Chet The Dog

Posts Tagged ‘Scents and Sensibility’

Beginnings (More)

On Sundays we’ve been doing beginnings – all the Peter Abrahams books in chronological order, including those written under the Spencer Quinn pen name. Here from 2015 – #34, SCENTS AND SENSIBILITY, most recent in the Chet and Bernie series – which can be read in any order (see Bureau of Imagination Regulation section 18, subsection 22). HEART OF BARKNESS comes July 2.

[“Light-hearted, humor-filled…the ending of this book is especially touching. Most readers will want to read it over (and maybe over yet again, to be sure they are understanding it). It’s beautifully written and very emotional.” (Examiner.com)]

Home at last! We’d been away so long, first in swampy country, then in a big city – maybe called Foggy Bottom – that confused me from the get-go. Is there time to mention the air in both those places before we really get started? Soggy and heavy: that sums it up.

Where were we? Was it possibly … home? Yes! Home! Home at last! Our home – mine and Bernie’s – is on Mesquite Road. Mesquite Road’s in the Valley. Quite recently I might have heard that the Valley’s in Arizona, but don’t count on that. What matters is that right now I was inhaling a nice big noseful of Valley air. Light and dry, with a hint of greasewood and just plain grease: perfect. I felt tip top. Bernie opened our door, kicked aside a huge pile of mail, and we went in.

Saw A Septic Truck This AM …

… and thought of this, from SCENTS AND SENSIBILITY:

Real slow, lights off, we drove down the dead end street. I picked up the smell of the canal, which had nothing to do with water, by the way, the canal being empty except during monsoon season. Pee, mostly human, is the normal canal smell, in case you’re interested. There are times the whole world pretty much smells of human pee. What a life!

On Beauty

As for Bernie’s big crooked nose: What’s it for? Just beauty? Is that enough? I tried to think about that, got as far as: Why not? Hey! Beauty was enough!

(from SCENTS AND SENSIBILITY)

Chetspeak on Sunday

Continuing in our beginnings series, here’s SCENTS AND SENSIBILITY:

Home at last! We’d been away so long, first in swampy country, then in a big city – maybe called Foggy Bottom – that confused me from the get-go. Is there time to mention the air in both those places before we really get started? Soggy and heavy: that sums it up.

Where were we? Was it possibly … home? Yes! Home! Home at last! Our home – mine and Bernie’s – is on Mesquite Road. Mesquite Road’s in the Valley. Quite recently I might have heard that the Valley’s in Arizona, but don’t count on that. What matters is that right now I was inhaling a nice big noseful of Valley air. Light and dry, with a hint of greasewood and just plain grease: perfect. I felt tip top. Bernie opened our door, kicked aside a huge pile of mail, and we went in.

“Ah,” said Bernie, dropping our duffel bag on the floor. I did the first thing that came to mind – just about always my M.O. – which in this case meant sniffing my way from room to room, zigzagging back and forth, nose to the floor. Front hall, our bedroom, Charlie’s bedroom – mattress bare on account of Charlie not being around much since the divorce – office, with the circus-elephant-pattern rug, where I actually picked up a faint whiff of elephant, even though no elephant had ever been in the office. I’d had some experience with elephants, specifically an elephant name of Peanut, no time to go into that now. The point was: somehow I was smelling elephants in the office. Had to mean I was on a roll. Chet the Jet!