Chapter 236 (Heavenly Scents)
Dead animals decaying on the side of the road contain butyric acid, which is also found in moldy cheese.
To drive down any highway on this island is to immerse oneself into the deep aroma of foul scents of dead animals. Dead animals are everywhere on this island. The smell of death permeates this island like decaying fruit. It over-shadows the beautiful smells of wild flowers, diesel exhaust, and ripening fruit. It’s a smell that sticks in your head for a very long time. It’s a smell you never forget. Even after you have driven five miles down the road, the smell still lingers inside your car or motorcycle helmet—bouncing off the interior and sticking inside your nostrils.
In a macabre twist, the smell of decaying animals along the side of the road always makes me hungry. Very hungry.
Butyric acid, while rancid on its own, is important in nature as the scent attracts flies, insects and other animals who come to enjoy the “Free Buffet” of food rotting in the sun. The rancid smell is basically a call to the wild, announcing “Food Orgy over here!" Buzzards gliding on streams of hot current air can pick up the smell from very far away. Bears, wolves, vampires and other exotic animals can detect the smell from twenty miles away or more downwind. It’s strong and it’s rancid.
I kept driving. A few miles down the highway, another dead animal cooking in the hot scorching sun—announcing another “Free Buffet” came ricocheting inside my motorcycle helmet. I thought, for the love of god, I’m starving now. I stopped in Sosua and got something to eat. The smell was now on my clothes and in my hair—which made me hungrier the longer the smell lingered around me. What can you do in a situation like this? I ordered more food.
Sosua...the smell of death.
As I sat eating my food, some much needed raindrops began to fall. It was the first raindrops in a very long time. The smell of rain hitting hot asphalt carried with it the unmistakable smell of wine and cheese. Perfect. I ordered the stinkiest cheese they had, along with the cheapest wine. Together, the pairing could not have been better orchestrated. I called over the ma?tre de—a Dominican girl missing her front teeth and with belly rolls of fat perfectly orchestrated and protruding out from a child’s shirt and folding neatly over her tight shorts three sizes two small—and told her to keep pouring the cheap wine until I either pass out or explode.
The smell of wet asphalt and stinky cheese is beautiful. The smells are critical in producing floral scents of cherry, mahogany, woodworm, pencil shavings, 10w-50 motor oil, damp earth, mold, and the white stuff found underneath one’s toenails.
“The smell of wet asphalt is extremely fragrant" I told the ma?tre d'.
She looked at me like was high—which I was. I had just smoked some catnip.
“I’m sorry, what’s your name, darling?” I asked her.
“Jaunita.”
“Look, Juanita, a lot of people who smell a woman’s flower for the first time don’t like the smell. They will always tell you it's too floral and there’s too much hint of flowerily bouquet. Some people think a woman’s flower smells like a horse stable. Other’s think it smells like shrimp. But in fact, that’s just fruity note that lingers on your palette. It’s beautiful. I can smell yours right now,” I told her.
She didn't understand. Oh well.
I escaped into the air-conditioned sanctuary of the back of the restaurant. Once there, I inhaled something beautiful. I called over the maitre d' again, and said, “Whatever that smell is that’s lingering from the hostess stand where the female waitstaff are standing, smells rich and opulent. I love it!”
“Thank you. It’s a mixture of mosquito repellent, damp panty hose, hairspray, leather, and hair-dye.”
“No kidding? Well, it smells opulent!” I held my glass of wine up to the girls standing around the hostess stand and toasted them. They were all laughing.
I called Jaunita over to my table again. I had just enough wine and catnip inside of me where I can sometimes take things a little over the top. She was standing in front of me. I was about eye-level with her crotch. I looked up at her and said, “You smell beautiful.”
“Thank you,” she answered, smiling. The female staff behind her were still laughing. I don’t know if they were laughing at me or at something else. I continued, “Jaunita, you smell of peat moss and birch tar—which reminds me of Irish whiskey. Do you have any Irish whiskey in this fine establishment?”
“No, I’m sorry,” she answered. She acted as if she never heard of Irish whiskey.
“Ok, no problem.” I answered.
At the risk of being slapped, I pulled her closer to me and looked up into her big, beautiful eyes and said, “Juanita, you smell of earthly scents of damp earth, musk oil, Pinot Noir, and horse saddle. Are you from the country?”
She laughed and nodded, yes. Now I was getting somewhere.
In a hushed tone, I said, “Don’t be offended, but you smell of wet horse and cat urine.”
She raised her eyebrows and stepped back.
“Now wait a second, darling,” I said, grabbing her hand and pulling her closer. “In very high-end perfumeries and vineyards, they put these smells inside the bottle in order to make people addicted and sexually aroused. It’s what makes some people so irresistible. The smell of wet horse and cat urine makes me sexually aroused," I said to her, staring into her big brown eyes.
She wasn’t amused.