Good and bad

Cheese can be a good smell. I said it can. The aroma of a nice cheddar, melting over some macaroni – delicious, mouth-watering.

Cheese can be a bad smell. Very, very bad smell.

I don’t have the language to explain where such a smell crosses the line from good to bad, though context is probably of paramount importance.

For instance, the same great aroma found in your mom’s kitchen definitely crosses the line when emanating from a boy two sizes too large for his seat, next to you, crushing you into the window, on an otherwise jam packed bus. Feeling his warm and sweaty leg pushing up against yours, feeling every bounce and bobble of the bus transmitted to you through his meaty upper arm… combined with the overpowering odor of cheese, well, I don’t have to tell you that it can be more than enough.

Bad, bad cheese smell.