Diana
The Flower Scent
1974, United States of America
You disturbed me at first. With your big blue eyes and your lilac fragrance. Where did you come from? Why did you ensnare him, fascinate him so much? What was it about you? Was it your fragrance, that familiar smell? Why did you smell that way?
I noticed it the moment I smelled you on that ship so many years ago. Small particles in my nose. For a moment, I felt as if I had been transported through time. No, it can't be her, I thought. But didn't it make sense after a while? The way he loves you. How much he loves you. With such passion.
At first it disturbed me to no end.
Did he smell it? Surely he could sense it, from your smell alone. That had to be why he was and still is so drawn to you. A memory on the winds of time.
On that ship, when no one was around, I broke down crying. That lilac scent. So familiar to me. That lilac scent means home. Lilac was everywhere when I was growing up. She loved lilacs. She would drape lilacs over me when I was small and sleeping. I woke up to that smell every day. And when I hugged her, she smelled of them.
When he hugged her, he must have smelled them, too. They must have become his favorite smell.
Until the lilac scent wore off on me, he couldn't hug me. Then I started to smell like lamb's wool and evergreen. Then he hugged me, and he cried. He'd look into my eyes, kiss my small nose, and hug my small form until I asked him to stop.
I didn't know why then, but I know why now. I am his child, and he loved my mother so much, and he loved my mother's lilac smell.
But now the lilacs remind him of you. Or maybe they remind him of her.
Because I knew, the moment I smelled you, that you are her.
Your body is different, but your looks are the same. The look in your big blue eyes when you are disappointed. The far away sad look. The dead smile. These are all her's, and studying you with him, I can understand why they were her's.
When I was growing up, she missed him. Every time she held me, she was holding him.
You may not remember your time with him. But something in you knows. I know you want him back. You are just confused now.
You will remember some day. The lilac scent on your soul is the memory that will bridge the gap.
You will be my mother again, Josephine.
Some day.