Metamorphosis, Part 2

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From: an443252@anon.penet.fi (totsecret)
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Date: Thu,  7 Dec 1995 01:21:20 UTC
Subject: Story: Metamorphosis (2/4)
Lines: 262


    Metamorphosis
    Part II - Another Deal



    "Start from the beginning!" exclaimed Cathy.

    "I got home right before dinner, and mom wasn't too happy that I hadn't
been around to help her. All during dinner mom didn't even try to make
conversation like usual, but just sat that there eating. Usually she tries to
get me to talk to her all through dinner, so it seemed weird when she didn't
try at all. As we finished dinner, I finally got used to the silence, and then
mom broke it.

    "'You do the dishes tonight', she said coldly and walked out of the
kitchen.

    "She didn't even clear her plate. I resigned myself to doing the dishes
without any music to help it go by faster. The sound of the water was loud
enough that I didn't hear mom's steps behind me. I turned around when I
finally realized she was there." The empty feeling she had felt in her chest
at that moment returned as she remembered what she had seen in her mother's
hand. Laura's mother wasn't the type to yell and scream, but instead do
something totally weird like sneak up on her.

    Her mother held up Laura's cigarettes to her, and all Laura could think
was "I can't believe she found both packs of cigarettes, now I'll have to buy
more."

    "So did you suddenly start smoking yesterday and buy two packs of
cigarettes? Or did one of your smoking friends ask you to hold a pack of
their's?" her mother Anne asked between clenched teeth. She had been holding
all her anger back, and it finally came out in a torrent.

    "You LIED to me! You looked me right in the face and told me that you
didn't smoke! Not only that, but I can't believe you actually are stupid
enough to smoke! You know that it is terrible for your health and smells up
your clothes and breath. That's why I have never smoked a cigarette in my
life, and I was stupid enough to think you wouldn't either! Not to mention
what it does to your hands and your teeth." Anne paused and asked, "How much
do you smoke a day?"

    "Almost a pack", Laura replied trying to keep her composure under Anne's
onslaught. Suddenly she had a brainstorm like a lightning bolt from the sky.
"You're not being fair!" Laura blurted out.

    "What?"

    "How can you knock smoking when you've never tried it yourself? It's just
like you said to me when I didn't want to eat artichokes the first time."

    "That's inane! Artichokes won't kill you!"

    "I didn't know that when they were on the plate in front of me! But I gave
it a try and I liked it. That's the thing about you, you never relax and take
a chance. You should try to enjoy the money from all those billable hours you
work, but you're too busy working. When you're not working, you're exercising
so you can work instead of sleep! You haven't even dated anyone since..."
Suddenly Laura realized what she was saying, and that she was yelling it into
her mother's face. She clamped her mouth shut before more venom spewed out,
but unfortunately the unspoken hung in the air between them.

    With great restraint, Anne replied evenly: "You are grounded for a month
with no phone calls. For each time you smoke, another week will be added. This
means even if I smell a whiff of smoke on you, it is another week. You will be
driven back and forth to school. Someone will watch you until I get home from
work - you can not be trusted. I will notify the school about your smoking and
will drive by at lunch time to make sure you aren't smoking, and will transfer
you to a catholic school if it proves necessary. Go to your room."

    Laura walked slowly to her room. This couldn't be happening to her, she
thought. Her life was ruined, just because she had thought the deal that had
convinced Julie to start smoking would work on her mother. Her mother was a
lawyer who was headed for a partnership! You couldn't argue with her on
emotional grounds. If she had apologized and reasoned with her mother, things
probably would have turned out differently. There would be no around the clock
surveillance, and she would probably have gotten away with a week of special
chores and a "I know I can't stop you from smoking, just don't smoke in the
house." That's what she thought happened when parents found out - they were
resigned to the fact that they couldn't stop the powerful force of tobacco.

