Seriously. So bad. It started in my car.
Yesterday I took Tayla to school. When I unlocked the car and opened the door, I was about knocked on my ass. The stench of rotten eggs wafted out.
“Where is that coming from?” Tayla asked.
“I don’t know. Dad probably farted, then slammed the door shut and let it bake for us…”
We got in and I rolled the windows down and let it go.
But the stink didn’t leave.
I wondered if something was wrong with the car, or maybe I ran over a skunk and it was caught on something under the car…
So when I was done with my errands for the day, I parked next to the dumpster and started to investigate.
Immediately I found the culprit. Last Wednesday, Don’s mom sent him home with a big bowl of spaghetti. Guess who forgot about it?
I chuck it and figure that’s the end of it.
Nope.
Today, Don took Tayla to school and when he got home he said “Your car smells so bad that when Tay and I opened the doors, we both puked.”
“Seriously? You BOTH puked in my car?”
“No, just outside. It was instantaneous…”
“I threw away the spaghetti…”
Later in the day, we have to go to Mary’s to take care of the cat. I start walking toward my car (cue horror movie music) and my stomach starts to tighten. I reached out a trembling hand and pulled the door open.
“Sweet baby Jesus, wtf died in here?!”
“I told you it was bad” Don said.
“Yeah, but it was bad yesterday…”
“I got it. I found out what it was. It wasn’t the spaghetti. Remember Friday when we went to Hy-Vee and bought that frozen rotisserie chicken? It fell out of the bag and under the seat.”
“FRIDAY?! It’s Wednesday! It’s been in the 80’s!”
“Now you know why it stinks.”
I have NEVER in my LIFE smelled anything as heinous as rotting chicken. It smelled like a slaughterhouse full of diseased cattle. It smelled like Satan’s burnt asshole. It smelled like maggot riddled intestines…
I thought I was going to puke… I had to breathe through my mouth for awhile. Then, I made him stop at every gas station we passed so I could buy more air fresheners. The first place we stopped, I ran in and asked the two cashiers “what is the strongest scent you have?” They both pointed to the “Black Ice”. I told them I’d take two. As I was reaching for my wallet though, I had second thoughts.
“What if this smells worse?”
“Worse?!” Don looked at me incredulously. “It cannot possibly smell worse”.
“I mean, what if it’s scented with black licorice… I hate black licorice…” but the thought of getting back in the car, having passed up the opportunity to even TRY anything different wasn’t going to fly.
I grabbed the two Black Ice air fresheners and headed back out into the heat. I approached the car cautiously as if it were a feral animal, ready to pounce. I grabbed the door handle and notice a man walking into the gas station. He’s a big guy. Like a football player, he was wearing a Viking’s jersey too. He passed me right about the time I was opening the door and as soon as I did, it was like he walked into a glass wall. His head snapped back real fast like he’d been slapped and was turning around to see who did it. Since no one was within slapping distance, he just eyed me suspiciously and shook his head quickly, trying to shake off the vile encounter.
I got back into the mobile death trap trying to make the lemonade out of these very rotten lemons.
“Hey, we could stop the war! Save the soldiers, we can just drive this down the dirt road with the windows down and they’ll drop like flies!’
We cracked a few jokes, tried to ignore the stench that’d had only grown with the air fresheners (in case anyone is wondering, it’s not black licorice, it smells like a dude who took a bath in cologne) and my perfume that Don had sprayed vigorously before I got in… I had to hit him for that. He does it at home too… instead of changing the cat litter, he sprays my perfume… Hello? I’d like to wear that again and not think of cat shit…
My final thing of the day was to meet Ryan and my mom for coffee to celebrate Natalie’s sober date.
I was feeling good about going, I wasn’t too late and then, I was horrified. The car smell had permeated my clothes and purse! OMG. No one said anything but it wasn’t long before the odor reached from my t-shirt to my nostrils and I had to get out of there! Actually, I had to be home before Tayla went to bed because she has to get up early for school… but ugh.
Gross. So, if anyone has to see me within the next couple of days to a week- I’ll probably reek. I’m sorry!
Striving For Sanity 