James had largely forgotten about the incident by the time he'd ridden some more rides and witnessed some more performances. He spent way more money than he planned on eating way more carnival food than was good for him. It seemed like the smell of popcorn and hot dogs and cotton candy just jumped out at him from all over the place! The smell of the animals did, too, for better or for worse. For the most part, though, James hadn't experience anything overly unusual by the time he left the circus.
The first time he noticed anything amiss was when, on his way back into his apartment, he chanced upon his next-door neighbor Shruti and her familiar white poodle named Snowflake, back from their late night walk. James and Shruti stood maybe two meters apart from each other fumbling with keys to unlock their respective doors, when James noticed Snowflake was acting up a bit. She was tugging at her tight leash, sniffing vigorously in James's direction and holding her tail at an angle James recognized as an expression of deep interest. Shruti tugged her pet back closer with nothing more than a tired wave at James. Snowflake cocked her head to one side and gave a deeply confused whine. James was very confused, too: Snowflake's dog smell seemed a lot more vivid tonight, with some interesting subtleties that made James wish he could investigate closer. He resisted the sudden urge to walk over and sniff Snowflake's body in some unspeakable locations and instead just idly watched Shruti shutting them both back up in their apartment for the night.
"That was weird," thought James to himself as he finished unlocking his own door. He could still smell residues of Snowflake's distinctive scent and Shruti's mix of sweat and essential oils as he opened his door and tried to put his momentary compulsion out of his mind. When James finally got into his apartment, he was instantly floored by the sheer quantity of food smells bombarding him from all over his tiny kitchen.
"Whew! I didn't know it was so strong in here. I'm gonna hafta get some pricier tupperware ... and maybe wunna those plug-in air fresheners."
His stomach started rumbling again even though he'd been bingeing all evening. He sniffed around in circles and rapidly zeroed in on one of the ripest smells in the whole place: a day-old piece of pizza from last night's delivery, lying on a greasy paper plate on top of the other trash in James's half-full can. There were only three or four bites taken out of it, from what he could tell. It looked disgustingly dry and stale, and the many toppings were hideously wrinkled, but this single piece smelled better than the whole pizza had when it was still in the box! James's mouth was watering uncontrollably. After an instant of hesitation, he reached in greedily and gobbled the whole thing down. He couldn't even bring himself to care that he was eating out of the trash! He savored every last bite and licked its nasty plate clean, so blinded by his sensory euphoria that he almost failed to notice a strange repetitive twitch in the back of his underwear. He scarfed down a few other readily available finds from around the kitchen before he decided he really needed to stop eating and settle himself down for bed.
"I'm gonna have to get my weight machine back out of the closet. I'll be burnin' off these calories for weeks!"
James decided the odd twitchy feeling almost felt like maybe his tailbone was loose or something, maybe he really overdid it today! It wasn't anything painful though, in fact he'd already discovered he could only feel it when he actually felt good. After some evening hygiene and copious amounts of mouthwash, James stretched mightily, lay back in his welcomely soft bed, and turned out the light for the night.