    She couldn't be craving a cigarette already, could she? No, it was her
mind playing tricks on her, making her want a cigarette much more because she
couldn't go smoke with Beth in the park. Usually if she couldn't smoke on a
school night, at least she could depend on a reprieve the next day before
school, but now...

    Laura ran the argument through her mind over and over again until it
seemed unreal. She and her mother hardly ever fought, but when they did, it
reminded her of a saying she had once heard: "We didn't have an argument, the
argument had us." They both lost control when the argument started, and it was
like they were in runaway cars down a steep hill. She was old enough to know
that she should apologize and hope for the best, but she also had an stubborn
streak that kept her from making the long walk to her mom's room to apologize.

    The more she thought about her predicament, the more she wanted a
cigarette to calm herself down. This in turn made her reexamine her position
again. Smoke anywhere in the house and she would be grounded. She might not
get caught in the bathrooms or outside at school, but her mom would smell the
smoke on her from everyone's cigarettes and it would be the same thing. The
prospect of not having a cigarette in the foreseeable future made her want one
even more, which made her look at the situation she was in, which made her
want a cigarette, and so on.

    She couldn't sleep, and lay awake past her normal bedtime. "On the plus
side, at least I don't have to go to bed on time", Laura sarcastically thought
to herself. Finally, she made up her mind. She slowly got out of bed and made
her way down the hall to her mother's room.

    There was still a light shining under her door, Anne was always up late
racking up billable hours. Laura knocked on the door and started to open it as
she heard her mother cough. When Laura looked into the room she got the shock
of her life.

    Her mom was coughing on smoke from a lit cigarette! The scene burned into
Laura's brain - Anne had been sitting up in bed, but now was slightly bent
from coughing. She had a recently lit cigarette between the figures of her
right hand, next to two packs of camels. Anne had turned quickly left towards
the door in surprise when Laura entered. This put Anne's face in view, and it
looked unlike Laura had ever seen it before. It showed a mixture of shock and
embarrassment that blew through the facade of the corporate lawyer that
usually resided there.

    Neither of them moved for a few seconds and suddenly Anne started
giggling. Laura stared at the scene . Anne's wasn't holding the smoldering
cigarette between her fingers naturally, and Laura realized that the packs of
Camels on the bed were hers! Laura suddenly realized that she had walked in on
her mom smoking her first cigarette! She started giggling as well, and they
both let the giggles wash away the stress of the evening.

    Finally they stopped and composed themselves. Laura sat down on the bed
and looked at her mother curiously. Her mother put the cigarette in the old
ashtray sitting on the bed to her right, so it was hidden from Laura but she
still could see the smoke wafting towards the ceiling. Her attention was
divided between that and what her mother was about to say.

    "You deserve an explanation," Anne said with a huge smile. The smile faded
as she continued. "What you said to me before really hit home hard, which was
why I went overboard with your punishment."

    Laura's first instinct was to jump in with her apology, but she realized
it wasn't really about that now and just listened to her mother, as well as
gazing at the cigarette wasting away in the ash tray. It had been a while, and
she wanted a cigarette badly.

    "I've always been a slave to school, family or my job, and never enjoyed
myself. I've never really gotten lousy drunk and only tipsy a few times. I
don't think I've ever touched a pack of cigarettes before much less taken a
puff on one. I've always wondered why people smoke, and it fascinated me that
people would gamble with the health risks in order to smoke. So there was a
fascination that has always drawn me towards smoking, but the health fears
always have pushed me away along with the social stigma from family and
friends. In the past that combination kept me from walking into a store and
buying a pack to try it out, plus I came up with condescending psychobabble to
explain why about a quarter of this country ignores the health warnings and
smokes. I thought they deluded themselves into thinking that they were exempt
from cigarette's effects. They started because of peer pressure and didn't
stop because they were addicted.

    "In the past I might have taken what you said just as evidence of a
nicotine addiction, but tonight I saw that you were trying to hold on to
something you really like doing. Tonight I realized that many people smoke
because they really enjoy it, and for them it is worth the risks. Suddenly I
had a clean new pack in my hands and the fascination suddenly overwhelmed the
fear. About a minute ago, actually." Laura looked from her gaze to the
cigarette wasting away in the ash tray and saw her mother grin.

