The Girls of Lakewood, Part 4

Article 7487 of alt.sex.fetish.smoking:
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Date: Thu, 29 Feb 1996 08:38:44 UTC
Subject: Story: The Girls of Lakewood 4/7
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Here's part 4...

**

Chapter 4: So Cool


She was stopped short by what greeted her eyes as she walked in. She saw her
daughter, her back to the room, standing in front of the glass doors. One
arm was crossed at her waist in front of her, propping up the elbow of the
other. In Kim's raised hand was a lit cigarette. Smoke curled up from the
end and had begun to spread though the room. Linda watched in stunned
silence as her 11-year-old daughter moved the cigarette to her lips. Linda
saw the curl of smoke rising over the top of her daughter's head disappear
for a few seconds, then suddenly reappear much more densely as Kim finished
her puff.

Linda hadn't made a sound in entering the house, and so Kim was unaware of
her presence. Unaware, that is, until just as she inhaled a good-sized puff
she heard Linda's voice call out "Kimberley Petersen!". Kim spun around,
and her heart wanted to jump out of her chest. She felt her face flush
instantly, and was frozen in her tracks like a deer caught in the headlights
of an onrushing truck. She sensed a feeling of impending doom, and was
unable to quite think of what to do next, so she just stood there.

Linda now saw her stunned daughter face-on. The sight was almost incongruous
to her, and she didn't know whether to laugh or get mad. The cigarette
looked incredibly big in Kim's small hand, and Linda decided she had better
deal with the situation by saying something parent-like. "What the hell do
you think you're doing?", she demanded, although the smoke which began to
surround Kim as she exhaled, unable to hold it in any longer, made that
question seem a little redundant. Kim just stood there mute and motionless.

Linda walked towards her and took the cigarette from her hand. "Go to your
room, young lady, and stay there until I get back. We'll talk about this
then. Now go!", she directed sternly. Kim fled, her eyes bursting into
tears, and Linda heard the door to her room slam shut. 

"Gee-zus!", she whispered to herself as she stood for a few seconds looking
at Kim's cigarette that she now held in her hand. She retrieved her pack and
lighter from the counter and stuffed them into her purse. "May as well smoke
the rest of this thing myself," she thought, taking a puff but feeling a
little hypocritical, as she headed out of the house and back to the car. As
she ran her errands over the next hour, Linda thought about how to handle
the situation when she arrived back home. She felt more than a little
guilty. She knew that she herself was the example Kim had followed, and what
a fine role model she had been, she thought. "But how the hell am I going to
tell her not to do it unless I stop smoking myself?," she pondered. That
thought was even more incongruous than the sight of her daughter holding a
cigarette, for Linda knew that there was no way in the world that she
possibly could quit, nor did she have any desire to, not even now. "Shit,"
Linda thought, "if the kid had to fool around with something bad, why
couldn't she have picked something I could have got really upset about?".
She wished she could find an easy way out of this, but something in the back
of her mind kept reminding her that she was an accomplice to the crime, and
that no matter what eventually happened, she would have to be responsible
for a large part of it. She eventually decided to just play it by ear when
she got home and see what the circumstances really were. She hoped that this
was just a new development, something Kim just did to satisfy a temporary
curiosity. That would make it easy for her to prohibit her from smoking again.

Kim stayed in her room for the next hour. She lay on the bed, staring
blankly at the ceiling. She and her mom had always got along well, and what
hurt Kim more than anything right now wasn't the possible punishment that
might be meted out when Linda returned. It was the look on her mom's face
when she was discovered just now. Kim realized that Linda was deeply shocked
by what she had stumbled upon, and felt that she had let her mom down
terribly. On top of that was the shame in being caught, the consequent
punishment that Linda would have to hand out, and then the telling to her
father, where she would have to go through the same thing all over again.
She dreaded what was to come and the time seemed to take an eternity to
pass. But it was even worse when she finally heard the car pull into the
garage, for she knew that the reckoning was now at hand. Still, she was
unprepared and jumped up with a start when her mom opened the door to her
room and ordered her into the family room. She trudged down the hall and
Linda pointed to the sofa, uttering "Sit.".

