Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ The Smell of Spring ❯ Chapter 1

Claimer: This is an original piece of fiction and all characters and concepts contained herein belong to me. So there.

 

The Smell of Spring

by LadyLark

 

~*~

 

Akiko stepped into bright afternoon sun. Midterms were finally over and she was looking forward to the vacation her fellow students called spring break. As an exchange student from Chiba University, her schoolyear was set up differently. This would have been the end of the schoolyear in Japan. Here it was just the middle. It took some getting used to.

 

She had chosen to spend her junior in the U.S. to improve her English skills. As a Journalism Major fluency in the language would be invaluable. She chose her exchange program based on the name of the town the college was in, Mount Pleasant. She loved mountains and seeing them daily would soothe her when she was stressed out from her studies.

 

When she had gotten to the campus, she thought the official from the school had made some kind of mistake. There were no mountains anywhere. Just fields upon fields of farmland with an shallow river cutting a path through the flat land.

 

Still the campus itself was quite lovely and the large expanse of clear skies were nice to look at. She was also surprised that the air was cleaner here in the country and winters were so cold and crisp that you could easily smell the snow. It was quite a shock.

 

Akiko took a deep breath and then promptly gagged as a terrible stench assaulted her. It smelled horrible, like a mixture of sewage and rotten food. Disgusting! She brought her hand up to cover her nose. “What is that smell?” she exclaimed.

 

One of the girls from her class stopped next to her. “It's shit.”

 

Akiko blinked at the profanity her hands lowering to her sides. “I do not understand.”

 

“It's spring, and the farms around here are spreading manure in preparation for planting,” the girl explained.

 

“But those farms are far away from us. Why are we smelling it?”

 

Shrugging diffidently, the girl wrinkled her nose. “It's the wind. It blows the shit stench straight to us. The locals consider it one of the first signs of spring.”

 

“It is a very stinky sign.”

 

The girl laughed. “You can say that again. Look, you'll get used to it. The smell only tends to last for about a week or two and after the first day you don't really smell it anymore.”

 

Akiko shook her head in disbelief. “You must be mistaken.”

 

“Nope. I grew up here trust me on this, I know what I am talking about.”

 

“American noses must be very different from Japanese noses,” the Japanese girl said slowly not wanting to offend the other girl.

 

“Maybe. I gotta run. Got class in a few. But give it a few days and you will see what I mean.”

 

Giving the other girl a wave, Akiko couldn't stop her head from shaking. She didn't know how the people could stand it. She was just glad that Spring Break was in a few days and she could get away from the horribly smelling winds.

 

~*~

 

AN: Based on a real life exchange held by my Japanese roommate my freshman year and some people in our dinner group.