A walk in the Park

Ahhhh, spring is in the air. At least I think that's spring, smells more like a skunk to me. And believe me, I know skunk! Which reminds me of a story...

You know how they say that the scent most closely related to memory is smell? Well, let me tell you, when the smell in question is skunk, you have a hard time forgetting!

Let's see, the year was 2003. I was pregnant with number three and I'm not sure how far along I was but throughout all my pregnancies I have had a super-human sense of smell. We were living in the 100 year old farm house in Belle Plain and we were always encountering skunks. I was really afraid to go out off the porch at night for fear I'd get sprayed. You know, that's a big fear of mine. I remember growing up hearing stories of how you can't get the smell of skunk off of you unless you take a bath in tomato juice and that just horrified me. That, and Elliott would always tell me about the time that his dad shot a skunk that was right below his bedroom window.....and his bedroom window was OPEN! His room smelled like a skunk and all of his clothes were pretty much ruined. It was ugly.

Everyone has a story, it seems, about their encounter with a skunk and their story is always worse than everyone elses. Elliott says there are layers to a skunk's smell and if you've only smelled one running around your yard or one that's been hit on the highway, you have no idea. It's a totally different smell, he says, with a prideful look in his eye.

Well, back to my story, which I do not in any way claim to be the worst of skunk stories. I'll save that one for another time. Anyway, we were coming home from being at my in-law's house and when we pulled up to our house I knew immediately there was a skunk somewhere in the vicinity. Elliott left the headlights on while he checked the place out. We had a deck that was a foot and a half above the ground and just below that deck was a black and white object moving very slowly. Since it didn't take off running when we pulled up, Elliott knew it was probably hurt or something so he went inside to get his gun. I had gotten out of the car when it was clear this skunk was not much of a threat. Elliott came out of the house, shot that thing and immediately, and I mean immediately, I was hit by this stench, the likes of which I had never encountered before. This overwhelming need to vomit overtook me. Another thing about me and pregnancy is that I have a very strong gag reflex. I could throw up at the drop of a hat. I started to heave, but nothing came of it. I tried to say something to Elliott, but was interrupted repeatedly by the gagging and heaving. I finally managed to tell him that I couldn't sleep there and that we had to go back to his parent's house. I contined to gag and heave the entire 25 minutes it took to get there.

To this day, I am very affected by the smell of a skunk. At this very moment there is a skunk somewhere on our place that is spraying incessantly for no apparent reason. My house smells like a skunk and even the clothes in my dryer stink because that little flap that goes over the dryer vent is missing. It's disgusting. My mouth is watering and my throat is doing that weird thing it does when it's preparing for something to come through in reverse. Ahhhhh, did I tell you how much I love this time of year?