sense of a memory”

by

Stop. Look around. Step back, now forward again. I lost it. Maybe it’s my imagination. There it is again. Who has it? Where is it? Is it the clothes on the Walmart rack next to me? Or the lady who just walked by? That smell, I know that smell.

They say that smell is the sense that is most connected to memories and emotions. I wouldn’t be surprised. That instance when you smell something familiar Like your favorite food or your dad’s cologne.

Or maybe something not as delightful like that nasty cardboard smell from that one board game box, or the bitter smell of the wooden doors at your grade school, or that one hallway at Lifetime Fitness that smells like the combination of bad coffee, sweat, and rubber.

Maybe only I can recognize these smells, or maybe only I know that they exist. But just for a split second, they transport you back, give you a clear image in your mind, Unlock a memory that you hadn’t been able to find. Maybe.

Think hard. Try to remember it. And in an instance, it’s gone again. But I know that smell, one that both my sister and I can recognize, One that takes us back 8 years and brings back that certain feeling. The one where we both stop in the middle of a Walmart, Turn to each other and say the same thing: “It smells like grandma’s perfume.”