The end of January has arrived! I don’t know why that feels like such an accomplishment. I think that January is just a hard month in general. You start with celebrations and even if you don’t make any eating better resolutions all of the sugar and fat laden holiday foods disappear so it feels like a penance as your body and brain readjust. Adding cold weather on top of it doesn’t help of course. But I do feel like it is a feat to make it to the end of January. So let’s see what the last prompt of the month brings us.
Characters, it brought me characters. No clue about the story I want to use them in, but they will appear somewhere.
Wednesday, January 31st: “Do you smell smoke?”
“Do you smell smoke?” She asked. Eileen took a deep breath, tilting her head up for a better scent. George looked away. Eileen was one of those women constantly dieting and working out, desperate to stave off both age and fat in equal measure. Her efforts bared her down. While in most lights she looked fine, if a bit too thin, when she stretched in certain ways, her skin grew taught over her bones and to him she looked more skeletal.
Oddly it made him think more of a predator, some sort of dinosaur, a raptor or one of the flying ones, the pterodactyl maybe with skin stretched over air filled bones, ancient predatory birds. The fact that he thought of ancient things was something he knew never to mention, even though he knew that she liked to think of herself as a predator.
‘Well that’s not entirely true,’ he thought. ‘She likes to think of herself as a warrior rather than a predator. He doubted anyone in the office liked to think of themselves as a predator. They were warriors of the business variety. The fact that they attacked weaker companies, taking them over and stripping them for parts always seemed more predatory than anything else, but this too was something he learned to keep to himself.
“I do smell smoke,” she declared. Without looking he could feel her eyes bore into him and he knew his role. He set his ben and notepad down and stood. He moved to the window, seeking the origin of the scent. Eileen had given up smoking five years prior and now was ruthless in stamping the habit out of anyone else. It wasn’t due to health or any sort of temptation.
If Eileen couldn’t enjoy a cigarette then neither could anyone else.
It was as simple as that.
He looked down and saw no one standing where the smokers usually gathered. As there was a light, but soaking mist out today he couldn’t blame them. He took a deep breath. He could smell nothing but the damp. Knowing he was being watched. He went to each window, opened it, looked out and sniffed. He moved around the room, closing each window before moving to the next.
He could smell no smoke and he saw no one outside, either smoking or not. He knew better than to question her about scenting smoke. When he finished with the windows, he moved to the door and opened in, peering not the hall while inhaling deeply. He smelled an intense waft of perfume but nothing else.
‘It’s Thursday, must be after two.’ He knew the COO occupying the office down the hall had a meeting with a female client at two every Thursday. She always wore the same perfume. The fact that it was her husband that was the client and that the meeting involved no business wasn’t something they discussed. Still there was no scent of smoke.
“Would you like me to check the bathrooms,” he asked, knowing better than to simply let it go.
Ten til Midnight 