Dante's Fire

Chapter Twenty Four: Jackie

JACKIE

The apartment always smelled of musk in the mornings. Musk and coffee, to be fair.

Jackie consumed coffee like a chain smoker burnt through packs of cigar, seeking out caffeine the exact same way they sought out the sweet flavour of nicotine. For her it was not only a stimulant, it was the one thing that stayed the same wherever she went. Everything else changed, passed, fell apart, but the aroma of mocha in her apartment was something that had become familiar, old, steady like a rock in the middle of a stream. As a person who was unused to stability, it felt good to have this, something somewhat permanent. This was why she noticed the difference the instant she stepped into her living room.

The atmosphere in the small space was awash with a new fragrance that was neither musk nor coffee. It smelled like the outdoors in winter, like snow freshly fallen from the sky. The windows were shut when she went around the house. There was a pot of pinkish wandering Jew plant at her kitc