Jesse
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Appearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Not of the smell.
Not of the isolation.
Not of anything.
I'd been comfortable and content for ten weeks.
But in that moment, standing on the bench outside the relay station, at 8.15 in the evening, with that smell washing over me...
I was afraid the way you're afraid when you round a corner and almost step on a rattlesnake.
Instant.
Chemical.
My hands were shaking before my conscious mind had decided there was anything to be afraid of.
I went inside.
I closed the door.
I closed the windows.
The smell faded to a faint trace that seeped through the gaps in the door frame.
I sat at the console and tried to think.
The rational part of my brain said dead animal, decomposition gases, unusual wind pattern.
The other part of my brain, the older part, said something else.
The older part said leave.
I didn't leave.
I had a job to do and a contract to honor.
and I wasn't going to drive 35 miles to town because of a bad smell.