The Devil smokes Double Diamond cigarillos

The smell of Double Diamond cigarillos, hot, fiery and angry.

A homeless man smoking Satan's Choice didn't mind me borrowing his pack to take this photo

That's way better than burnt electricity, which is the way I described the smell that occasionally pervaded my illegal studio apartment at 471 East Julian Street in San Jose to the public health department in Santa Clara County:

To: phinternet@phd.sccgov.org [mailto:phinternet@phd.sccgov.org]Subject: A resident has contacted you via PHDSent: Sunday, December 11, 2011 7:27 PMFrom: James Alan Bush [theoknock@yahoo.com]Message: On multiple occasions, the air in my apartment becomes suddenly filled with a strange smell, and my skin (and cat's fur) will spark like static-cling, but pops louder, sparks longer, and is very bright. My skin becomes tight and red afterwards, as if I have a sunburn. I can only describe the smell as "burnt electricity," if that makes sense; I think you'd have to have smelled it before to understand my meaning. This smell is so strong, it lingers on my skin and clothes for days. I have to wash my clothes and shower multiple times to remove the odor. The smell permeates gel soaps and bars of soap to the core, and is retained in them until they are used up. It even sours the milk in my refrigerator; you can actually taste the smell when you drink it.

Would anyone at the public health agency know what this could be (e.g., sewer gas, poorly insulated electrical lines, etc.)? I'm very concerned.

Thanks,

James Alan Bush • (408) 791-4866 • 471 East Julian Street, San Jose, CA 95112

What I left out of this e-mail, but what I will share here is, is that, whenever this happened, the sparks came in a single circular wave, starting at one end of the apartment and ending at the other; the apartment enlarged to twice its size; the air turned reddish and everything else—the walls, the floor...everything—took on a pale yellow; ambient sound from the outside world stopped, as did those coming from inside the apartment; and, the smell was the smell of fear, in that it actually caused intense fear in a similar way that certain drugs cause immediate and strong feelings of euphoria.

Oh, and then there's a giant red demon, rising straight through the floor, head-first, while bringing his claws and fangs and forked tongue and snake eyes to bear.

But, back to the smell: you could tell it was designed specifically to cause fear—that you were being forced to feel fear in the way you felt it chemically, and through anyone's natural reaction to having never smelled this peculiar scent while undergoing something they've never experienced, and which is already designed to cause great fear.

NOTE | Actually, that may not be what the scent is intended to do; but, I know how I felt once it hit me. I was fine with all the other things I described (quite fine, as some demons may tell you), until the smell came on.

Although there are no more theatrics like the aforedescribed, certain demons still slightly infuse the air with this scent when they are mad, which is intended to remind you of the terrible fear they can bring to your life.

I thought this to be a custom scent, or something from a realm where things are on fire and dying; but, sure enough, I found out different many months later (specifically, today), when an old, homeless man, while waiting for the Grace Community Center to open, lit a Double Diamond cigarillo.

By saying, "I don't smoke," I relieved his fear that I'd steal his cigarillos,
which afforded me the opportunity to (finally) see what made that smell

So, now I know where I can closely approximate the smell of Hell, and I now know what brand Satan smokes.