A Series Of Fortunate Events, Part 6

A Series of Fortunate Events
by Kalithanatos

CHAPTER SIX

The next day, Katrina woke bright and early and caught the bus to her new
job. Arriving at the bank, she was informed she would have on the job
training shadowing Kim, an experienced employee. Kim spent the first hour
doing induction training with Katrina and asking what name she would like on
her badge. Katrina thought for a second, and then said, "Kat," remembering
how Anne had called her that the other night and deciding she enjoyed it.
Since no one at the bank knew Katrina, they all calling her Kat from the
beginning.

Kat only once thought about smoking that week, when she was alone in bed and
let her thoughts drift to how she had watched Anne inhaling and exhaling
clouds of smoke in the downstairs living room. Inevitably, Kat found herself
turned on and started masturbating. She had been fingering her clitoris for
some time, unable to climax, when suddenly a thought of Anne inhaling a large
volume of cigarette smoke and forcing it into her waiting mouth sprung into
her head. Immediately, she came, her body vibrating wildly beneath her as she
pictured kissing Anne and trading the smoke between their eager lips. She
went to sleep that night a little ashamed and conversely, very happy.

The rest of the week went by in a daze as Kat gained speed and confidence
dealing with customers. All the staff were very nice, although she was
finding it hard to make friends as she had done during her training. She
supposed that was because they had all known each other for years, so it
didn't bother her much. The person she got on best with was Liz, but she knew
for a fact that wouldn't last long since Liz was eight months pregnant and
about to go on maternity leave at the end of the week. Kat was disappointed
since she felt a real bond starting to develop, but there was nothing to be
done.

Eventually Friday came and went, and Kat was relieved. It had been a tiring
week and now she had two days off to enjoy herself. She phoned Anne that
night and had a quick chat, but Anne was busy packing up - she and Gio had
finally found a house to move into and it was happening this weekend! As they
were saying their goodbyes over the phone, Anne cryptically said, "By the
way, there's more good news - you'll find out soon! Bye!" and hung up. Kat
had no idea what this meant, but let it go; she would find out soon enough,
she reckoned.

The next day, Kat jumped on the bus to the nursing home for her weekly visit
with her Gran. Rose saw her mother two or three times a week, but Saturday's
were reserved for Kat. When she stepped through the door, her Gran yelled,
"Katrina!" and Kat smiled uneasily. She had already talked about wanting to
be known as `Kat' with her mother, who did not take easily to the idea.
However, after explaining the situation to her Gran, she was relieved to find
Grandma Lee took to the idea instantly.

"Kat," she said, trying the name out, "I like it. It will take a bit of
getting used to, but I'm happy if you're happy!"

The day went by normally until after the cinema. Grandma Lee had noticed the
way Kat had been watching her smoke earlier in the day when they stopped
outside the nursing home. She had an idea Kat was not telling her everything
about her sudden interest in smoking, especially after what Rose had told her
earlier in the week about Kat's new friend, Anne. She had a theory she wanted
to test out.

"Kat, dear," she said softly, "my hands are hurting today. Would you mind
lighting my cigarette for me?" Kat was a little startled by this; her Gran
had never requested anything like this before, no matter how sore her hands
were. She caught a glint in Grandma Lee's eyes and started to wonder if there
was something else going on here.

"Sure, Gran, no problem," she replied, taking the green packet from her
Gran's pocket. She extracted a cigarette (more comfortably now than ever
before) and placed it between her Gran's lips. 

"Cunning," thought Grandma Lee, temporarily thwarted. However, she had a
backup plan. As Kat leaned forward to light the cigarette, Grandma Lee made
it intentionally difficult to get a light, subtly moving her head away from
the flame and not drawing on the filter so that the flame never truly caught.

"It's no use," she said, finally. "Can't you just do what you did last week
again?"

Kat started to see what was going on here; her Gran was testing her to see if
she was smoking!

"I dunno, Gran, you know I don't smoke. Last week was a one off to help you
out. I don't intend making a habit of it," she said, emphasising the pun.

"Oh, come on, please?" her Gran pleaded, still believing there was more to
Kat's interest than she was letting on. "You know how much I love to smoke
after a good movie."

The two women stared at each other until finally Kat gave in, unable to
resist her Gran's pleading eyes. "But this is the last time, ok?"

"Ok," her Gran replied, watching intently as Kat picked the cigarette up and
placed it between her lips. Bracing herself, Kat sparked the lighter and held
the flame to the tip. It caught easily and she began to breathe the smoke in.
Just then, her Gran shouted, "Wasp!" and pointed above Kat's head.
Impulsively (since she had a tremendous fear of wasps), Kat breathed in
sharply and for the first time inhaled properly. Realizing the smoke was in
her lungs, she vaguely remembered Anne's advice from the previous weekend to
breathe out slowly and try to suppress the urge to cough. This time, the
advice worked and a small plume of smoke appeared from her pursed lips. Just
then, Kat felt a tremendous head rush and a feeling of well-being as the
nicotine hit her brain. That felt sooooo nice, she thought to herself.

Grandma Lee watched all this with amusement. It occurred to her that for Kat
to show such control over her inhale and exhale, she MUST have done this
before! 

Kat recovered and looked around for the wasp. Grandma Lee, seeing the fear on
her granddaughter's face, said "I think you frightened it away." Of course,
there was no wasp; Grandma Lee just wanted to see how Kat would react to
inhaling the smoke.

"Oh, good," Kat said relieved, then remembered she was still holding the
cigarette in her hand, tried to pass it to her Gran.

"My hands are still sore," her gran said. "Would you mind holding it while I
puff it?" she asked.

"I suppose not," Kat said, sounding disgruntled with the chore. In truth, she
was still slightly buzzed from her first really good smoking experience and
for some reason didn't seem to mind breathing in the second-hand smoke she
was getting from her Gran's cigarette.

"Sorry to frighten you there, dear," her Gran began, "but that wasp looked
mean. Are you okay? You didn't breathe any of that nasty smoke in, did you?"
she asked.

"Actually, I did, a little," Kat said, marvelling at the pleasant, mint taste
in her mouth.

"I apologize for that," her Gran said. "What did you think of it?"

"Well, as you know, I don't smoke, but if I'm being truthful with you, it was
kind of nice. I got a really weird feeling in my head and a cool taste in my
throat."

"That would be the nicotine causing the feeling in your head and the menthol
giving you the cool taste. It's nice, isn't it?"

Kat thought about this. She was always honest with her Gran and felt she
could tell her anything, but she also knew how devious her Gran could be and
wondered how much of this was a set up. Admitting she had actually enjoyed
the taste of a cigarette might not be the best idea.

"I wouldn't go far as to say it was `nice'," she finally said, bending the
truth slightly as she let her Gran take a final drag, "but it was ok. It's
not something I plan on doing again, so don't get any funny ideas," she said

"Who, me?" her Gran asked innocently, breathing out the last of the smoke. "I
don't know what you're talking about!" At that point the bus arrived to take
them back.

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