"All right, Kimberley," Linda began, using the name she only used when Kim
knew she was in deep trouble, "tell me all about it."

"What?"

"You know what! Don't be a smart-ass! C'mon, Kim, please," Linda said,
softening her tone a little, "don't make this any harder on yourself. The
smoking... how long has that been going on?"

"For a while."

"How long is a while?"

"Maybe a year or so."

"A year?!? Christ, Kim, you're only 11 years old now!", Linda exclaimed.
That wasn't what she expected to hear. "You mean to tell me you started this
when you were 10?"

"Yeah... no, before that, I think, mom...," she admitted, looking
thoughtful. "I remember because I had a cigarette after my birthday party
last year, and I had been doing it for a little while before that. Not very
long before, though," she volunteered, trying to cooperate now that she saw
that her mom was going to let her live.

"So maybe a year and a half?", Linda asked, and Kim nodded. That would mean
she was nine when she started... how the hell did a 9-year-old smoke? Linda
decided to ask that question next.

Kim explained, "I had one one day when Sara dared me to, and I guess I
didn't want to seem chicken or anything when she asked me about it again. So
I snuck a few of yours and practiced out in the woods. It didn't seem so bad
after a while. We just kept on having one together, and I started to like
doing it. I'm sorry, mom... I knew what we were doing was wrong, and I
didn't mean to hurt you or anything. It was just so cool to smoke, that's all." 

"So Sara was the one who started you off?", Linda asked, and Kim nodded
again. Linda thought how ironic that was, the daughter of the number one
anti-smoking bitch in the neighborhood being the one who got her own
daughter started. "So, does she still smoke?"

"Yeah, but only with me. Her mom doesn't know. I think she'd probably kill
her if she did. Please, mom, don't tell on Sara! She doesn't smoke all that
much, just with me when we're together outside... she's not the reason why
I'm still smoking anyway. I don't want her to get into trouble too." 

Linda responded quickly, "No, don't worry, baby, I won't get her in
trouble," before something in Kim's last comment struck her. "What do you
mean, she's not the reason you're still smoking? What _is_ the reason?"

"I don't know... I just like it, I guess. I think about it a lot."

"What do you mean, think about it? How, exactly?"

"I don't know... I guess I think about how nice it feels to smoke... and how
good it looks when you smoke, and about when I can have another one... I
just like to think about it."

"So, do you smoke every day?"

"Yeah."

"How many? One a day... two?"

"No, more than that, I think."

"How many, honey?"

"Maybe five."

"For all of the last year?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

Linda was stunned. All this talk about smoking had aroused her own cravings
anyway, and now she had just heard her 11-year-old daughter admit that she
smoked 5 times a day. Linda figured that was probably a minimum if that's
what she admitted to. All of a sudden she needed a cigarette herself, and
right now. She walked over to the counter and retrieved her pack and lighter
from her purse before heading back to the chair next to the sofa. She
noticed Kim staring at her as she extracted a Salem and lit up, executing
her usual double-pump inhale. The hypocrisy hung thicker in the air than the
smoke she was now exhaling. She could see from the look on Kim's face that
she saw the inequity of it all as well.

"Honey, I'm guessing that you would like to be able to keep on smoking,
wouldn't you?", Linda asked softly. Kim nodded again. "Well, that's going to
be a problem. I know it's not fair, but people don't think it's normal for a
little girl like you to be smoking. You're awfully young."

"Mom... don't call me that! I don't feel like a little girl anymore,", Kim
shot back, unhappy with what she was hearing and hating the reference to her
still being a child.

"But, honey, you still are! God, Kim, you're not even 12 years old yet!
Believe me, baby, it might seem like fun and all now, but it's an awful
thing... once you start, there's almost no way to stop. I know. I can't give
it up now, even if I wanted to. Do you really want to be like me? And
besides, even if I wanted to let you smoke - and I'm not saying I do - it's
against the law. It just won't work, Kim. It's not practical, and we could
get into big trouble. You wouldn't want that to happen, now, would you?"

"No... but mom, it's not fair! If I want to smoke, what am I supposed to do?
You can smoke all you want, and I can't have any? That's not right!"

"Life's not fair, Kim."

