PINK SNOWSTORM

My son Alex had borrowed my car to go pick up a few of his friends. When he returned home he dropped the car keys in my hand and said, “By the way, there's a weird smell in your car.”

“What kind of smell?” I asked.

“I don't know.” He stopped to think about it for a moment. “Like something went bad.”

“Like 'old food' bad or 'old clothes' bad?” I asked.

Alex shrugged his shoulders. “I have no idea.” he said before he headed to the bathroom to take a shower.

That left me sitting on the couch, holding my car keys and trying not to imagine what could possibly smell so bad in my car that my son noticed it.

Going out to the car I cautiously opened the driver's side door, held my breath and stuck my head in. One thing I've learned from years of experience is that it's best to look around first before taking in that first small whiff. Luckily, when I finally did inhale the only thing I could smell was the slight aroma of decomposing flowers. I smiled as I saw the back seat covered in small pink petals. I scooped them up to bring into the house.

Alex was just getting out of the bathroom. I held up my handful of faded pink petals. “Is this what you smelled?” I asked.

Alex leaned over to them then pulled away. “Yeah, that's it.” He looked closer. “What are they?” he asked.

“Yesterday I drove over to the park to take a walk and I parked the car next to a flowering cherry tree.” I smiled as I remembered the sight. “When I came back from my walk I opened the windows to get a little breeze. The next thing I know the wind kicked up and I found myself in the middle of the most beautiful pink snowstorm.” I looked down at my handful of petals. “They were everywhere. The outside of the car looked like it had a pink blanket on. They were even stuck under the windshield wipers.” The petals felt silky in my hands and I couldn't help playing with them as I finished my story. “The inside of the car got filled with them too. I was pulling them out of my hair, brushing them off the dashboard, even shooing them off the seats.” I started to laugh at the memory, but when I looked back at Alex I could see my enthusiasm wasn't contagious. “I thought I'd gotten them all yesterday, but I guess I forgot to look in the back seat.” I held up the stinking culprit. “They're all gone now.” I reassured him.

“It's not the smell I'm worried about.” Alex said. “I just picked up my friends and now you tell me the back seat was covered in pink flower petals?”
I hadn't really thought about it. But now that he mentioned it, I could see where flower petals on the back seat didn't help make the 'guy car' statement Alex was looking for when he got stuck driving the family car. “Why don't you look on the bright side?” I said. “Maybe they just thought our car smelled weird too!”

“Yeah, maybe.” Alex said as he walked into his room, but he didn't sound convinced.