Lisa's Discovery

Rotting, putrid, an order so pungent and repulsive, it caused Lisa’s stomach to churn. Death. That was the only way to describe it. The smell wafting through the kitchen window had Lisa turning up her nose, and slamming the window shut with a loud thump. She stood on her toes peering out into the yard, craning her neck to see what it could be, to no avail. In the middle of making dinner, she figured she had time to investigate as the potatoes boiled on the stovetop, but until then, she wasn’t heading outside.

She busied herself with the side dishes, checking the pot roast for tenderness, lowering the fire on the burners, and even the smells of her delightful homecooked meal couldn’t cover whatever dead thing lay outside that window. It made its way inside the house and she closed the window too late. She leaned against the countertop, willing the potatoes to boil so she could search the yard for the carcass and dispose of it properly, not that she was excited to go and do that.

The boiling began, spilling onto the stovetop and hissing across the hot metal.

“Crap,” Lisa said, quickly turning the burner down and popping a lid on the pot.

With that done and the corn ready to go, she headed to the attached garage. This would take a few good tools. She put on her gardening gloves and grabbed a shovel and a small waste basket. If she’d been thinking, she would’ve snatched a mask from the kitchen drawer, after Covid masks were plenty.

Slipping out the side door, she dragged her gathered equipment with her, taking a deep breath of fresh, clean air before tackling this nasty task. Rounding the side of the house, she moved over the lush green grass to the window where the stench had come from, not seeing anything out of the ordinary. Her flowers stood tall and colorful, Tulips in every color flirting with the sun's warmth.

She crouched, reached out, and pushed stalks from side to side, thinking it could be a small animal with a prominent odor, but nothing. The smell seemed to evaporate the longer she stood there.

“What the hell?” she said, turning in a circle, and scanning the yard. Had she imagined it? No, it was too dominant. She walked toward the center of the large yard. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, out of place, and she didn’t see any animals moving around that would grab her attention.

Giving up, she carried the garbage can to the garage, put the things away, and headed back into the kitchen to finish preparing her meal. Once through the door, she saw her husband, Fred, standing over the pot roast, fork in hand, and a big piece of meat two inches from his mouth.

“Fred! You couldn’t wait another ten minutes?” she scolded, shooing him away from their dinner.

He laughed, and popped the meat into his mouth, chewing noisily. “Nope. You know it’s my favorite.”

“I’ll put the corn on now, it shouldn’t be too much longer,” she said.

“Where were you?” he asked, setting his fork in the sink.

She shook her head. “Out back, there was a terrible smell.”

Fred started laughing. “Noticed that did you?”

“What?” Lisa couldn’t believe it. How did she not pass him outside? “What was it? A dead squirrel?”

“You know that new bug spray I wanted to buy?”

Lisa closed her eyes. A bug spray that smells like death. Fantastic. “Yeah.”

“Well, none of the reviews said it smelled like rotting critters and once I started spraying outside the kitchen, I knew you’d be pissed, so I stopped.”

“Good thinking.”

Lisa returned to her dinner preparation, thankful her husband knew her well.





WC: 628

Prompt 13. Begin a scene with a non-visual sense. Describe a specific sound, smell, taste, etc to capture your setting, then expand the story out from there.