Excerpt from Current Work in Progress - A Conversation Why Cliff is Back in Town

This is an excerpt from the current work in progress.  

 

“I never told you I was coming to dinner,” Juniper says.

“That ex-girlfriend of Cliff’s is hard to compete with, not that you shouldn’t have won,” Mrs. Johnson says.

Juniper smells vanilla in her apartment. The odor reminds her of a terrible date in college, a perfume she wore.  She connects it with stress of any kind, like the conversation about Cliff's ex. Maybe this kind of chat is to blame for the reason she hallucinates the scent and why it has expanded to include coconut and caramel.

“Fine.  Why is he back in town?” Juniper asks.

Though she isn't sure she wants to hear the answer.  She doesn't want to add any more to her growing list of worry.  And she doesn't want to imagine a world where a boyfriend Cliff might want her back.

“She broke up with him.”

The odor of vanilla, a hint moments ago as if someone had lit a candle in the kitchen where Juniper stood has now enveloped the room and smells like caramel apples roasting at the last fair she'd ever went to, and all the places she could never have imagined sticky goodies being in her apartment like underneath the couch, behind her pillows, and buried deep in boxes of clothes she never wears, these are the spaces she imagines treats.  Juniper shuffles around the room (she’s still on the phone) listening to her mom go on about the dinner, but she’s not hearing everything mom is saying.  She remembers more about her awful date in college.  They talked about amusement parks but they did not go to one, and other than that, she isn't sure why she sees a fairground in her thoughts or why candies she did not buy show up from out of nowhere.  Her eyes are on the bag of Brach's in her sock drawer, and she asks, “Do you know what a hex is?”

“Is that some kind of curse?  We played with ouija boards in high-school. Is it like that?” Mrs. Johnson says.

“How much does your psychic charge?” Juniper asks.

“Free,” Mrs. Johnson says.

“Isn’t he the guy Emily’s mom used to date?”