The Wonderful Smell

There is a wonderful smell that hovers between the ballet studio and the Intiman Theater as I walk to and from work each day. I have tried and tried to identify it, and I don't think there's a single type of plant or tree that I haven't sampled and crushed in my hand to try to find the source of the smell. (My olfactory ventures sometimes result in the discovery of a human sleeping like a deer in the autumn leaves, but I can usually sniff him out well before any actual intrusion.) Sometimes I stumble upon it in other places, but I can never find its source. And now the season is ending and the smell has been getting fainter. This morning I couldn't smell it at all. But then our 8 o'clock appointment came in with orange lipstick smeared all over the lip of her Tully's cup...and she smells for all the world like the smell! Now, I enjoy guessing at the various scents that people carry, but I never ask the temps what perfume they use. I could not resist asking this one. She said she wasn't wearing perfume at all, but that I was probably smelling her Herbal Essences shampoo (probably rose or strawberry, she said). People often bear the unique Seattle outdoor smell when they come in here, and I wonder if the magical smell is some kind of aeri-alchemical melding of many sources, arising spontaneously when the mix is just right.