THE MISGUIDED SENSES 

Short story by Franklin Campusano 

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    Everybody hates Mondays, don't they? This particular Monday was a particularly bad Monday. Specially for Larson Silas, a veteran building inspector. It turns out that waking up at 4am did little for him this day. The morning rush hour is currently at its peak. All the seasoned workers are currently trying to get to New York from the upper state causing a traffic jam that's almost unbearable. 

    The amount of frustration that Silas is experiencing can be compared to a pressure pot filled with boiling water. Mr. Silas is a well-known perfectionist. He would do anything in his reach to make sure that all his plans go according to his calculations. This fact makes this morning traffic jam even more devastating for him. 

   His face is starting to blush due to the anger being built up deep inside of him, his lips are being pressed tightly against one another, his breathing becoming heavier and the glare in his eyes becoming more intense as the long and what seems to be eternal minutes go by.  

    Honking the whistle won't do much, it will just add to the overall frustration of not just him but everyone else. Honking the whistle is just a temporal way to relieve the stress and frustration. Furthermore, this morning traffic jam has nothing to do with the driver ahead of him, he is as much of a victim as he is. Mr. Larson knows better than that. Being a well-educated person and of class, Silas comes to the realization that there's no way he could rush himself out of this, Silas knows he has to wait this out, every single minute of it. 

    The only thing going for Silas at this moment is the fact that he woke up really early today. This because the day before the weather forecast predicted strong rains and minor floods for today. Silas knows deep inside that he will get early to work despite being stuck in this traffic jam. 

    Silas closes his eyes and inhales, letting out a deep sigh. His face slowly starts going back to normal and the glare in his eyes calms down slowly. Silas now having a more controlled temper decides to turn on the radio. Silas then cinchonizes a known news outlet. This news outlet informs of floods around the area surrounding the city of Buffalo. 

    Silas decides to change the to a radio station that plays classical music, after realizing that the last thing he wants to listen to right now is bad news. This sudden calmness that Mr. Larson is experiencing is of vital importance to him because Mr. Larson knows very well that losing his temper here will be catastrophic to him so to speak. 

    The stormy winds carrying watery droplets becomes stronger and stronger, as the minutes go by and in a moment's notice what appears to be a slight drizzle becomes all out rain. A straight up downpour. The visibility of the road becomes dimmer and dimmer as the millions of drops of water descending from the stormy clouds land and splash in the pavement. Only the car lights can be seen from a distance.  Despite this, Mrs. Larson's determination to make it to work in unaffected. 

    This morning rush hour traffic jam lasted for about an hour and a half, the car ride into the city was not the most convenient due to the heavy rain but it was fast and just like Mr. Larson calculated, he got to work ahead of time, in this rainy day. 

    The building he has to inspect today is a very antique building. Is a walk-up apartment complex of five floors. The building is located in the upper east side of Manhattan in what's considered an upper middle-class neighborhood. Upon arrival Larson takes a few minutes to find parking and upon gazing at the building he notices that it is a very bright color pretty looking building. The outer walls are colored Coral, a mixture of wine red with pink. There are a few steps that lead to the outside door which leads to a small hallway that ends with the inside door. 

    In the front door and at the end of the stairs towards the entrance there are two nice pots with what appears to be two bushes in each side of the door. OfCourse, Larson has a special key that enables him to open the front door and enter the outer hallway. This hallway is a contrast to the soft looking bright colored walls of the outside. The outer hallway has two large, bricked walls on each side, with a brick ceiling and a floor made of ceramic tiles, they are creamy white tiles. There are a few packages that have been left by the secondary door which leads to the hallway that hosts the apartments and the main stairs. 

    The rain is even more intense now than it was a few hours ago, now it's about 8:30am. There are a few announcements hanging on the bricked walls directed to the tenants. There are a few promotional magazines with this week's sales from the local supermarket. 

 as well laying on the ceramic floor.

    Silas proceeds to open the secondary door and enters the building proper. Inside, the building looks fairly clean and is very well lit. Larson is here to perform an insurance inspection. He's here to inspect the overall building conditions and to detect potential risks to the tenants and the building itself. 

Larson Silas puts down his heavy suitcase containing his specialized tools, such as his digital camera, flashlight, infrared thermography camera and moisture meter. 

    Upon entering the premise, Larson notices a nice soothing smell of what resembles vanilla, or something related to vanilla. A warm vanilla cake that has been just baked or is currently being baked. The smell of what appears to be freshly baked vanilla cookies that still conserve their warmth. 

