It was pouring. The kind of rain that followed you inside, giving a damp smell to everything and every place. Walking through the doors of the Natural History Museum only exacerbated the sensory assault, with the additional scent of ancient, decaying, animal remains. Creatures that had once roamed the earth, magnificent in their astonishing uniqueness, were now reduced to little more than desperately preserved bone fragments.
What confounded Harm more, was why this of all scents, should bring his erstwhile partner and former best friend crashing through his consciousness. Lord knows, it wasn’t a scent one normally associated with a beautiful woman. If she knew, she would probably either kick him down the stairs, or refuse to speak to him ever again.
However, when he pondered the reaction for a moment, he realized it was perfectly logical. Until now he’d never been here with any one else. Rainy weekends were her favorite time to come and wander through the history of these improbable creatures. He would watch in endless fascination, as she literally scampered from exhibit to exhibit, absorbing the reconstruction of the ancient reptiles.
He came with her, not because the paleontology interested him, but because Mac interested him. It was fun observing her reaction to the displays. If pressed he would admit he enjoyed the occasions with her, more than the more intimate activities he had indulged in with other women. Not that he wouldn’t have liked those indulgences with Mac, but this was a different kind of special moment. It was the one time she actually let down her guard and allowed her own inner person to shine unrestricted. She had trusted him then and relaxed completely.
Wandering aimlessly behind his ward as she researched a project for one of her classes, he was struck by the difference. Mattie was fascinated by the magnitude of the history, but Mac was delighted by it.
Spotting her about twenty feet ahead of him, he turned down the same corridor before letting his mind drift back to Mac. He had no idea why he was torturing himself today, dwelling on the face of a woman lost to him so many months before. But what did it matter, he knew there would never be another so it was of no consequence if he thought of her occasionally. He realized long ago it was at least fifty percent his fault she was gone.
As Mattie took notes on the various exhibits, Harm allowed his thoughts to drift across the mall to the Air and Space Museum. Mac had always insisted they visit there for a while, after he indulged her prehistoric fantasies. For Harm, the first thought to enter his head at the mention of ‘lighter than air’ craft was a Tomcat and its attendant carrier.
He could almost conjure the quickening of a fresh ocean breeze mixed with the smell of jet fuel. Closing his eyes for the briefest second, her face immediately swam into view. Of course, he’d spent many years on a carrier before he met her, but some of his most significant moments in the last eight years had involved her. Even when he returned to flying he kept her picture with him, and she had visited once for Buxton’s trial. No, there was no way around it; she was inseparably molded to his memories of a carrier at sea.
“Harm! Harm, are you ok?” he looked down to find Mattie shaking his arm, a worried look on her face.
“Yeah just….uh….daydreaming I guess.” He smiled sheepishly.
“Thinking of her?” She asked with the ingenuous directness of a teenager.
“What makes you say that?” he dodged answering.
Mattie sighed, “Because you always have that look when you think of her.”
“Mattie,” Harm cautioned patiently, “Go back to your research.”
She gave him a curious look, but returned to her schoolwork. Allowing him, once again, to drift in a world of reverie.
Thoughts of the carrier took his mind to another place, closely associated to their time at sea. The burning desert terrain of the Middle East. As his thoughts wandered, his nose invented the scent of the hot desert air, mixed with the uncomfortable combination of discharged gunpowder, and the heady aroma of a popular native perfume. Instantly her face swam before his eyes, the only face he would ever associate with that combination.
He shook his head to clear the images and remembered scents. It was ludicrous to relate his lovely….lovely what, just what was she now? Not quite friend maybe, still more than co-worker, once almost lover. It was hard to label their relationship, but a fleeting thought crossed his mind. That of the scent he most identified her by. The scent he had bought for her so many Christmases ago.
With the help of a sweet motherly sales lady, they had tentatively picked a perfume for Mac. She had loved it and worn it ever since, never wavering, no matter her personal involvement with another. Mic had tried to coax her to change, but she had rejected his choice, telling him it smelled like fly spray, during a very public disagreement in the middle of Ops.
For all their time together, it was his perfume that identified her. It made her signature essence one of a soft spring morning, coupled with the mild but heady undertone of a warm summer afternoon. He claimed he could always tell where she was. Sometimes when they were separated by impossible distance or barriers, it was more than a little spooky. But no matter how lightly she applied her signature scent, he always knew when she entered a room.
“Harm,” Mattie shook his arm again.
“What squirt, you getting hungry?” he smiled at her indulgently.
“No, JJ wants me to spend the night. Can I?” she looked at him pleadingly
“JJ?” he questioned. Surely she couldn’t believe he would allow her to spend the night with a boy.
“Yeah JJ,” she pointed to a rather tiny waif like creature standing a few yards away. “She hates her name so we call her JJ or Jamie for short,” Mattie whispered.
“I don’t know Mattie, what if it’s not convenient,” he vacillated.
“It is, her mother’s right there, and she invited me,” was the explanation.
Harm looked over Mattie’s head and straight into the duplicate face of a small woman. Extending her hand, she smiled conspiratorially. “I’m Mrs. Jameson,” she introduced herself. “Jamie is named after me at her father’s insistence. I always disliked my name too. Mattie is more than welcome. Can she come with us, or do you want to bring her over later?” Apparently ‘no’ had been ruled out as an option.
“Please Harm can I go?” the teenager begged pitifully.
Harm relented with a tolerant smile. “Ok, but first we go home and get you some clothes, then I’ll take you there. I have an errand to run anyway.”
Forty-five minutes later Harm had watched Mattie pack an overnight bag large enough for an entire week, dropped her at a very impressive residence, and now waited at the perfume counter of a nearby department store. He had five minutes until the store closed, but he knew exactly what he wanted.
Signaling the sales woman, he made his purchase and returned to his car. Almost of its own volition, the little corvette turned towards Mac’s apartment.
He had no idea what he was doing. She was very likely otherwise occupied, or at the very least not interested in his company, but the afternoon reminiscence had fueled this errand, and he would see it through.
He wavered for only a moment before knocking on her door. His hand fell away as it opened on the second impact.
“Harm?” she questioned almost breathlessly.
“Mac,” he returned, uncertain what else to say.
“What’s up….why….um….come in,” she stammered, fearful he would turn and go.
“Here, this is for you,” he offered the gift, shutting the door behind him. He had no intention of leaving.
“But why Harm, it’s not my birthday or Christmas?” she looked confused.
“A little dinosaur told me you were almost out,” he shrugged, “and I figured since it’s the first day of the rest of our lives….”
He didn’t get to finish the sentence because his arms where wrapped around the warm body of a teary-eyed Marine, who had impacted his chest, nearly knocking the air from his lungs.
He buried his face in her hair breathing in her scent. Words were overrated anyway.
End