03/25/2014 Prompt: Scents, fragrance, smells, odors

Helen turned to Peter as he and Andrew entered the kitchen.  “Peter, have either of you seen Bobby?”

“No, not since the Bride & Groom made their get-a-way.”  Peter laughed. “Mart was so sure that he had the perfect hiding place to stash the car so it wouldn’t be all decorated with shaving cream, streamers and old shoes.  When Andy and I dropped them off at the old schoolhouse, Mart was so aggravated, he couldn’t even use his $1000.00 words once he saw  his precious car.”

“Well, Bobby’s up to something.  Day before yesterday he asked me to get several boxes of frozen shrimp.”

“But Helen, he is allergic to shrimp. That was a heck of a scare after that last time he ate them and then he couldn't breathe. I wouldn’t have thought he would ever go near them again.”

“Yes, I know.   No,  he swore that it is for a science project. He promised me he  would wear gloves, and that he wouldn’t eat it.  I got the boxes, but I barely had room for them in the freezer,  because of all the food for the rehearsal dinner."

Helen muttered to herself, "I don’t know why I didn’t question him having a science project in the middle of summer."

She continued her recital to Peter, "The boxes were still there yesterday, when I was taking out the food to set up for the rehearsal dinner last night.   But just now, I went to put the top tier of Mart and Diana’s wedding cake in the freezer until they get back from their honeymoon and the boxes of shrimp are gone.  So they disappeared sometime in the last twenty-four hours.”

“Hmm, you know?  There was a clear bag of trash at the school house and it had empty shrimp boxes in it.  I thought maybe someone had bought the shrimp as bait to go fishing.”  

Helen turned to Andrew, “Andy,... Andy!  Whats the matter?  Peter call 911, it looks like Andrew is having a heart attack!”

Andrew waved Helen away.  “No Helen, if I die, it won’t be from a heart attack, it will be from laughter.”  

Andy chortled. “That young scamp must have been hiding in the bushes the other night when Matt was telling me about a fraternity prank he was part of years ago.  

It seems, that some fraternity brothers put frozen shrimp behind the hubcaps in the wheel wells of the tires of a newly married fraternity brothers car.  The bride and groom started smelling unpleasant odors a couple of hours into their wedding trip, and couldn’t figure out where the smell was coming from.  They tried everything they could think of to get rid of the smell...even had the car detailed.  But no-one thought to check the tires, until one morning they awoke to find the car surrounded by cats huddling at each tire.  They finally took off the hubcaps and found the rotting shrimp.”

Tears were pouring down Andy’s face, and Peter and Helen couldn’t help joining in the laughter.

Their hilarity was interrupted by the ringing of the phone.  When Helen answered, she heard Mart saying, “Moms, tell Dad this is an emergency!  Something is wrong with the car.  It smells like a fish trawler and we can’t figure out why. Please!  Someone bring us another car and take this one to the shop.  We can’t start our honeymoon smelling like fish everywhere we go!”