"But mom, I like to smoke! Why is it OK for you and not for me?"

Linda leaned back in her chair and looked at her daughter. She wasn't buying
it, she thought, and what's more, she probably would just continue to sneak
around and smoke behind my back anyway. Christ, 5 or more a day for the last
year... and she inhales... she's probably got the habit just as bad as I do,
she thought. No way is she going to stop just because I say so. Linda was
torn between logic and expectations, and struggled for a few minutes with
her choices. But she finally reached a decision, and decided to see what
Kim's reaction would be. 

"Kim... would you like to have a cigarette right now?", Linda asked.

Her young daughter looked at her silently for a few seconds, before softly
answering, "Maybe... uhh, yeah, mom... I think I would."

"Here, then, go ahead," Linda replied, shaking one loose and offering the
pack to her daughter. Kim looked shocked but happily so, and after a few
seconds she slowly reached for the cigarette. In Kim's hand it still looked
impossibly big to Linda's eyes, but she flicked her lighter to life and lit
it for her daughter. Kim puffed out a little smoke, then took a small drag
and quickly inhaled it. She nervously blew out a thin stream, but seemed not
at all awkward or uncomfortable in managing the task. Her biggest problem
right now was that she felt incredibly self-conscious. She wanted nothing
more than to take a huge puff on the cigarette and inhale it as deeply as
she dared, but was unsure of what her mother's reaction might be. Was this a
test or something?

"Go ahead, Kim," Linda said with a smile, positioning the ashtray she used
next to her daughter,. "Smoke it the way you normally would. I need to think
about something. Don't worry, I won't say anything. Just enjoy it."

Kim's face broke into a huge grin as the tension dissipated. She brought the
cigarette to her lips, sealed them tightly around the filter, and started to
take the long, deep puff she had been craving. It felt so good to her as she
inhaled it deeper than she ever had before, showing off, and then slowly
blew a long, smooth stream of smoke towards the ceiling in front of her
mother, that she just couldn't believe it. Some seconds later, she took
another, more normal-sized puff, and again filled her lungs with another
full inhale. She noticed Linda looking at her, and smiled with a little
embarrassment. "Mom...", Kim said with a shy, whiney tone in her voice that
said "don't do that" but with a smile on her face. 

"What?", Linda asked innocently.

"You're staring at me... and I feel kind of embarrassed. I feel funny
smoking this with you looking at me like that."

"Sorry, sweetie. But I've never seen you smoke before, and I'm curious about
the way you do it. It looks like you really do know how to smoke, and it
looks to me like you enjoy it too. But I won't stare at you any more. I'm
sorry. Just go ahead."

Linda still watched, but less conspicuously, as Kim smoked the entire
cigarette in front of her. She just couldn't get used to the sight, but what
she saw made her realize that her pretty, young, woman-child of a daughter
had indeed fallen under the spell of the habit. Kim looked totally at ease
as she puffed and inhaled, and she handled the cigarette like a veteran.
Linda soon reached a decision, and after Kim finished the Salem and crushed
it out in the ashtray she spoke to her softly. "OK, honey, what do you think
about this arrangement. I can't let you smoke out in the open just yet, at
least not for a few years. But I agree with you that since I'm going to
continue to smoke myself, it's not fair for you to have to give it up
totally, either, if you don't want to. I assume you don't?"

Kim shook her head. "No, mom, I don't. I like it, and I'd like to keep
smoking if I could."

"OK, then here's what I'm willing to do," Linda offered. "I won't make you
give it up totally. You keep this quiet, and I'll let you have a few
cigarettes each day here with me. You can't tell your friends or anybody, at
least not for a while. If anyone finds out, like I said, we could be in big
trouble. But I'll give you one every now and then to hold you over and let
you smoke them here at home. How does that sound?"

That sounded wonderful beyond belief to Kim, with one exception. "Mom, I'd
like Sara to find out. She likes to smoke with me when she comes over, and
it's the only time she does. It'll seem strange to her if I clam up and
don't smoke with her anymore. And then she wouldn't be able to smoke anymore
either. Can I tell her about it, at least?"