    The smell is so soothing, sweet and yet strong. Mr. Larson suddenly becomes immersed in this nice soothing smell; he suddenly smiles and closes his eyes. In his mind he pictures a nice soft vanilla cake with a warm soft fudge with a white vanilla icing. He imagines himself tasting that warm sweet slice of cake which makes him a little hungry. 

    Silas starts looking around to see which apartment the smell is coming from, he looks to his right and left but he can't necessarily pinpoint where the smell is coming from. The smell of vanilla cake is so strong that the entire floor is engulfed in it. 

After a few minutes of this Larson starts wondering to himself if it is too late for him to learn to bake, maybe he could ask his wife Margarita to bake him a nice warm cake. But he remembers that his wife is not as good as baking as his beloved mother Mildrid.

    "My mother..." Mr. Larson uttered, it has been a few months since he has spoken with his beloved mother, a conversation that sadly did not end well. 

    "I was really mean to her." Utters Larson to himself while reflecting on the occasion. "I should have not lost my temper with her." Larson bends his knee to open his suitcase and takes out his flashlight. 

    Despite him trying to focus on the best of his ability, Larson could no longer help but feel nostalgic due to the nice soothing smell of warm cake. He can no longer help but to think about that day, decades ago in his nice childhood villa in Scottland. Where his mother, Mildrid gathers all her children together to seat on the table when she suddenly takes out a nice vanilla cake and places it on the table. She then proceeds to give each of the kids including Larson a slice for them to eat as well as nice warm kiss in each of their foreheads. 

    Upon remembering this, Larson closes his eyes and lets out a deep breath. 

"I should go see her."  Utters Larson to himself. 

    Part of him still has a guilty consciousness for what happened between him and his mother a few months back. He feels guilty for the things he said to her and for not talking to her for all this time. Larson looks outside through the window of the door and sees the heavy rain and thinks of his mom, how lonely she most feel without him visiting him and calling her. 

    Larson goes ahead and inspects the whole building. Before leaving the premise of the building, Larson decides to knock on the first apartment door 1A. This is where the smell becomes the strongest, so Larson assumes that the smell comes from there. 

    Larson knocks two times on the door, after knocking, he hears a female voice say: 

"Coming!" 

    Soon, a middle-aged woman with glasses wearing a pajama opens the door slightly. 

"Hi, can I help you?" 

"Excuse me ma'am," says Larson with a little embarrassment and scratching the back of his head. 

"I just finished inspecting this building, but I could not help myself to ask you about that smell, what is your recipe for the cake?" 

"The cake? What cake?" 

"You are not baking a cake?" 

    The woman lets a gentle laugh. 

"No sir, this is a candle, look." 

    The woman opens her door fully and points to her living room table, there's a massive vanilla scented candle with its lid on. 

"So, it was a candle?" 

"Yes, a candle!" 

    Both Larson and the woman let out a laugh. It turns out this was a misunderstanding. 

"I'm sorry for bothering you mam." 

"No is okay, you should get some candles too for your house, they make it smell really good." The woman says.  

    After the brief laughter and as Larson turned his back away towards the door he says to the woman: 

    "I'll take note of that, thanks for the tip, enjoy your day." 

    Driving back home after work today is a contrast to what driving towards New York was. The road and trees where still wet from the heavy rain. But the sky was a little clearer and the vision was better than in the morning. Also, there's no traffic. Larson turns on the radio and puts country music as he drives home from work. 

    That same week Mr. Larson alongside his wife Margarita drive further into the states, to the countryside of Maine where there's a nice white house with a big garden. Upon knocking on the door, a healthy looking well-dressed old lady comes out and upon seeing who the person knocking her door was, she let a tear out. It's her son, Larson is back. 

"I thought I would never see you again son." She tells her son while hugging him. 

"I'm sorry I was mean to you mom; I promise I will never be mean to you again." Responds Larson while also letting tears out. 

    The couple decides to stay with Larson's mom for a week, remembering the past and cherishing the present. 

      And then Mildrid upon waking up early at a certain day in that same week, prepares that nice warm vanilla cake that it is so cherished among her sons and daughters, the vanilla cake whose sole smell made this family reunion possible. Upon finishing baking the cake with the help of her daughter in law Margarita, Mildrid places the cake in the table. Margarita then  heads to the front porch of the house and calls her husband who's working in the garden. Larson Silas heads over to the house and seats in the table alongside Margarita. 

    Just like decades ago, Mildrid then proceeds to serve both Silas and Margarita a piece of the freshly baked vanilla cake and then serves herself a piece as well. Upon gazing at his piece, Silas proceeds to with his folk to eat a piece of his piece of cake. The cake has the same taste as it did decades ago. 

    "Eating this cake sure brings the good old days back."  Silas utters to himself. 

END