Tonight was one of those foggy New England evenings one only hears about in taverns filled with old, salty sailors recounting days gone by (unless you've lived in Oregon, as I have, where it is ops norm), so I decided to take Katrina to the beach to comb for sea junk, mostly filigree shells and pearl plates from clams. I have found some pretty interesting things, like glass beads and whatnot...just little treasures I make things out of.
But tonight, with the waves pounding the sand in that rush the leaves one longing to feel the roll of the sea beneath their keel, we walked the soggy sand and I felt foreboding. I looked down and couldn't understand what I was seeing.
There was a...lumpy, gray, clay-like film on the surface where the tideline was, balled up in chunks in some places and strewn like clam waste in others. I stared at certain spots for a long time, trying to decipher this new entity. I batted at a chunk with my shoe. With the damp of the shrouding mists surrounding me, I could make out a scent...light, but there. It reeked, for lack of better description, of death.
Then I found the largest, bloated white rat I have ever seen and said enough. Kat and I left immediately.
When I got home I found the gunk had grafted itself to the bottom of my shoes. The scent that had delicately, yet forebodingly, hung on the air was now overpowering in the usual apple cinnamon aroma that fills my home. I put Kat to bed, worked on a short commission for a friend (see below) and then took to combating the sickly stuff on our shoes by scrubbing them in the bathtub.
It took not only bleach, Comet, a sweet smelling shampoo that I threw away afterward AND spray-freshener, but even that I think didn't completely work. And I just scrubbed my tub to the point I can't even wear my ring for all the chemical burns I earned from this little escapade. It was like everything that stuff touched it destroyed. What WAS it? It again was like...wet cat litter, but reeked like a thousand sea creatures of various nature had died. It was worse than the smell of a human body after it had been floating awhile..believe me, I should know.
Anyone got any ideas?
So I say to you, all...we have but ONE Earth. Let's try to keep her clean, shall we?
Yeach.
P.S. - I've got a great idea for a novel. Ask me about it sometime.
No comments:
Post a Comment