A Woman's Place
Novel, A
Chapter One Had I been a superstitious sort, I would have taken the smell as an omen. I had wanted the morning of our leaving to be smooth and now it was down to the wire. The last thing I needed was Dennis annoyed.
But I was a trusting soul. Entering the kitchen that October Friday, I sensed nothing of the broader picture. All I knew was that something had gone bad. A rank smell sullied what should have been the sweetness of fall--the scent of crisp leaves drifting in from the backyard, cranberry candles on the glass table top, a basket of newly picked Macouns.
I checked under the sink for fishy paper from last night's scrod, but the air there was fine. Same with the inside of the oven. Nothing hit me when I opened the refrigerator, still I checked the milk that my daughter too often left on the counter, the chicken that was ready for Dennis to eat while we were gone, the cheese bin where plastic wrap might hide something fuzzy and blue.
Nothing.
But the odor remained, offensive and strong, another glitch in a godawful week of glitches. With a husband, two young chil ... read full excerpt from A Woman's Place ebook
