"What Is That Smell"

Starting yesterday afternoon, my office took on a very strange, and quite horrendous odor. It smelled like death, or rotten eggs. I sit underneath a air vent, and I have a pretty piss poor sense of smell, so it didn’t bother me too much. Only when I moved out from under the vent, or first came into the office.

We searched the office for something peculiar. The trash was investigated for rotting foods, the corners and underneaths checked for dead things. Nothing was found.

Today we complained, conjectured and made faces about it. But there was nothing to find as for a cause.

About a week ago, the group who work upstairs from me had complained about bats in the attic. There was some conjecture about whether it was bats, birds, or mice, but measure were taken to get rid of them. Somewhere on the roof there was a slight opening which, it was thought, would be the place to which the bats might enter. A wire cage was placed around the opening and the problem was theoretically solved.

The smell, so went our thinking, might be from a trapped bat/bird/rat from the cage, that has since died. We got a ladder, pulled open the drop ceiling and went to investigate.

Nothing still.

No sign of dead vermin, less stink in the opening. We sniffed around the vent, thinking something might have died in the furnace.

Nothing.

By afternoon I was crazy mad over it. It stunk. It is my office. That’s not right.

We searched in every cranny, and nook. There is a box on one of my cabinets filled with junk from my predecessor. I looked casually in it, but found nothing. Then we noticed some mouse droppings on some papers near the box. I checked again and found droppings on a glove inside the box.

Then I found the mouse, dead, inside this box. Rotting. My office. Dead things, for who knows how long.

I worked amongst the dead.

Gross.