We just moved into a new house a few weeks ago. It’s a bigger house, with a bigger yard, so there’s just more room all around. It has a big walkout basement for the kids to play in and where I have my office, and that’s where we keep our aging family dog when we bring her inside at night and when it’s cold or rainy. We have fixed a nice little spot for her with a bed and waterproof mats in case there’s an accident. I walk her every night before bed, but she’s old, so there’s always a chance that something will happen.
Well, a few days ago, I got up to let her out. I opened the door to go downstairs, and the smell of dog crap hit me right away. You know, that really gut-turning smell of hot fresh crap. Sure enough, I got downstairs, and she had it all over the bed and the mats. I got her outside and tried to minimize the damage as I got the mat and the bed cover outside to hose them off before tossing them in the washer. The downstairs still reeked of crap, so I looked everywhere to see if some got on the wall or carpet. I didn’t find anything. I checked everywhere it could have spread, but…nothing.
At this point, I had already spent a good amount of my morning working on dog crap, so I figured I’d fix it later
So, I warned my wife and kids that it still reeked down there. I made breakfast, opening the door every now and then to see if it smelled better. It was terrible. I opened windows and tried to get a breeze going. Still terrible.
My oldest daughter said, “How bad is it?” and went to the stairs. She opened the door, took a big, long drag, looked at me funny and said, “I don’t smell anything.”
My wife then went to the stairs. Same. She couldn’t smell anything.
All the kids took turns sniffing. No one else in the house could smell it.
So, I went to the stairs myself, and sure enough, where a couple of minutes earlier the smell was bad and became overpowering as you walked down the stairs, there was nothing. Not even a little hint.
So I walked back up to the kitchen and just kind of shrugged, and wondered if I was just smelling it because I expected to smell it, and wondered if everything I thought I was real was just there because I thought it should be. And what would happen if I really thought it should be different. So I thought about how the world could be different.
And the whole world turned a little fuzzy and a little blurry for a few seconds. I shook my head and laughed and the world cleared up and my wife said, “Are you okay?”
I said I was fine and finished making breakfast.
I’m still getting used to her new hairstyle. And color.