Family mysteries

Sorting through clothes in a closet at my mother’s apartment, I noticed that my mother’s garments all had a very identifiable fragrance—not quite perfume, but not B.O. either. I’m not sure what it is. Out of curiosity, I sniffed my mother in person, and she didn’t smell at all like her clothes.

And another thing: My father was quite bald from middle age on. Yet when I was emptying his pockets so I could donate his old suits, every jacket held a comb. What did he use them for?

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