#29: Happiness
"There now, lad. Just a whiff, you see… that does it… right under the nose… Now, what is it you smell?"
"I don't smell anything."
"Bah! Nonsense! The candle does not lie! It is you who must see. Close your eyes and try again… what do you smell?"
"I smell… it smells like… It smells like leather. And flowers."
"Hmmm… What kind of flowers?"
He frowned, forehead creased under dark, messy bangs. "I don't really know. I think they smell like those," he said, pointing to a bunch of white flowers.
"Ah, those be jasmine. Relaxing scent. Flowery, you might say." She chuckled but it sounded like a cackle. He didn't like it. "What else do you smell?" she prodded, pressing the candle closer to him.
He scrunched his nose. "I don't know what that is. It smells so odd. I have never smelled it before. But it also," he took a quick sniff, "smells like sugar? No… like cinnamon. I'm not sure. It's sweet and bitter at the same time."
"Hmmm," she said, raising a thin eyebrow. "Anything else?"
This time, he took a deep breath. "It smells very… I'm not sure. I can't describe it, but it reminds me of my brother. I don't know what that means."
"That makes sense," the woman said, but he didn't understand at all. She was very old, older than Mrs. Thornton even, with white scraggly hair and a very pointed nose and was dressed in a long, red dress that clung to her loosely. He didn't like her and he wanted to go away but she had beckoned him over to her stand and told him she would give him a gift. He had yet to receive anything and now he was getting annoyed.
"I have to go," he said, and it was true. They had been at port for two days now and the ship was set to leave at noon. His brother had recently been promoted to Naval Lieutenant and had procured him a job on the ship as a cabin boy. He wasn't sure if he wanted to live on a ship but it was better than living on the streets and at least he could now be with Liam.
"I hope you enjoyed my gift, Killian," the woman said, smiling widely, showing her large, luminous white teeth.
Killian's eyes widened in disbelief. "H-how did you know my name?"
"I know many things," she replied cryptically.
"Are you a psychic?
"I see things."
"Like the future?"
"Something like that."
He gawked at her, bewildered. What if she was a witch? He was intrigued but Liam always said that people who claimed to have magic were nothing but charlatans. Killian wasn't so sure. "I must be on my way, then. Thank you for…" he gestured wildly at the candle. "Thank you."
He turned around and began to walk through the market stands quickly, gaining as much distance from the strange lady as possible.
When he finally reached the docks, he gazed at the grand ship that would now be his new home. It was not one of the more bigger ships he had ever seen but it was elegant and beautiful and it belonged to the Royal Navy.
As he stepped on to the ship, nodding sagely at the crewmen, the woman's words whispered inexplicably through his mind…
"Boy, would you like to know what your happiness smells like?"