NO SMELLING ALLOWED!

A short story for Children about a town without noses.

Thwack! Riley MacReady took out her luggage and slammed the car door. She was only six the day her family moved to Nose-town. It was a city bright with color and fun things that smell nice! Riley was so excited to make new friends and start at a brand-new school. There was just one problem.

There’s No Smelling Allowed!

Once you move in, Mr. Mayor takes your nose. So, everyone in Nose-town lives their happy lives noseless…WITHOUT A NOSE.

At first it was fine. Riley could still listen to music, taste strawberry ice-cream, and she could still feel the softness of her stuffed bear. The only thing she could not do… was smell.

It was the first day of school when she started to realize just how much she missed smelling. A sign in the hallway read “fresh apple pie for lunch today!”. Riley tried to remember the smell….The cinnamon! The softly cooked apples! The freshly made crust! That’s when she met Jett Burton.

“Why the sad face?” Jett said to her with a grin.

“Don’t you miss your nose?” Riley asked him.

He just shook his head “no”.

“Mr. Mayor says it is best. We live down the river from Trashville! Do you like the smell of garbage, rubbish, filth, and yuck!? Peeyew!” Jett laughed at her.

Riley shook her head too and looked out the window. She saw the flowers were in full bloom, the roses, the tulips, and the daisies. She used to stick her nose down into the petals and breathe in their beautiful scent. Not to mention there were so many things she used her nose for! She used her nose when checking milk to see if it was bad. She used her nose for smelling the shampoo to choose what kind would smell the best in her hair. She used her nose for smelling the toaster to know if it was burnt. What if there was a fire and she could not smell the smoke?!

“I need my nose.” She told Jett.

A few days went by and Jett and Riley had become fast friends, but things were still not the same without her sense of smell. Today the school’s kitchen was cooking pizza! Her favorite. Riley LOVED PIZZA and the smell of the baked pepperonis and delicious OOZY melted cheese.

“I really need my nose back.” She thought… and then she had an idea!

She whispered the idea to Jett, and saw his eyes were wide with confusion.

“You want to do what! But- but-but…” Jett muttered.

“I know there are bad things out there, but there are also so many beautiful things in the world. I want to experience all of it! I can deal with the bad smells, because I really miss the good smells!” said Riley.

Jett could see just how sad she was, and decided he would help with her wild and crazy plan.

They waited until after dinner that night. Jett and Riley snuck into the vault of Nose-town where the mayor hides the town’s precious smelling appendages. THE NOSEY SAFE! It was a big safe shaped like a big nose, so they had to be extra sneaky when opening it and crawling into the nostril shaped doors.

Riley thought the hard part was over, but this was not what she was expecting. Inside the vault was a massive mountain of noses. There were long noses, short noses, pointy noses, stubby noses, round noses, and even square noses! She had to dig through them all to find hers. Jett and Riley were exhausted by the time they’d finally found both their noses. They closed the vault and walked outside, and that’s when it happened.

Like a gust of wind during a storm, the smell of trees, cooked bread, flowers, perfume, and even the smell of rain hitting the road. Everything was coming back to her. She finally felt complete.

Riley smelled the small cupcakes inside a bakery window.

Jett smelled the oranges in an orange tree.

Riley smelled the river water as it passed through the city.

Jett smelled the honey from inside a beehive.

“I do not remember all these wonderful smells!” Jett said in surprise!

It was like a brand new adventure with their noses and everything was bright and wonderful.

The next morning, Mr. Mayor found the Nosey Safe doors left open and that he was missing TWO NOSES. After he matched the missing ones to Riley and Jett, it was only a matter of time until their parents found out.

“How dare you take back your noses!” The mayor shouted, he was angry and his face was as red as a tomato. “You know the rules of living here!”

“But Mr. Mayor, if I may. There are so many wonderful smells! The grass smells alive, the water smells fresh, the smell of the bakery makes my mouth water! I don’t know how to describe it, we just need our noses!” Riley said.

The people saw Riley and Jett with their perfectly fit noses and began wanting theirs back as well. The mayor tried to calm everyone, but it was soon out of hand. He had no choice but to give them back their noses. He just hoped they’d found the right ones!

Riley was excited to see their excitement as the smell of fresh donuts was coming through the breeze. The wind began picking up, and a chill went through her as the smell grabbed her nose. Gross. The wind was blowing at the worst time, sending all of Trashville’s smells into Nose-Town.

“It’s horrible!” One woman shouted.

“I can’t breathe!” Another said.

“Take it back! Take back my nose!” A man begged.

Nose-town was in chaos. Riley and Jett could not calm down the angry residents, and to make things worse, they were angry at the two of them for making them smell something so horrible.

“It’s not like that!” She tried to explain, but the smell from Trashville was far too strong. She knew she had to do something!

With Jett as her sidekick, the pair ran away to Trashville. They wanted to get to the cause of the problem.

The walk was long. After they passed the beautiful pine trees of Nose-town, they passed a long flat field that stretched for miles, and finally ended up in Trashville. The smell was stronger than ever… YUCK!

“There has to be something we can do.” She said to Jett.

They tried burying the garbage, but there was far too much garbage to bury.

They tried spraying it with perfume, but that only seemed to make things smell worse.

Riley even tried covering up the smelliest parts with a blanket, but nothing seemed to hide the smells of Trashville.

With sadness in their hearts, they decided it was best to just give up their noses. They could not make the people of Nose-town understand just how wonderful smell could be, not with the smell of trash blocking the good things.

Riley and Jett walked back slowly from Trashville and made their way past the long empty field before Nose-town. As they walked past the field Riley saw that it went on for miles and she saw something in the distance that made her squint her eyes. It was bright red and sticking straight out of the ground. A flower. A rose to be exact. It was standing alone in the empty field and Riley could not resist smelling it quickly. As she ran up closely, she felt the gust of wind hit her, she prepared for the bad smell from Trashville.

“That was weird.” She said and walked closer to the flower.

The wind blew again and she braced herself, but no bad smell came. Instead, it would seem the wind only brought her the smell of the flower.

“That’s it!” Riley said and danced around Jett in excitement. It took a moment for Jett to realize what she was so cheerful for.

“We will plant flowers. We will plant them everywhere between Nose-town and Trashville!” Riley said.

Jett and her ran back to Nose-town hand in hand. They announced their plan to the villagers but it would seem they did not like the idea as much as the two friends. So Riley and Jett started alone.

First they planted lavender. Those flowers both look pretty and smell incredible. After the first flower bloomed the people began coming closer just to breath in the wonderful scent.

People began bringing more flowers to plant, some brought berries, and others even brought apple trees. The flat simple field that was once there before was now an incredible thick forest of colorful smelling plants!

After everything was finished, a giant windstorm blew through Trashville across the new forest and into Nose-Town. But this time Nose-town could only smell the plants! Riley and Jett did it! They would never have to give up their noses again!

A celebration was held to thank Riley and Jett for their hard work.

Mr. Mayor even let them make a speech. Riley had one last thing to say.

“Now that we all can smell the wonderful things in life, we realize that even though there are bad smells at times. We can always find a way to bring out the good! Without smell we would have never found the beauty in the empty field..”

Riley finished with “I declare today. Nose Day!” and everyone cheered happily.

The town was saved. Riley and Jett solved the problem with the smelly neighboring city. There would be more adventures for the two friends, but for now they are just planning to enjoy all the smells around them.

The End.