Beauty and The Beasley

Chapter 27

Bree sniffed and opened her eyes, her senses flooded by the sweetest smell she'd ever perceived. She sat up, her brows creasing in wonder. The smell wasn't that of food or a perfume or even an air freshener.

She pushed the open laptop to the corner, forcing her legs out from under the duvet. She had fallen asleep some time between 4am and 28 different pages of research. She blinked and rubbed her eyes, trudging toward the door to find out where the sweet smell came from.

In the living room, the smell was a tad stronger but when Bree opened the door it became even stronger and more alluring. The hallway was empty and quiet since it was still very early in the morning. Bree suddenly had a very ugly feeling that she might be in another nightmare. She wasn't a very lucid dreamer but she dreamt in high definition - if that was a thing.

She pinched her arm and waited. Nothing happened. She pinched it again - harder, still nothing happened. It was becoming very difficult to tell what was a dream and what was real. She stood there contemplating on whether to go back to bed or look for where the mysterious smell came from.

The sound of a door knob turning made her lean out for a glance. Gaius walked out holding a small transparent tube filled with vaporizing liquid that was strangely bright red.

"Gaius?" Bree called startling the old man but thankfully, he did not drop his mixture.

"Good morning neighbor. You're up early." He greeted. The smile he wore would've been welcoming but Gaius had a nose plug on and so he looked quite scary to Bree.

He had on a white lab coat , huge googles and gloves. He looked like Science Bob but a much more oudated version.

"Yeah!" Bree said eyeing the bubbling red liquid in his hand then gulped. It looked like something that would explode at any minute. "Uh, Gaius, what you got there?"

Gaius laughed quietly and lifted the bottle to his eye level giving it a little shake. "Oh this, it's poppy."

Bree frowned. "Poppy? What's that?"

"A flower plant of the species Papaver, i call them nature's tranquilizers." He answered.

"Poppies!" Bree said wide eyed realizing why Gaius had his nose plugged. Inhaling poppies could cause one to go into deep sleep according to what she'd heard.

"Yes, poppies!" Gaius agreed.

"B-but what do you need poppies for? And why are you dressed like some scientist?" Bree asked.

"Because i am a scientist, botany is also a branch of the sciences you know." Gaius replied gazing at the rainbow kaleidoscope on Bree's top.

"Yeah but what do you need them for?" Bree asked.

Gaius tilted his head, a sad countenance rested on him. "Medicine."

"Huhn?"

Gaius sighed. "Every day i wish i'd gone to medical school but i was told i didn't have the brains for that. Don't ever let anybody tell you you don't have brains for stuff because you do." He sighed again and continued. "I believed that i wasn't good enough so i veered toward the plants because well, i grew up around them. My father was a farmer."

"Uh huhn!" Bree said, her mind half drifting away and wondering why she was talking about plants and med school with her neighbor.

"I always wanted to help provide medicine for sick people all across the world but i never got the chance. So i've been trying to find cures using different flowers and leaves and shrubs. I just want to help."

Bree's heart softened. She realized she had never spoken to Gaius about his profession or anything at all. She would definitely bag worst neighbor of the decade award. Gaius was a very smart man but he spoke very little. He was one of those people who had big dreams but found them crushed all of a sudden. His marriage to Kate only made things worse.