1 - Lily of the valley or Jasmine?
Juno carefully watched the two bottles placed before her, focused, unflappable. Her tongue clapped against her palate with dissatisfaction: she couldn't choose, and she didn't like it.
Frowning, she grabbed the two flasks, one in each hand, and closed her eyes. With a confident and even professional gesture, her thumbs brought down the caps that fell limply along the glass only held by a thread. First, she carried the left vial at her nose, taking slow breaths, impregnating herself with the floral scent that emanated from it and then, she repeated the process with the second recipient.
Lily-of-the-Valley or Jasmine? Jasmine or Lily-of-the-Valley? This was the question which had been nagging her for almost an hour, leaving her no rest. She was used to difficult choices, creating a perfume was an art, an exact science, not a common game of chance. She knew, she understood all the methods and smells better than anyone else. The young woman was recognized in the world of perfumery. Because yes, Juno was an expert, an exceptional perfume designer!
It was for this specific reason that she felt so tensed at this moment: she had never hesitated before. When she met her clients, the recipe of her perfumes was written by itself in her mind. Juno smell what matched the best to the people who asked her services. After each order, she locked herself, alone, in her laboratory, accepting no presence other than hers to avoid what she called "the parasitic scents." Her colleagues at the perfumery initially thought that the new recruit was self-absorbed. She was the number one student in her school, far ahead of the others, but she remained an inexperienced young woman. However, they had finally come to the conclusion that Juno had a gift. Since then, they left her alone whenever she prepared her magic potions.
This time, however, her client had destabilised her, listing the fragrances she was used to wear, leaving little room for Juno's inventiveness. Floral odors: jasmine or Lily-of-the-Valley.
Her eyes still closed, the perfume expert was thinking. These hints are too sweet, they don't correspond to Mrs Weber's personality. What if... What if...
Juno opened her eyes wide, a big smile showing her bright white teeth, illuminated her face. She laid the bottles carefully on the worktop in front of her, before rushing to the bottom of her laboratory. She opened the drawers and searched the hundreds of vials in the cabinet. Sandalwood, cedar, birch, ah! Here it was! In her delicate hands, Juno wielded her Grail of the day: Patchouli.
A plant, that was true, but with a woody scent, the ideal aroma for Mrs. Weber: strong, special, unique. It was a bold bet, but Juno wasn’t reckless, she knew that her strict client would make sure that her perfume respected her choices. That was also why she didn't want to give carte blanche to the professional. So, the young woman had to show imagination to propose her recipe without her client feeling deceived. The predominant jasmine, in top note, and then patchouli, in heart note. She knew the two fragrances were perfect together, and Juno was sure of it.
She kept on working in her laboratory the rest of the day and, once the produce was done, she took it to the small shop, where her colleagues were in charge of conditioning it before Mrs Weber came to get it.
Juno put the fragrance draft in its small green box on the counter, accompanied by the tester, required before finalizing each sales. Once the perfume would be validated by the client, the recipe would be sent to the workshops in order to let the liquid mature and offer a finished product ready to be worn by her client.
When she saw her, Anja rushed to Juno, her beautiful blue eyes sparkling with enthusiasm.
"May I? Please, tell me yes!"
Juno liked Anja. She had just finished her business school and got her first job at the small independent perfumery shop where Juno worked. She was always smiling and full of life, a character by which Juno felt well, peaceful. The two colleagues had quickly gotten along and the perfume expert loved to tease the company’s newbie.
Juno frowned, shaking her head feigning dissatisfaction. The young saleswoman, overflowing with enthusiasm, pouted before Juno’s falsely serious air.
"Come on! Just a drop on my wrist," she insisted making eyes at her.
"OK, fine! But only because your request is pure professionalism. And not to wear perfume for free because you have a date tonight, am I right?" Juno winked at her.
"Obviously!"
The two young women laughed with good heart, which earned them the disapproving looks of the clients. Anja raised the sleeve of her sweater and stretched her arm between them. Carefully, Juno laid on her skin a few drops of the elixir so sought. Her colleague rubbed both of her wrists together before carrying them to her face.
"Jasmine," she said in a sight while leaning against the counter top.
She took another breath of perfume and squinted her eyes in an effort of reflection.
"Hmmm... There's something else, right?"
Juno nodded, half smiling.
"I'll let you guess," she answered.