"Can she keep a secret?," Linda asked. Kim nodded. "OK, we'll see about
that," Linda agreed, as visions of a little payback began to form in her
mind. "I'll figure that part out later. Tell you what, you call her later
and see if she can come over for supper, all right? We'll break the news to
her then. But no one else, OK? This is a huge risk I'm taking for you, Kim,
and if anyone else finds out about it I'll have to cut you off. Got it?"

"Oh, sure, mom, for sure," Kim agreed, going over to her mom and throwing
herself into her arms for a big hug. Kim couldn't believe how well this had
all worked out. But suddenly a very large loose end occurred to her. "Mom,
what about daddy? What will he say?"

"Don't worry about your father. I'll take care of him for you," Linda
replied with a smile. "I think he'll get used to the idea eventually."

Kim called Sara and she agreed to come over about 5 o'clock. For the rest of
the afternoon Linda and Kim hung around the house, taking care of some
chores and generally having their normal Saturday afternoon, except for one
big difference. Kim had watched her mom smoke at her usual pace throughout
the afternoon, and after a few hours had passed, she began to feel the
desire to smoke again herself. She was unsure just exactly how this new
arrangement was supposed to work, and was hesitant to ask her mother for a
cigarette. But around 3:30, as they sat in the family room and just after
Linda had lit up another one for herself, she sensed her daughter looking at
her intently. She returned the look quizzically, with raised eyebrows, but
without saying a word. Kim grinned and blushed slightly in embarrassment,
looking away for a moment. Linda decided she had better get this part over with.

"Can I do something for you?", she asked, sensing what was up.

"Umm... I was just wondering... I kinda feel like having a cigarette, mom,"
Kim was finally able to say through her nervousness. "Could I? Would it be OK?" 

Linda grinned. "Oh... alright, honey, I suppose so. Here, take one," she
said casually, handing her daughter the pack. Kim carefully extracted one
and held it between her fingers in as ladylike a manner as she could. Linda
reached over with her lighter and ignited the cigarette for her as she held
it to her lips. Kim puffed out a little smoke before beginning a long
deliberate puff, her cheeks first caving in, then reinflating, before she
opened her mouth and drew the puff deep into her lungs. She felt so grown-up
all of a sudden! She proudly blew an endless stream of smoke upwards as she
tilted her head back and her whole body seemed to tingle. A sheepish smile
spread across her face as she looked back towards her mom. "There, that
wasn't so bad, now, was it?," Linda asked, and Kim shook her head, still
smiling. "OK, so from now on, when you feel like one, just ask me. I won't
promise I can let you have one every time, but if you keep it reasonable,
I'll be fair with you too. Sound OK?"

"Oh, wow, mom, it sounds unreal!," Kim responded. "You are so cool, you're
the best mom in the whole world! This will freak Sara out!" Kim realized
after a few moments that smoking with her mom no longer seemed strange or
foreign to her. The thing that she had wondered about for years suddenly
seemed to be the most natural thing in the world, and her smoking now felt
incredibly good to her. They began to talk while they smoked about how to
let Sara know the news when she came over, and decided to wait until after
dinner. Then, Kim and Linda had a little surprise cooked up for Michelle's
daughter.

Sara arrived about an hour later, and started dropping hints right away that
she wanted to go out back to smoke. For some reason that she couldn't quite
understand, Kim didn't pick up on her messages, and so they stayed out on
the back deck while Linda grilled burgers for them all and they helped out
with the potato salad, drinks and dessert. They ate outside too and after
they finished the girls helped Linda clear the table. Finally she suggested
they go back out to the table and she'd bring them all refills of their
Pepsis, plus she mentioned something about another treat later on. The girls
sat back down around the patio table and after a minute Linda emerged
carrying a tray with three fresh Pepsis, along with her Salems, lighter, and
a clean ashtray. She sat the tray down on the table and they each helped
themselves to the drinks as she sat down herself. 

Linda took her cigarettes and ashtray from the tray and placed the ashtray
near the center of the table. Sara looked at her enviously as she extracted
one of the Salems from her pack and lit up. But what Sara saw next made her
think that maybe Mrs. P. had put something in the burgers. She figured she
was seeing things as Linda handed Kim the pack of cigarettes, and Kim took
one out for herself! Sara gaped, unable to speak for a moment as Kim
accepted the lighter from her mom and lit up on her own. Finally, Linda
decided it was time to break the stunned silence.

