Smells Like Spring
She stood in the kitchen and sniffed again. The scent fired through her, charging her senses and curling her lips. What is that, she wondered, amazed by how much it reminded her of spring.
She took another whiff of the scent and started looking around. Her search landed her in the bathroom. After a moment, she found what she’d been looking for. She pressed it against her cheeks with a soft exhale. If only she knew what she was caressing.
A Loving Mom
Natalie Hemmingway lived in Charlotteville, Virginia, with her husband of ten years. A mother of three, Natalie loved nothing more than spending her evenings with her family after a long workday.
What started as a bonding moment for the family quickly devolved into a chaotic moment that the Hemmingways would give anything to forget ever happened.
Life Is Perfect
Natalie was an attorney in town, while her husband, Chuck, was a lecturer at their local university. Two of their kids, Sam and Lisa, were in middle-high school, while the last, Cam, had started kindergarten.
As far as Natalie was concerned, life for her and her family was perfect. She had no idea that something as delightful as what she found in the bathroom would leave her wishing she could move her family into a new house.
Summer’s Over
The day the incident took place was a hectic one for the Hemmingways. Summer had come to a close, and Natalie and Chuck were reporting to work while the kids got ready for school.
To add to this, Sam and Lisa had each taken extracurricular activities in school, which demanded extra care from Natalie and Chuck. Sam had joined a Karate club while Lisa was taking Judo. These new activities would lay the perfect foundation for that terrible day.
School And Work
The kids went to school on that fateful day and had a beautiful day. Natalie and Chuck went to work, with Natalie meeting her coworkers after a two-week break and having a great time seeing the office again.
When she returned home, she found her kids were already home. But there was something they’d done that made her lips part.
Good Kids
Sam and Lisa had gotten home, cleaned themselves, and prepared snacks for themselves and their little brother. They also arranged the kitchen, which was a mess when Natalie left in the morning.
The first thing Natalie did when she walked into the house was hug them. She kissed their heads, thanking them for what they’d done. She moved from one corner of the kitchen to the next, seeing how the twins had outdone themselves. And then she smelled it.
A Flood Memories
The scent was sweet, fleeting with the soft breeze that blew into the kitchen. Just a hint of it had Natalie dragging her eyes shut. She inhaled again.
The scent had awoken memories in her that she’d long forgotten about. As she inhaled, she remembered herself as a little girl, running through the park after a light rain. She remembered chasing after rabbits with a grapefruit slushy in her hand. With a smile, she called her kids.
The Search
“What’s that wonderful smell?” she asked Sam, who grinned. “A secret, mom,” the boy chirped. He breathed in deeply and let out a sigh. “You can look for it,” he added.
Accepting the challenge, Natalie took off her coat and began smelling all around the house. She sweeped the living room and kitchen areas. Confident that the smell was coming from upstairs, she hurried to continue her search.
The Sweet Smell
The sweet smell was stronger upstairs than in the kitchen and living room. More memories barraged Natalie as she hurried in and out of rooms, and she grinned as she continued with her search.
Soon enough, she’d cleared all the kids’ bedrooms and the main bedroom. She’d also checked her and Chuck’s room’s bathroom. With only the shared bathroom to go, she hurried out of the room and pushed the bathroom door open.
The Bathroom
Like a strong ocean breeze, the scent swept through Natalie, almost knocking her back. She closed her eyes, her grin almost turning painful from the nostalgia. She opened her eyes and began her search.
Natalie spent the next ten minutes looking for the source of the smell. Her daughter Lisa joined her, and they searched until they found it.
She Finds It
Hidden behind one of the medicine bottles in the medicine cabinet was a small smudged pink bar that smelled delicious. It was the source of the beautiful scent that blanketed the entire house.
Natalie picked it up and pressed it against her cheek, resisting the urge to take a bite. The grapefruit smell overwhelmed her, and she grinned again, asking her daughter where they found such a beautiful freshener. The answer would send her gagging.
Sammy, Gift That Keeps On Giving
“Sammy found it in the boys’ bathroom at karate and brought it home,” Lisa answered. Natalie’s mind registered each word as she spoke, and at the mention of the boy’s bathroom, her heart flopped.
She threw the bar back into the medicine before using wet wipes to scoop it out. She held back a retch as she picked it up. What she did next made Lisa step back.
The Upscale Boutique Soap
What Natalie thought was an upscale boutique soap turned out to be a urinal cake. To make matters worse, it wasn’t a fresh one plucked straight out of a pack but a used one judging from its smudged state.
Natalie held back another gag as the smell that had been sweet before flooded her system with nausea. A used urinal cake and she’d pressed it against her cheeks.
Spring Cleaning
Natalie threw the cake into the bathroom’s trash can before digging it out and flushing it down the toilet. She cleaned the entire house from top to bottom, scrubbing until the grapefruit scent was gone.
That night when Chuck got home from work, she sat down and explained everything. Although he laughed at the incident, he agreed that they needed to sit down with the kids and have a chat.
The Talk
Natalie and Chuck sat down with Sam, Lisa, and Cam. They acknowledged their efforts in helping around the house and their achievements as the best kids any parent could ask for.
But they cautioned them about picking up random things and bringing them home. One day it might be a used urinal cake, and a week later, something far more harmful. The kids nodded with understanding.