Flash Fiction Saturday: Microwave Chicken

291 words

She looked through her clothes hectically.

‘What is it…’ She whispered through her clenched teeth.

‘What are you looking for?

Her obsessed eyes looked at me with full seriousness.

‘Do you smell it?’

She broke the eye contact and dived back into her cupboard, slipping out of my hands like a snake.

I sat down on the couch of the living room and observed her running from one corner to another through an opened door to our bedroom. It was an evening and it was pretty messy. Focusing her senses, she couldn’t get the thought of something smelling off out of her head.

Her hands quickly opened everything that can be opened, touched everything she could touch, and sniffed everything in her way. Looking like a hound sniffing out a corpse buried 4 metres under the perfectly green lawn of an old victorian house.

Once the bedroom was finished, she moved on to the living room. She was inspecting every inch of this place no matter how private. The air-freshener hissed at her multiple times as she kept spamming air with dust. She hissed back, and continued following her nose. I could not help but start to remember if I forgot to throw out beer bottles some two months back. But a little memory of it gave me reassurance that I did.

While ruminating on my life, I didn’t notice how she slid into the kitchen.

‘Jesus!’ She screamed.

I ran into the kitchen just to be repelled by the ripe stench of rotting flesh. She stood in front of the opened microwave with her hands pinching her nose. Now I could smell it, and I could see it too. The week old chicken meat that has been left in the microwave.

Every Saturday I write a piece of Flash Fiction and I try to describe how the world looks and feels through Highly Sensitive Person’s eyes.

This week I’m exploring smell sensitivity in HSPs. Personally, I don’t get so bothered about different smells, even if they are unpleasant (unless something smells really bad). So, when I was attempting to write up this piece I got a little stuck. Then, I found a blog article of a fellow HSP, that talked about this incident with the chicken and I thought it was funny. And, it inspired me to write this flash fiction.

I suppose for many HSPs smell is important, which is why we love to surround ourselves with things that smell good. After a little observation, I can say that I love smell of sandalwood, rosemary, mint, and coffee beans. Other HSPs have their favourite smells as well, which help them relax or take the edge off.

If you’re not-so-sensitive person, then I would suggest that you keep that in mind when talking to your highly sensitive friend. It can look funny or crazy – this HSPs obsession with smells – but it shouldn’t be judged because that’s who we are.

Thank you for reading my weekly fiction, see you next Thursday for more information about Highly Sensitive People.

Featured image source here.

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