The day started like all my other mornings. I woke up, showered, got dressed, got my stuff, walked to my car, closed the door and started the engine. I suddenly stopped...
Something was wrong. Something… stinks. Something was rotting.
I checked my messy backseat to see if there was something unusual - A .Net book, Blue (my stuffed penguin), air compressor and a bunch of hangers. Nothing. I drove off slowly and saw a garbage truck beside our house. Culprit found. I turned on the radio and sped away. I turned on the air conditioner and got face full of stink. Eww! Luckily the smell only lasted a few seconds and it was back to normal.
Traffic was crazy. Libis was full. Ortigas was jammed. Julius, who was also on his way to the office, texted me and told me he was stuck in traffic as well. I asked him if there was something up today and we assumed it was just “cars on the road” day. I picked up Jaye at her place, went to the office and parked in my usual parking slot. I took out my long sleeved shirt from the back seat and put it on.
There’s that smell again.
It smelled like that garbage truck. You know that liquid that drips on the side of garbage trucks? That’s what it exactly smelled like. It’s impossible that the smell stuck to my tires.
Or is it? Nah. I was then thinking maybe a mouse crawled somewhere and just died.
Jaye took her stuff, I locked the door and we started walking towards the elevators. She gave a small shriek:
“Ewww! Ano yan?”
Something was splattered on my car hood. The liquid dripped down to my headlights and my air vents (which explains why my air conditioner “farted” earlier). There are traces of translucent liquid on my windshield. I checked that pit below my windshield wiper and saw something.
Jaye walked away and coughed in disgust as the smell wafted towards us.
I walked towards it (kunwari macho) to have a closer look.
Something was there. Something was dead. That something was a chunk of meat. Yuck!
Jaye checked and she says it was chicken… chicken fat to be exact. I took one of the old hangers from my backseat and flipped the chicken fat off my windshield. It landed beside the car and I kicked it to a corner so we won’t step on it later. The smell was starting to be irritating. I have something against the smell of rotten stuff which is why taking out the garbage is my least favorite house chore. I threw the hanger into the garbage can in disgust.
Jaye and I left for the elevators as we decided to just have it cleaned later. While in the elevator, the stranger beside me noted that he smells garbage. Uh oh. I smell it too.
Jaye went to her floor and I went to my cube. I worked for a few minutes and immediately I smelled THAT smell again. It’s my shoes. I splashed alcohol on it but it still smelled like a dead skunk. I went to the men’s room and washed my shoes. I went back to my cube and removed my shoes but it now smelled like a wet dead skunk. Something else caught the smell.
Oh no… my pants.
Should I remove… nah.
Maybe it was when I flung the chicken fat. Maybe I brushed against something. I was hopping mad and severely irritated. The smell was driving me nuts and I couldn’t concentrate anymore.
My office cube started to smell like a garbage dump. Tina dropped by and asked something. I told her to step back but she just laughed, thinking I was joking. Julius arrived and I asked him to stay away (which he did after giving me a weird look).
Next came my weirdest excuse for missing work. I just told my officemates that something came up and I just had to go. Never write emails when you're angry (and never promise anything when you're happy). I had a quick lunch with Jaye and went to my car.
Inside the elevator, my 2 onshore friends with there – Leah and Alfred. Yup, they were parked near my car. They didn’t comment but I think they noticed. The section I parked in smelled like garbage! Yuck! I went inside my car and drove off.
Outside, I saw my old officemate JK. I opened my window to say hi but the smell suddenly gushed inside the car as if it was sprayed. JK gave me a dazed look wondering why I would call him then make faces.
Back home, I parked outside washed the car and gave it a big dose of Lysol.
Now comes the interesting part: HOW?
We didn’t get it from the office parking lot since Jaye arranged my windshield wipers before leaving. I didn’t notice anything when I parked my car last night. I did park in front of this house while I brought out the groceries to Jaye’s place. Maybe I got it there. Hmmm… here are the only possible causes:
- A chicken flew into our garage then a cat came and clawed its guts out. The cat didn’t eat the fat since it was on Atkin’s.
- Someone threw garbage while I was driving past a pedestrian flyover.
- Some A-holes placed it there as a prank.
- It fell of a garbage truck on my way home.
- High prices of gasoline (they say it’s the cause of all our problems).
Hmmm… did that garbage truck I saw in the morning has to do anything with it?. If it happened while I was parked at home, why my car and not my brother’s? Why chicken (we didn’t have chicken that day)? Why oh why?
So many questions.