"Sara, Kim tells me you two have been smoking for a while. I found out about
it today, and Kim and I talked about it," Linda said, leaving out the part
about exactly how she found out to save her daughter further embarassment.
"I gave her permission to smoke here with me, but only here, as of today.
She convinced me to let you in on it, but it's a very big secret. You must
promise to never, ever, tell anyone that Kim smokes here at home now. She
tells me that she'd like you to be able to smoke here with her too, and I
don't have a problem with that as long as your mother doesn't find out. What
do you think?"

Sara looked at Kim, who had a huge grin splitting her face in half. She
didn't say anything to Sara but instead brought the cigarette to her lips
and took a long, deep puff before exhaling proudly. Sara decided this was a
signal, and finally got over her surprise long enough to respond.

"So, uhhh... you're telling me I can smoke here with you and Kim? Whenever I
want?," Sara asked, still somewhat bewildered.

"Well, within reason," Linda answered. "As I explained to Kim, you're both
underage and so technically I'm breaking the law. But I know that it would
be useless to forbid you both to smoke, because you'd just do it anyway,
right?" Sara and Kim grinned mischievously, and Sara nodded in the
affirmative. "That's what I figured," Linda continued. "So I think it's best
just to let you do it openly around here at least, though as far as the rest
of the world knows - and especially your mom, understand?- you've never
touched a cigarette in your life. I'm not encouraging you or anything,
understand, because you both know that it's very bad for you and that's why
I won't let Kim smoke too much. But it would be hypocritical of me to say
you can't smoke if you really do want to, because I know how much you
probably like it and how hard it is when you want one and can't have it. So
the arrangement Kim and I agreed to was that I would provide her with a few
cigarettes a day as long as she smoked them here, with me, and didn't tell
anyone else other than you. The same rules can apply to you too if you want."

To Sara this was as incredible as if someone from one of those magazine
contests had just knocked on the door and handed her a million dollars. She
had no expectation that anything would be different when she walked in here
today, and suddenly this incredible opportunity had just plopped into her
lap. She decided not to pass it by. "Wow... that's great, Mrs. P.," she said
in an awe-struck tone. "Like, could I have one now?"

After a nod from Linda, Kim immediately handed Sara the pack and lighter,
and her friend quickly lit up. She drew on the cigarette and inhaled
quickly, filling her lungs with her first puff since last night. Combined
with the news she had just heard, the excitement of smoking openly and the
satisfied relief she felt from her first inhale of the day, it seemed the
top of her head was about to detach itself and float away. She broke into a
big smile of her own as she exhaled. The three of them proceeded to smoke
their cigarettes on the deck in the evening sun like equals, and for the
girls it was as if they had grown up 5 years in 5 minutes. Their normal
childish giggling and carrying on was replaced by at least an attempt at
intelligent conversation, and while it wasn't yet sparkling by any means it
seemed that things were suddenly different somehow.   

As the evening went on, Sara found herself wondering if she would get a
chance to smoke again, and it seemed Kim had the same thought. Shortly after
they settled in to watch a movie, Kim asked her mom for another cigarette
and both her and Sara were permitted to smoke once more. By the time it was
finished, Sara mumbled something about wishing she could stay all night, and
soon a phone call home gave her permission to sleep over. Sara thought this
was great not only because of the normal fun she would have, but also
because she could take advantage of the new smoking rules. Plus it meant
that she wouldn't have to listen to her parents' bickering, which had become
more frequent of late and seemed worse when they each had a few drinks on
Saturday night. The girls were each allowed one last cigarette shortly
before bedtime, and they smoked it in the family room in their pajamas
before heading off to Kim's room for the night. Behind closed doors, all
they could talk about was what had happened that day. Kim told Sara how she
had been discovered, and the events that led up to the evening's
developments. Both of them still had a hard time believing what had
occurred, but they didn't question their good fortune or the coolness of
Linda Petersen as far as they were concerned. Sara only wished her mom could
be halfway as sensible.

**

End of Part 4

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