I feel extremely blessed to be able to travel. Being an
independent author doesn’t leave much of a budget for extracurricular
activities such as traveling. So when my well-traveled audio professional
husband has accrued enough airline miles, I tag along.
Keeping my writer’s eyes alert to the different sights and
sounds of the new places makes for excellent story telling. Oh, even the
various smells.
Okay, so we have to share the world. Most of us must live
around other human beings. Most of us have more than a silent volleyball with
blood-smear features with whom we must share our space.
So elevators. They are small rooms that seal occupants
inside as they ascend and descend to the desired floors. I am consistently
amazed by the level of scent that lingers from the past occupant(s).
For example, in the space of one 24-hour period during our
week long stay at the Courtyard Marriott in Midtown Manhattan, I encounter
three different distinguishing odors. For seven floors. Just me and these
pungent aromas. Coping with these copious aromas involves sparking the
imagination as to who or what brought them into the elevator.
Number 1: Heavy
cologne and perfume. Not bad. Kind of strong and musky for my taste, but makes
me think of a couple all dressed up for a night out in one of the most
extraordinary cities in all of America, New York City. Possibly enjoying dinner
at an elegant restaurant, or cocktails at a swanky club. I personally do not participate
in either of these activities so I use my imagination. Where ever they went,
they will smell good doing it and have a good time…hopefully.
Number 2: Coffee. One
of those aromas you know the instant it hits your nose. Oh the lush roasted,
heady, beany and warm scent. This coffee far exceeds the standard hotel-issue
bags that are stocked in the rooms. I imagine the steaming cups are of an
exotic brew, possible from the deli next door to the hotel, where everything is
fresh and delicious. The person who carried two cups (because the aroma was so
strong) up to their room, perhaps will share this rich warming elixir with
their loved one, on this chilly autumn day…hopefully.
Number 3: Super sweaty
body odor. It was Sunday afternoon, on the day of the famous New York City
Marathon. I had just finished a morning of some light shopping and lunch, and
decided to stow my bag from Sephora in my room, and grab my laptop for a
writing session in the beautiful Rose Main Reading Room in the New York Public
Library (one of my favorite places in NYC). I stepped into the elevator and was
hit with this thick humid and acrid decomposing-ish odor.
My mind flashed to marathon footage I’ve seen of people who
stumble and flop across the finish line like rag dolls because their bodies
were giving out. While I admire the discipline and physical stamina of people
who choose to run marathons, the stench their weary bodies leave behind nearly
made me lose my turkey and cranberry sandwich on artisan bread.
In my effort to try to always remain positive, I imagine a
victorious runner wrapped in the mylar-like blanket knotted at the neck like a metallic
superhero cape, with the shiny metal draped around his/her neck, taking the
elevator (what, not the stairs?) to their room to take a long, hot
Silkwood-scrubbing-scene shower…hopefully.
Even in light of strange odors, new experiences in a town or
region where you don’t live are invaluable. Some place or situation I have
experienced somewhere is good fodder for fiction writing, and fills novels with
life-like situations. And providing interesting and entertaining writing for my
readers is important to me. In my latest novel in progress, the lead
protagonist experienced a similar spiritual encounter I had in St. Ludwig’s
Church in West Berlin, Germany.
So I find joy in all the challenges that arrive in
traveling, even when confronted with the strange and sometimes sickening
elevator odors.
