“A strange breeze rustled through the clearing, temporarily overpowering the stink of trash and muck. It brought the smell of berries and wildflowers and clean rainwater, things that might’ve once been in these woods. Suddenly I was nostalgic for something I’d never known.”

— Rick Riordan, The Lightening Thief

She took her smoke break in the alley. It smelled like garbage and piss, but she preferred it to the busy store front, she didn’t want to have to smile at strangers. Normally, she would talk with Ol’ Jeff, the homeless man who lived behind the dumpster, but he wasn’t around today. Probably begging on the street, she thought. The trash started blowing around like a tornado in the wind and the smell was somehow sweet. Something about it reminded her of childhood, of running around in the back yard, but she couldn’t remember more than that. Something seemed to be missing from her memory. She walked down the alley to find the source of the smell, but it was just a dead end. Something was certainly missing….