The Beholder

A Short Story

by Mike Ramsey

Robert Michaels woke up that first day as he did every other day, with the coffee maker clicking on at 5:30. He swung his tired legs over the side of the bed, and winced at the stiffness in his back, vowing to never again ride his bike to work and do the yard work in the same day.

“Ah, that first smell of coffee in the morning”, Robert thought to himself. “Smells particularly good today” and he thought back to the last time he bought coffee at the store, unable to remember buying anything than the usual generic brand.

“Wow, this is good coffee” he said. He went to the freezer to look at the label on the can. “Same old brand I’ve been buying for years. Maybe it’s just an abnormally good batch.” Robert finished his usual two cups while watching the news and getting ready for work, relishing the flavor and aroma of this newfound pleasure.

As he locked the door and stepped outside to go to the car, he took in a big breath of the morning air. “It smells so clean this morning. Must have rained last night or something”, but the ground was dusty dry, with cracks visible just beneath the grass, no rain having fallen for weeks.

Robert breathed deeply again and again, noticing a variety of pleasant aromas; bacon from a house the next street over, curry from the neighbor down the block, even the faint scent of honey in the apple-cinnamon oatmeal from the house across the alley. “Funny, I’ve never noticed all those smells before. There must be something weird about the weather today. They didn’t say anything about it on the news. I’ll see if anyone at work has heard about it.”

As he looked up at the sun peeking over his neighbor’s house, Robert was struck by a blazing pink and orange explosion of light that grew in intensity as the moments passed. “I’ve never seen a more beautiful sunrise”, he meant only to think, but startled himself when he heard his own voice saying it loudly.

Robert noticed the next door neighbor picking up the paper from the sidewalk. “Beautiful day, isn’t it? Smell the air and check out the sunrise. Don’t you love it?” The neighbor glanced briefly at the sunrise and took a little breath, then shrugged his shoulders and waved the paper a little as he walked back in the house.

“Man, how jaded do you have to be to not love this day. His loss.” said Robert as he stopped and thought about how nice it would be to ride in to work today. “It’s such a nice day, and I don’t have to be anywhere this afternoon. I think I’ll ride.” He stuffed his lunch in the saddlebags, pumped a little more air in the tires, put on his helmet, and rolled the bike out of the garage and shut the door.

As he swung his leg over and pushed off, Robert noticed that there seemed to be a lot more birds singing this morning than he remembered hearing in the past. He heard the usual bluejays screeching, cardinals whistling, mockingbirds going through their repertoire, and even sparrows chirping, but he could also clearly hear some parakeets inside a house as he rode by, happily twittering away. At that moment, a hawk pierced the air with its call as it circled high overhead. Robert marveled at how much more he seemed to be hearing, and how beautiful the sounds seemed today.

He rode the same streets as always, but the houses seemed different today. Robert cocked his head as he looked intently at the lines of the walls and roofs. “Beautifully designed” he said to himself. “I guess I never really noticed the great architecture in these neighborhoods before.”

Stopped at a traffic signal, Robert noticed the pattern that the lights followed, sitting through several sequences of green, yellow, and red lights. “I’ve got to get going. I can’t sit here and watch traffic lights all day.” Robert was having difficulty concentrating on the road ahead, his head continually turning to admire the curves of the car fenders that passed in the opposite direction.

Almost to work now, as Robert looked off to his right, he saw a beautiful rainbow, stretching all the way from South to North. It was the most perfect rainbow he had ever seen. Robert had to stop, “I wish I had a camera today”. After a few minutes, he reminded himself that he would be late if he didn’t hurry up and get to work.

At the bike rack in front of the school where he teaches, Robert removed all his gear and started to lock up the bike. A bright flash caught the corner of his eye, and he turned to look. A flower, one Robert had never seen before, had just bloomed this morning. The closer he walked toward it, the more it seemed to glow.

As he approached the flower, the sweet scent began to compete with the beautiful image. Robert was torn between simply looking at it, and closing his eyes to smell the sweetness of the flower. He kept alternating between the two, opening and closing his eyes, and taking deep breaths.

Robert walked to the front office and said to the receptionist, “Have you noticed that flower out front? It is the most beautiful flower I have ever seen, and the sweetest smell I have ever known.” The receptionist, curious that she had not noticed it herself, walked outside and looked at and smelled the flower, and walked back in to Robert. “That’s just an ordinary flower that popped up there last night. It might even be a weed. Nothing special. You need to smell more flowers.” She smiled and returned to her work.

Walking toward the stairs to go to his upstairs office, the Principal and Robert hit the bottom of the stairs at the same time. “Did you see that rainbow this morning?” Robert asked. “No, I didn’t. I wouldn’t think there would be a rainbow, with no rain at all. Are you sure?” “Oh, it was beautiful. The best one I’ve ever seen.” said Robert. The Principal rolled her eyes a little as they went in different directions at the top of the stairs.

Visiting the Library, Robert struck up a conversation with the staff there. “Ride your bike again today, Robert?” they asked. “Yes. It was great. Did you notice how fresh the air is today?” “I thought it was quite muggy and dreary, personally.” one said. The others joined in with opinions of how ordinary the day seemed. “And then there was this perfect flower blooming at the front of the school. Did you see it and smell it?” The Librarians glanced at each other, gently shaking their heads, and excused themselves one by one, glancing sideways at each other as they dispersed.

