A Twist Ending: 3!

Week after week he came into the store, spreading nausea to all he passed. Displays of flowers wilted, turning black and crumbling away as he walked by. Milk curdled, cheese spoiled, and half and half repackaged itself as sour cream. The checker’s heartbeats quickened and their eyes took on a look of panic as they saw him coming. It was the man who never bathed!

I've never done an intro like this before, but the above paragraph didn't fit into the story the way I wanted it to, and I couldn't let it go to waste. :)

For this installment of "A Twist Ending," I decided to do something a little different. The offending person was not rude in the normal sense, so I didn't feel the need to kill him off. But he did need... Something... This story is all true, at least, the first two paragraphs are. As before, I have limited myself to 200 words or less. This time I ended with 199.

~

Slowly the man approached my register and set his groceries on the belt. I did my best not to audibly gag at the stench. He reeked of body oder and cigarettes. It was the same every week. My coworkers and I were positive that he never bathed or changed his clothes.

I tried to hold my breath as I processed his order, but he couldn’t figure out the credit card machine, and I had to take a ragged breath. Another coworker helped him finish and we breathed a sigh of relief as he slowly shuffled out of the store.

As the man plodded through the parking lot, a passing tanker of body wash crashed into a circus semi, and careened down the embankment into the parking lot. It hit the cement and burst like a giant balloon, sending forth a tidal wave of soap, carrying the man across the lot, covering him in a thick layer of Ocean Breeze. Meanwhile a herd of elephants stamped from the circus trailer and raced toward the man, blasting him with high pressure streams of water from their trunks. In less than a minute the man was sparkling clean, and he smelled glorious.