Perfume

Chapter Nine - Unplanned

~     Bella     ~

"Before most of the plants were killed," I continued, "Before the great deforestation  happened. Before he ruined it all."

     "Who is this he you're talking about?" Linden asked.

     I grinned. "I'll get there in a minute." I closed my eyes, the grin leaving my lips. Letting the memories flood back, fill me up. "This story I'm about to tell you, Linden. This story has an unhappy ending. Or an unhappy unending, as it doesn't really end."

     "I'm fine with that." Linden looked at me, his blue eyes bright. He walked toward me and put his hand on my shoulder as the picture in front of me changed. In the new one, there was a woman with dark hair. Brown eyes, heart-shaped face. Her hair was up in a bun and a strand fell messily on her forehead. She was holding a little girl of seven. The girl had white blond hair that spilled over her shoulder and framed her face, her emerald green eyes, a smiling mouth.

     "That's you," Linden said, gesturing toward the little girl.

     I nodded. "And that's my mother."

     "You look different...your hair...your smile..."

     "It's been a few years," I said. "Eight, to be exact..."

If I were to point out a specific point of start, I would say it was the day we got the news.

     I was six and we lived in a small town in Germany. My father and mother were scientists. They worked at a lab in Berlin, a few hours away from our home. Both of them were specialists in plants. More specifically, the Atropa Belladonna. They were quite obsessed with it. I was named after the plant. Bella. 

     I went to schooo, I had friends, I was happy.

     It's been such a long time. I don't think I remember how it was to be happy. How it was back then. 

     I think it was a Tuesday, or a Thursday. I had come from school and Mom and Dad were sitting around the kitchen table. Mom was drinking tea from her favorite mug; one with a green clover on the side. It was chipped on the side, but she still loved it. It's my little piece of Ireland, she would say sometimes. Her best friend had given it to her when we'd moved to Germany for my parents' work two years ago. 

     "Baby," my mother said as I walked up to them, my pink Hello Kitty backpack still on my shoulders. She ran her hand through my hair and gave me a smile. "Bella, honey, there's something we have to tell you."

     She turned toward my father. He was smiling. "Yeah, Bells. 'Member that movie we watched the other day? The one about the boy who lived in that big city in America?"

     I smiled. "The one with the big skyscrapers and the park with ice ring?"

     He nodded. "We're going over there, Bella. We're going to live there. In one of those big buildings, in one of those pretty apartments."

     "Really?" I asked.

     Mom nodded. "Yeah, baby. We're going there in less than a month. We're going to work over there. Aren't you excited?"

     I nodded; so hard that my head almost fell off.

     A man, they explained to, a really, really, really rich man had hired them, along with a group scientists from France, Italy, England, India, and one from Germany, to work at one of his American locations. He owned a cosmetic company and was looking to create a new line of products using Belladonna extract. He wanted the best scientists he could find to experiment with the plant in hopes of coming up with ideas for products.