Boombox/ Beatz & Base

I smelled my mother today. A scent uniquely hers- compassionate, light, and affirmative. I smelt familiarity in the halls of this school building. I don't currently live with my mother, so being able to reconnect with something as simple as her fragrance brought alive senses that I hadn't felt in a long time.
I was whisked back to city memories. When I smell her, I remember that city feel. Days where she, my sister, and I would take the bus downtown to spend a whole afternoon at toy stores in the mall; when we shuffled 5 blocks to the corner laundry mat where she washed faded blue jeans and we roller skated on the sidewalk; relentless winter evenings where we'd stay at home and declare our time together "girl's night." I remember scorching summer days when she'd drag us to the playground and we'd zoom down blazing hot metal slides and grasp our tiny hands around fire pitched monkey bars, but no swings- the seats were too hot for our butts to handle. I remember times when she would blast Anita Baker from her living room stereo- loud enough for the whole floor to hear. I remember love between the three of us.
From my time spent with her I gathered visuals from all the experiences we encountered as the "three amigos. " And although I forget some of the specifics from that big part of my childhood, I always hold onto the scent from those days. How our building's hallways smelled slightly of piss, stale manhood, and a stagnant future. How in the mist of these dingy surroundings, my mother carry with her the smell a queen wouldn't be worthy of- I don't know what it was, a perfume or oil, but she had a fragrance that made me feel at complete ease with her. She took with her, wherever she went, an aura that spoke to crowds "this is a big city, but me and my girls are the bigger!" She possessed complete confidence in her presence and this is what I feel most from her smell- strength...a flourishing heart in the big city.