The "Set Up" or Do You Smell That? (Part II of III)

Parts II and III have been difficult to formulate in my head.

I've struggled (and resisted a bit) to put it in writing at all. 
  
My experiences have been hidden away in my heart for several years now...goose-bump moments that I've shared with only a few select people.


To keep it precise in prose...will always be a challenge for me. 

To not come across as a complete nutcase...will be a miracle.



 Rewind again....this time to Summer 2002.  It was a typical workday for me at the MN Landscape Arboretum Development office.

Originally designed to be a photographic dark room - there were no windows - and no doors directly to the outside. 

You might think it a negative (no pun intended) place to be stuck working considering the Arboretum's beautiful gardens - but I was okay with it.   It was one of the few places in the building in those days with A/C.

The fact that I was in a windowless room was significant - as I was suddenly 'bombarded" by the intense smell of the exhaust of a small putt-putt boat motor. 

It was "that" smell...the one that transports me back to the lake...and the loss. 

I asked my co-worker sitting across the room - "Do you smell that?"
She didn't smell anything unusual. 

I was so insistent that she came over to my desk and sniffed around - like any good friend would do - really trying to validate that I wasn't losing my mind. 
Still - she just didn't smell what I was describing.


It lasted about a minute or so - and then it was gone. 

But the seed was planted, the memory jogged, the stage set...

...for a very special "message" I would receive two nights later.