The Scent of Love-1

Chapter 1

Standing below the Grand Mom Tree in the Rajaji Park, Albert eyed lazily the surrounding greeneries. Seeing the flowers, the rusted old metallic chairs, and the couples who sat on them, he imagined that some of his looming memories were engaged in playing Hide and Seek below the tree trunks and between the flowering plants and creepers. It was a drop of water that fall on his face, as the harbinger of the rain, woke him up from his thoughts.

Albert’s memories traversed back while his eyes scanned the surroundings. Exactly three years back, when he sat waiting at one of those metallic seats, it had been drizzling slightly. That was a soothing, romantic, but pitiful touch of wetness. The couple who sat at the next chair rushed to their vehicle before the flimsy hands of rain could catch them.

That day, Albert with contempt in heart, remembered the agony of not seeing his girl. When he rang up her fully agitated, she picked the phone and said casually and mockingly,

“Can’t you see Albert? It is raining heavily. How could I come outside now?” 

Hours long hopeful wait just shattered. It is like that! When you desire something for long with full of confidence and trust, you would not be able to cope with reality after it is lost. You will still be waiting, but that wait will be an agonizing one, never as sweet as you felt it before.

Remembering those three years old love-stricken times he spent with Mili, Albert remained in the rain that just attained force. It was rain that took his memories three years backwards. Nature always has that wonderful ability to make our memories sway between past and present. He didn’t feel to rush to find a shelter of any of the nearby shops, or in the comfort of his car parked some yards away at the public parking slot. Some years back, he was full of joy irrespective of the seasons, though he wasn’t a financially comfortable person like he is now. But now, the fortune he earned has made him a lazy guy.  All wet in the rain, Albert sat there on the half wall at the entrance of the park. At a distance, he could see the old metallic chair that he used to frequent with Mili during his first years in that city.

Albert learned, apprenticed and became a master in the Advertising field. He was a trainee copywriter in the beginning, and later was appointed in the video division of the same advertising agency.

Albert remembered the day, when a pretty urban girl wearing specs stepped into the shooting floor with some other boys and girls of the same age. She was cast as one of the several models; to pose for a photo shoot as part of a national ongoing media campaign about the importance of putting one’s vote.  She had a face that missed smile very badly, as Albert had observed at the first sight. She used to fondle her straight golden hair over and over again. Hair golden locks scattered all over her face, when she threw her face to the other side pompously. 

Albert had to brief about the assignment to all models individually. When the girl who caught his immediate attention was called, he found that he was being stared by two piercing eyes of her. It was the girl, Mili! When he tried to smile at her, she just nodded posing a grim face. From the moment Albert saw her, he noticed that the girl had a chewing gum in mouth. She might have been using it to make her appear cool and headstrong. When he tried to intimidate her by breaking into her personal zone, the intense aroma of the chewing gum pierced his nostrils. 

Mili was excited, when she was given an overview of the pose that she needed to apply for the photo shoot.  Albert noticed that she had a sensually stimulating womanly aroma, and he found it as a fragrance. The mixed smell of her chewing gum and the smell of her pheromones loafed around him, and tickled his olfactory glands even after she left.

 During the shoots, Albert glanced at her standing behind the shooting crew. When she posed to the suggestions by the director and photographer, she looked at Albert for his approval nod. 

(To be continued) (An attempt to write online novels)