    "Seems like a waste it just sitting there," Anne said as she moved the
ashtray towards Laura, but stopped, "Only under a few conditions."

    "What are they?"

    "Well, you only smoke here at home and as little as possible at school.
You won't smoke anywhere else. Also, you'll try to cut down. Alright?"

    Laura had seen her smoking situation go from terrible to not much worse
than it was that morning in the space of a few minutes, but she felt that she
could reason her way into a better situation.

    "Well, were you planning on smoking any more?" Laura asked, trying to
ignore her craving.

    "Maybe, I'm not sure."

    "Well, I have a deal for you. Try smoking four or five packs of
cigarettes, and see how you like it. At that point I'll cut down to about two
or three times as many cigarettes as you end up smoking each day." Laura
looked expectantly at her mother, and saw she needed to say some more. "Both
of us would smoke only at home, and I'll show you what to do." Plus Laura
could make sure her mom was actually smoking.

    Anne realized that this would not only give her lots of time with her
daughter, but even better she would have smoking to draw them together. She
would smoke a few packs and quit, and then her daughter would have to quit
too. Two times zero is zero, right?

    "So if I don't smoke at all after four packs of cigarettes, then you will
quit? In the mean time you'll only smoke at home and try to smoke as little as
possible at school?" Anne looked at Laura with lawyer eyes.

    "Make it five packs and three times your cigarettes and we have a deal."

    "Done."

    Laura picked up the cigarette and inhaled deeply, looking right at her
mother. Yet again there was a wierd look on Anne's face, which seemed to be
amazement at the sight of her daughter smoking.

    "I think it is time for you to start your part of the deal", Laura said as
she motioned towards the packs next to her mother. She couldn't believe how
great a deal this was, actually smoking in her mother's bedroom! She was going
to start her chronically anti-smoking mother smoking, and if she was like her
daughter after five packs of cigarettes she wouldn't stop smoking. Laura
imagined smoking at least as much she did now, but with the added bonus of a
mother who smoked and who let her smoke at home.

    Anne had remembered that she had lit the last cigarette in the pack, and
was slowly trying to get the cellophane off of the fresh pack. Finally she
took a cigarette out of the pack and was about to light it. She looked tense
and uncomfortable, so Laura brought her mother into her room and they sat down
in front of the full length mirror. Laura told her mother to watch her in the
mirror as she smoked. Anne was silent until Laura finished the cigarette, and
watched carefully as Laura lit another.

    "First try sucking gently on the cigarette. Now light it as you suck
gently. Watch me as I puff, and then try it yourself. Be patient, the bitter
taste will go away after a few puffs. " Laura still felt like this was a
dream, that she was outside herself looking at what was happening, removed
from her surroundings. This situation was too wierd, but really fun. At least
her mother looked a little better lighting her own cigarette this time, but
still had room for improvement.

    "You'll get more comfortable with the cigarette in your hand after smoking
a while, but right now you should watch yourself as you smoke to avoid being
tense. Really look at yourself smoking, and see how it makes you feel. Do you
think you look sexy? Notice how your breath is actually visible when you
exhale, and more solid than your breath on a cold day. Appreciate the feel of
the cigarette in your hand and the sensation of knocking ash into the ashtray.
Welcome the buzz of your first cigarette, and make sure you don't take too
many puffs and over do it."

    Anne puffed in silence, realizing again how much this meant to her
daughter. Since Laura was inhaling and Anne only was puffing, Laura finished
her cigarette before Anne and waited for her to finish.

    "I think you should stop right there," Laura suggested, "You don't want to
overdose on nicotine right away."

    "I think I can handle another", came the reply with a smile. She would
answer her daughter's unspoken challenge without a problem.

    Laura wondered how long she could keep this going.


    End of part 2
    Part 3 soon!
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