Dr. Blacklung, I Presume?, Part 1

Dr. Blacklung, I Presume
By:  slimv

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Chapter 1:  Katie and Her Mom
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Margie O'Hare wiped the spot of phlegm from her cheek as her daughter Katie
apologized.  She rolled the sticky brown substance between her fingers as
Katie coughed again, covering her mouth this time.

"I'm so sorry Mom.  It just happened.  Let me get you a Kleenex."

Margie took the tissue from her daughter and wiped her fingers clean as she
stared down at the tar-laced lung mucus lying boldly against the background
of white cottony paper.

"Its not your fault Katie.  It's mine."

"Quit saying that mom!  I hate it when you say it's your fault.  I'm the one
who started smoking.  I did it on my own.  I knew you didn't want me to do
it.  You warned me.  I wish I had listened to you but I didn't.  But it's not
your fault."

"You were only 8 years old," said Margie as she wiped a tear from her eye.
"I should have known."

"How could you Mom?  I was hiding it.  That was the point.  I didn't want you
to know.  I knew what I was doing and I knew it was wrong."

"T hen why did you do it if you knew it was wrong," asked Margie, watching as
her daughter crushed out her spent cigarette, replacing it with a fresh stick
from her dwindling gold pack of Benson & Hedges.

Katie rolled her eyes as the smoke escaped her lungs, dissipating in the air
above them.  "Mom, why do you keep asking me this?  It wasn't your fault.  Do
you think repeating it time and time again will change things?"  The hurt
look on her mother's face assaulted her.  

"I'm sorry," said Katie, as she introduced a flame to her cigarette.  Her
cheeks pulled taught as the tobacco smoke found its way down the tube to her
waiting mouth.  Perhaps she could have stopped her self from inhaling.
Wouldn't that be a trick?  But she couldn't and the smoke slipped
effortlessly down her throat where it toured the confines of her decrepit
lungs.

"Its just that sometimes I get so sick of thinking about it," said Katie as
small burst of smoke punctuated each of her syllables.  I've accep ted it.
So has Kenny and so has Dad, so why can't you?"

Margie answered her daughter by lighting a cigarette of her own.  "Because if
I hadn't smoked, you never would have started."

"Think about the big picture Mom", said Katie as she trimmed her ash.  "I'm
just one person.  My life by it self is insignificant, but look at what I'm
doing with it.  Kids take me seriously.  They really listen to me.  I'm not
just a lecture in their ears.  I'm a living breathing dieing example of what
tobacco does."

"I know Honey.  The work you're doing with children is so important and
you'll never know how proud I am of you, but I'm selfish Honey.  I'm your
mother.  This isn't what I wanted for you.  I wanted a daughter not a martyr.
I wanted grand children.  It's not fair.  Why did it have to be you?  Why
couldn't it have been me?"

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