Challenge

Write about a smell... as if it were a friend

Write about a strange scent you smelled on a walk through the trees, or at home in your living room as if it had it's own personality and feelings. You can only use smells and it has to be within 300 words

AlisonAudrey in Words

• 28 reads

California

california smells different

a musky smell of dusty palm trees

swaying in time to shallow desires of fame

cigarettes put out on cement sidewalks

people sighing about social dilemmas

and fashion choices

the los angeles streets running all the way upstate

into car windows and our collective consciousness

san francisco ocean waves

the boardwalk a pale fire at sunset

sand dispersed in waves of contemplation

a sadness and promise of better things

to come to those

who saw this state

as a re-do and new start

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Challenge

Write about a smell... as if it were a friend

Write about a strange scent you smelled on a walk through the trees, or at home in your living room as if it had it's own personality and feelings. You can only use smells and it has to be within 300 words

Plexiglassfruit in Words

• 20 reads

Grandmom

we may have five senses

but within the workings of just one

from just a simple essence...

a powder, light in the air

sits in my heart; love- the measure of a ton

Este Lauder - Youth Dew

four generations of us -struck down

the very whisp of it intoxicating joy

in it’s presence, not even grief can be found

it has a hint of dust to it-

in it’s purest form

and maybe a bit of the chemistry

when on her skin was worn

Never over powering

how delicate it must have been applied

it’s fragrance still now lingers

as if she were still alive

her children loved it

and their’s did too

all the great-grandchildren

in common we all have -

the scent of Youth Dew

It fills me with memories

the smell- warms my soul

her last box & puff, I have-

wrapped secure, as if of gold

Sometimes I will open the lid

not lean in too close

let the silky powder free

to find it’s way to my nose

It smells like love and tenderness-

like holidays and joy

it smells like kindness,

through the nose- right to the heart

lingering on all the grandkids

the girls and the boys

It is a scent that wakes your brain

one that will never leave me

charming and old fashioned

she wore the scent since 1953

.....

Side car to this, showed up in a Google question

What does Estée Lauder Youth Dew smell like?

If you do know Youth Dew, you know that it smells viciously balsamic, almost like sweet motor oil — not a scent you might associate with cookies, knitting, & other traditionally grandmotherly pursuits

My Gram was entirely unlike all other traditional grandmothers, so that made me especially happy after missing her so.

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Challenge

Write about a smell... as if it were a friend

Write about a strange scent you smelled on a walk through the trees, or at home in your living room as if it had it's own personality and feelings. You can only use smells and it has to be within 300 words

318724 in Words

• 26 reads

Friends Forever

I inhale the musty smell of this old house

it embraces me with its dry skin

we sit and tell stories about this basement

where we played when we were kids

and grew to lose control over life

Its familiarity eases my mind

and it reminds me about when

we forgot to hide the wine

and how we'd always lose track of time

our parents didn't mind

It then turned quiet, seeming sad

beginning to cry, it told me

it just misses being around us

but it's okay old friend

thanks for having me, soon I'll visit again

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