Meaning Well

After being sick for a week, it felt good to get back to work.  A strong antiseptic smell hit me as I sat at my desk. I noticed someone had arranged my pens by height and color in a ceramic cup divided into four sections.  Wrestling the antiseptic smell was a pine-citrus-vanilla-lavender-vomit aroma I traced to a pouch in my desk drawer.

“Do you love it?” Daniel asked sticking his head into my cubicle. Daniel showed me a spray-cleaner that left behind a germ-killing film. I’d found the source of one smell. The cup was also infused with the stuff. He told me not to worry about paying him back the $150 he’d spent on it, unless I really wanted to. I really didn’t.  

Daniel sniffed the air and made a face. Opening a drawer, he extracted a pouch, holding it in a tissue from a box on my desk. He sprayed the inside of the drawer.

Later that day Drivel came by to see if I liked the potpourri he’d put in my desk.  “It’s from The Traveler. He believes processing anything destroys its essence.  His potpourris are sun-dried on slopes facing north and never touch anything plastic.”   Drivel had found a new guru, one without a sense of smell.

After Drivel left, I got a fan from the supply closet to air out my cubicle.  I might have been annoyed, but they meant well, and sometimes that’s enough. 

Today I will be grateful for people who mean well.

Burnout Training ©2018 by Ken Montrose

Burnout Training is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and anyone you might know is purely coincidental.

Other works by Ken Montrose are available at: www.greenbriartraining.com https://www.pinterest.com/kenmontrose/mt-rose/