Kidnap, Part 12

Kidnap
slimv2001@yahoo.com
Part 12

Peter awoke to the sounds and smells of Linda's morning coughing fit.  She
had tried to do it quietly but her lungs wouldn't cooperate.  She alternated
between hacking and puffing.  She apologized to Peter and assured him that it
would get better after she had a few more cigarettes.  Peter wrenched his
nose and buried his face in his pillow.

He lay there pretending to sleep while his wife coughed up her lungs.  It
occurred to him that he was being a real son of a bitch.  After all this
wasn't some cheap whore he met in a bar last night.  This was his wife.  And
she hadn't just come home from a week at the beach.  She had been locked up
in some mad doctor's basement for a year.  He suddenly felt like shit and
pulled him self up in bed.

He put an arm around his wife and kissed her on the cheek.  He told her that
he loved her.  He didn't leave her side until she smoked 5 more cigarettes
and was ready to start her day.  She got out of bed and picked up her
cigarettes off the nightstand.  Horror gripped her face.

"What's wrong?" asked Peter.

"I'm almost out of cigarettes!" she cried.

Peter threw on yesterday's clothes and retrieved his wallet and keys from the
bathroom.  "I'll hurry," he promised.

The convenience store was three miles down the road.  He stopped there every
morning on his way to work and bought a cup of coffee.  Sometimes he got gas
and a morning paper.  But he never bought cigarettes.

"Good morning Mr. Torrance", said John the clerk.

Peter strode up to the counter and asked for two cartons of Pall Malls.  John
the clerk gave him a funny look but turned around for the cigarettes.

"You're in luck", said John.  "We only have three cartons left.  Not many
people smoke the unfiltered kind any more."

"Give me all three then", said Peter.  Of course he knew there were other
stores in the vicinity that sold Pall Malls.  It wasn't like they were rare
imported tobacco.  But why take chances he thought.

John rang up the three cartons and Peter gasped audibly when he saw the
total.  He laid down his Visa and signed the receipt for $84.24.

Linda was fixing Tammy breakfast when he walked in the kitchen with her
cigarettes.  She was wearing her silk morning robe over her teddy and was
scrambling some eggs over the stove for Tammy with a lit Pall Mall dangling
from her lips.  Pete felt as if he'd walked into a truck stop diner.

As soon as Tammy was on the school bus, Pete and Linda called their family
and friends one by one starting with her parents.  People called it a
miracle.  Every one wanted to see her.  A party was in the making and there
was nothing they could do to stop it.

The doorbell rang and Peter opened the door to see Detective Ferguson
standing outside with a stranger.  Pete invited them in.  Detective Ferguson
introduced the man as his boss, Captain James Patrick.  Captain Patrick shook
Pete's hand and told him how happy he was to hear of Linda's safe return.  He
told Peter that they were doing every thing in their power to apprehend
Blacklung.

The four of them talked in the living room as Linda smoked and answered their
questions about Dr. Blacklung.  Linda's parents arrived an hour later.  The
detectives told the Torrances that they had every thing they needed and would
be in touch.

Family and friends poured in and out of the house all day long- not to
mention several newspaper reporters and TV camera crews.  The house was a
circus.

Linda's parents were overwhelmed with joy, but her father Jack was obviously
taken aback by his daughter's lust for Pall Malls.  Even though Peter
explained the Dr. Blacklung story to him, it still bothered him to see his
little girl smoke like that.

It was past nine before things slowed down.  Their visitors had finally left.
The dinner plates had been cleaned and put away.  Their little girl was
asleep in her bed.  It was finally just the three of them- Peter, Linda and
her Pall Malls.

Linda was exhausted, but even so she was opening her 11th pack of cigarettes.
She was too involved with lighting and smoking her cigarette to notice Pete
staring at her.

Peter didn't like what he saw.  She couldn't go on like this.  If nothing
else, he'd have to take her to a doctor.  He remembered her wheezing and
coughing.  What if she already has cancer he thought.

Linda groaned when he asked her to see a doctor.  She was however an
intelligent and rational woman.  Perhaps seeing a doctor would put her fears
of Dr. Blacklung to rest.  As for cancer, she smoked a lot, but she had only
been smoking for a year.  She agreed to go.

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