During the first break between classes, standing in the hallway to make sure students didn’t congregate and block traffic, Robert was struck with how the students seemed to be in especially good moods today, even to the point of appearing happy to be there. “Must have been a good weekend”, Robert comments to a Social Studies teacher next to him. “I don’t know which students you’re talking about. They’re all in sour moods and acting like little brats, in my opinion.”, the other teacher answered. Raising her eyebrows, as if doubting his sanity, she walked into her classroom to face the next period.

Stopping in the Science teacher’s room, Robert noticed something different about her eyes. He had never really looked at them before, but they were fascinating. They were the brightest blue, with little specks of green, that reminded him of what the Earth looked like in photos from the Moon. “What are you doing?” the Science teacher asked. “You’re making me feel uncomfortable.” Robert blushed and said apologetically, “I was just noticing how interesting your eyes are. I never noticed before.” The teacher, clearly unappreciative of this type of attention, replied “Um, I’m very busy, and need to get back to work.” “Sorry to have upset you”, Robert offered as he backed out of the classroom door.

“What is going on today?” he said to himself. “Why am I seeing things I never noticed, smelling things I never could, hearing things I always ignored?”

A strange scent interrupted his thought. It was a sweet smell, an almost vinegar-like one. It was faintly familiar, but never this strong before. As Robert walked toward the source, some students and a few teachers began to watch him. Robert slowly walked toward the edge of the building, and looking down, saw the colony of ants that was producing the smell. “That’s it. That’s the sweet scent I was smelling.”

Robert was very pleased. He stooped to look at the ants, and began to notice the intricacies of the ants’ bodies and their behavior. They were elegant and perfectly designed. He could look at them all day, and the smell drew him in. “This must be what pheremones smell like.”, he thought to himself.

By this time, the Principal had heard all the strange things that Robert had done and said that day, and approached him as he squatted, watching the ants. “Robert, what is going on with you? Robert?” He responded slowly after several such demands, almost as if coming out of a stupor.

“I don’t understand why no one else can see the things I see, or hear the things I hear, or smell the things I smell. What is wrong with all of you? Why can’t you see? Are you deaf? Can you not smell these things?”

“Maybe you need to take a little time off.”, the Principal said authoritatively. “Take the rest of the week off, and we’ll work out the details.” “What are you talking about?” Robert challenged. “I’m fine. It’s just that everybody else seems to be ignoring what is right in front of their faces. I’m not the one with the problem here.”

“I’ll see you next Monday. That’s not a request.” said the Principal, ending the conversation. Robert stood up, and looking very confused and embarrassed, walked to his bike and started home.

“Is everybody nuts? Why can they not see and hear and smell all these things that are so easy for me?” Robert’s head was swimming as he rode the first few blocks toward home. Then, the birds’ songs began to rise in chorus, and the sounds of children playing on the playground joined in. As he looked around, Robert saw even more beauty in every thing he passed. He noticed the individual patterns in each tree in the park. He looked up and found limitless types and sizes of clouds. He could smell the individual flowers and fruits and vegetables in backyard gardens as he drove by the houses.

More and more sounds, all beautiful, more and more things to see, all glorious, more and more smells, all making him breathe them in deeply, a cacophony of senses, building to a symphony that was filling his head beyond its ability to contain them.

Robert felt dizzy, his head exploding with sights and sounds and smells. He couldn’t maintain his balance and fell into the grass between the street and the sidewalk. He didn’t even seem to care if he was hurt or not. He didn’t seem to be. Without thinking, he removed his helmet, and lay on his back, looking up to the sky.

Here, he could simply listen, and see, and breathe. He heard the insects clicking and buzzing. He smelled someone grilling in a backyard. He watched the clouds dissipate and reform again, building shapes, then disappearing, only to form something new.

He heard individual birds, not just different species, but unique birds, with their own voice, calling out to be heard from among all the thousands of their own. He smelled flowers, and trees, and gardens. Each garden its own orchestra of scents and sounds, competing for his attention, while joining together in concert to make beautiful music that only he could hear.

He lay there, listening, smelling, and looking at the sky. The sun began to set, and Robert recorded every second’s change in hues. Yellows merged to oranges, and then pinks and fiery reds. He saw colors he had never seen, and knew he would never see them again.

He did not care that he was not at home. He seemed unaware that he was still in the grass. The stars began to blink from the darkness, and the sounds and sights and smells grew and grew. There was nothing else but what was in front of his eyes in the sky, and what he could hear in the night, and the smells that wafted into his nose. He could have been anywhere, or nowhere. Nothing mattered except what was in his head.

Even as the ambulance came to attend to him, Robert did not move. “He’s been there since this afternoon. He’s just been laying there, staring up at the sky, with this goofy look on his face.”, complained the lady who owned the house where Robert had spent all day and night on her front lawn. “Yes M’am. We’ll take care of it.”, one of the two attendants said.

As they loaded Robert into the ambulance, his eyes were open wide, he had a magnificent smile on his face, and the only thing he said was “Beautiful.”

Originally written July 31, 2008