An unexpected gift

I received a parcel from a strange and extraordinary person. His name is Paul and he lives in London, works in a dental clinic, collects art, is open-minded, spontaneous, irrational, sometimes gives too expensive gifts, and disregards anyone’s interest. We once met him on one trip to Spain and became good friends. 

Paul speaks like a radio – without stopping, hurrying to say everything that is born in his head, without typing polite words, as if he were pushing hard stones – but sometimes with diamonds.Paul hangs his life with a full spoon.

And yet he makes perfumes – a mixture of unusual scents that aren’t for everyone: you have to be the same crazy one to use it.  The smell changes the view of the world, and not everyone wants to take it – something that is uncommon, sometimes difficult, but always interesting. Today I received a bottle of his new perfume. Still thinking, for which occasion I will use this perfume – it is very heavy, maybe I still have to grow up for using it? 

But you know what’s most important here – you can forget a person’s face, words or even a name, but the scent associated with him will always stay in your nose and remind him.

I still remember the perfume of my mom’s youth and recently on the street, I smelled the perfume of a guy who smelled like my husband’s current perfume. And I remember how the island of Crete smells even though it hadn’t been there for some time.

And everything that is my life, I do not want to tear its pages, let it remain full. And the smells are helping to remember it.

© Fortune, 2020