Anja was thinking. The mixture wasn't that easy to guess. After a few minutes, her nose still stuck on her forearms, Anja raised her head and mouthed silently : Pat-chou-li.
Juno congratulated her, "Well done, you're a fast learner young padawan."
"Thank you, oh my wise and old master Yoda," Anja feigned to bow before her mentor.
"Don’t get excited, I’m not green and wrinkled yet."
Anja reached out and gently lifted her colleague’s hair:
"Maybe, but you’re starting to have fur on your ears."
Juno put her hands on her head while sticking out her tongue to Anja.
"Hair, this is called. Much to learn, you still have," She replied by imitating the voice of the Jedi Master.
Their laughter echoed again in the small shop. This time, one of the clients replied with a loud "shhh" that made Juno rolled her eyes. This was why she preferred her laboratory, at least there, no one judged her.
"It's 6.pm," announced Anja after glancing at her watch, "I have to close the shop."
Juno nodded, and after waving goodbye, she took her things and left the store.
She rushed to the Grands Boulevards under a pouring rain. With her head down, trying to protect herself with her purse lifted over her, the young woman hurried to the nearest subway station. Once dry, she took a mask and covered the bottom of her face with it, to try to reduce the ambient odors.
When the subway arrived at the platform, she rushed inside with dozens of other passengers. She stuck herself in a corner of the car and fixed her earphones to her ears, increasing the volume of her music so that she could think about something else. Her sharp sense of smell was seen as a gift, but it could also be a curse in some circumstances and unfortunately for her, public transport was part of that. Because, in addition to the smells of sweat or pollution that was more intense for her than for any other human being, Juno’s abilities allowed her to perceive other scents: those of feelings.
It played tricks on her when she was a child. She even had several appointments with a psychotherapist who, failing to find a realistic answer, concluded that Juno was a child with a lot of imagination. When her other schoolmates had grown tired of her stories and called her a liar, Juno had learned to keep quiet and hide her skills. Only her two best friends, Clémentine and Théo, knew her secret.
As she grew up, she managed to control her sense of smell better and turn this ability to her advantage. She used it every day to perfect her perfumes. Each person had a mood, a feeling that dominated the others, and it was thanks to this that she could concoct the product that best suited them. However, to avoid getting lost in this overflowing of scent, she was careful to surround herself with caring people. That’s why she got along with Anja very quickly. Her good mood and sparkling temperament had a sweet scent, similar to the one she found by her friends and family.
The opposite of that moment, when, stuck in the parisian subway, she inhaled the bad waves of workers returning from their workday: stress, anxiety, doubt, fatigue and worst of all, anger. It was a pungent, heavy perfume, like a thick layer of smoke that engulfed her, burning her nostrils. Juno took all these feelings with full force and even the mask she wore on her nose didn't prevent her from getting nausea.
She held three stations. At the fourth, the young woman ran out of the underground and found herself in the open air. Nevermind if the rain stuck to her frizzy hair, leaving a cold feeling on the top of her head. What mattered to her was that she could breathe a semblance of scentless air.
Juno took off her mask and began to stroll along the quay of Conti. The booksellers were closing their stalls and the passers-by were walking fast, looking for shelter, but Juno was enjoying the view. She liked to watch the rain drops falling on the Seine, creating waves and breaking the tranquility of this natural mirror. The sun was struggling to pierce through the clouds and yet, some faint rays managed to illuminate the bridge of arts, a little further in front of her. It was her favorite view of the city, between the beautiful buildings and the serenity of the river. No matter when she came, the colors that reflected on this landscape never disappointed her and she had the impression of re-discovering the neighborhood every time.
The young woman crossed the boulevard to head for her apartment. As she enjoyed contemplating the storefronts of shops on her way, something stopped her. She had just met a man, but didn't noticed his face, too obsessed with the pastries she admired through the window of a bakery. It was not so much the fact of having met this man that surprised her, but rather the smell of the feeling he gave. She had never felt anything like that. Unlike the sweet effluves emanated by people of good mood or the more pungent perfume of passers-by too hasty, this smell was indescribable to her. It picked at her nose, annihilating every other scents, whether natural or created from feelings. Juno was no longer able to differentiate the usual nuances of perfumes around her.
Juno, stunned by this new sensation, turned around looking for the passer-by who had so confused her senses. Too late. The man, already far away, had disappeared from the young woman’s sig, taking with him this singular scent.
