Notival

I had lunch the other day at Taco Bueno, as I do every now and then. As soon as I sat down and started eating, I noticed a rank smell. It took no time to identify the odor as coming from the old woman in a wheel chair at the next table. She just smelled 'old.' Like that nasty smell you get in nursing homes sometimes. Not antiseptic, exactly, but old. Death, even.

Im sure I wasnt the only one that noticed it, but there wasn't exactly anything I could do about it. Most of the tables in the restaurant were taken, and it would have been really obvious had I just got up and moved to what empty tables there were. The woman, and the people with her, left maybe a minute after I sat down. So I hoped that the smell would dissipate quickly.

The nose normally adapts to new aromas very quickly, and I expected that with her gone, the scent would go too. But it lingered. I think it clung to my clothes. The only time I could not smell the stench was when I was taking a drink of Dr Pepper and my nose was buried in my cup.

It wasn't the old woman's fault, by any means. But I hope, that should I ever get so old and feeble that the Squid has to push me around, that she will at least douse me with cologne or body spray so that I dont cause near retching everywhere we go.