Annapolis Candle Shop
Ava Kate Wall
The bricks are new along the sides of the small building. A navy blue door invites the Annapolis walkers in. There is a soft ding of the bell, signaling that the store doors are welcoming a new customer. Upon entering, there is a familiar smell that reminds everyone of home. It envelops those who come to shop among the memories. On the shelves, there are candles with different scents, each associated with a different memory along with colors related to the feeling.
On the first shelf is a cream colored candle with a scent of firewood for the memories of making s’mores and warming up in the cabin living room by the fire. Right beside it is a blue candle that smells of tree sap. It brings back memories of leaving the Canadian lake to return home. If you glance a row below, there is a vanilla sugar aroma from the yellow candle. Nothing quite compares to making cookies with a best friend. One of the crowd favorites is a lime candle that smells like crisp, fresh air. It reminds those who catch a whiff of a time that they burst into laughter until they couldn’t breathe but finally being able to catch that one, deep breath. The fragrance of coffee and vanilla comes from a soft, orange wax for spending time with family friends, drinking coffee and eating sweets for hours. A red candle reads cinnamon on the bottom for all of the times that were harder but were all right in the end. Beside it is a greyish-blue candle that has a fragrance of evergreen. It clears the nostrils while allowing the reminiscence of all of the times it became hard to breathe and felt like the world was going to end, but it feels calming, like the release of tension. Going to another shelf, a green candle catches the eyes of everyone. The scent of a sweet fall can be smelled from a foot away. This candle holds many memories of all of the car rides with the windows down, singing along to music with a best friend.
Potent, desirable scents are used to mask the darker, less favorable ones that emanate from the lower shelves: one for the mental breakdowns, one for the crushed dreams, another for the heartbreaks, the shattered friendships, and all of the setbacks. Despite the fact that they don’t smell as good as the others, they are still on display. Few have come in to buy them, but those who do are the most loyal customers. The people who buy the store’s candles are able to breathe in the scents and feel the memories behind them. . . the small–but significant–moments that encompass the store that they all have once shopped from.