Sisterhood Of The Smoker Babes, Part 23

Writers Note---Those that enjoy a good science fiction story know that they
need to suspend their beliefs of the real world and allow for the possibility
of things that are out of the ordinary. You will need to do that when you
read this story. With that being said, while the science fiction stuff is
mostly a product of my imagination, many of the smoking scenes are in fact
based on real encounters and sightings that I've experienced throughout
my life. Some have been modified to fit the context of the story but others
remain mostly intact as they actually occurred. Lastly, when reading this I
suggest that you pay attention to the timeline as it is critical to how
you'll draw your conclusions over the story's ending. My email address is
hotelcalifornia14@hotmail.com if you wish to discuss or comment on the story.
I hope you have as much fun reading this as I did writing it.


          SISTERHOOD OF THE SMOKER BABES-THE SMOKING WAR CHRONICLES

CHAPTER 23 - March, 2012 - The Arrival

     As Erin's due date rapidly approached, we realized that my small one
bedroom condo was not big enough for all three of us. With the help of a
realtor friend of Decker's, we were able to purchase a three bedroom house in
southern Rhode Island that overlooked the ocean. Both Erin and I loved being
around the water and felt it would be a great place to raise the baby. Meghan
had moved in with us as well. We'd decided this soon after she'd arrived from
1979. Where else is a sixteen year old that's thirty years in the future
going to stay?

     We had chosen not to learn the baby's gender until he or she arrived. It
was Erin's choice more than mine. The technology to determine the baby was a
he or she wasn't available in the seventies and despite the fact that Erin
adapted quickly to most things twenty-first century, this was a piece from
her seventies world view that she chose to hang on to. We'd also had a many
discussions about what to name the baby, throwing out both boy's and girl's
names to each other but nothing seemed to really jump out at us. "I guess
we'll just wait for him or her to arrive and we'll just know." Erin mused
one day.

     Erin's smoking actually seemed to increase over the last month of her
pregnancy to upwards of thirty-five cigarettes per day.  Her OBGYN was
monitoring her throughout the pregnancy and had nothing but positive news
regarding both Erin's and the baby's health. 

     Meghan was smoking pretty heavily as well. The dirty blonde teen had
said she'd smoked about twenty  a day when she was back home, but just the
sheer excitement of being in a new time, being exposed to a heap of new
things, and not to mention a very pregnant sister,  were causing her to
seriously ramp up her smoking. Erin told me that Meghan was always a heavy
sleeper, during summer vacations she would sometimes sleep uninterrupted
through the night until almost noon. But ever since she arrived, Meghan was
waking up three or four times a night to feed her body's nicotine cravings.

     Erin worked until the end of February when the doctors finally told her
that she needed to take it easy until the baby arrived. Although she was
feeling a bit more tired as the pregnancy entered its final stages she wasn't
happy with the news but spent the time scouring the computer for more bands
that she missed over the past thirty years as a means to occupy her time. 

     One day when I arrived home from work Erin called me over to the
computer.  "Hey, I can't believe you never told me about them!" she said
excitedly. She was pointing to the computer screen, with her lit cigarette,
to the web page for the band Semisonic. Semisonic was a mildly successful
band from the mid-nineties whose song "Closing Time" went to number one. They
were unable to follow up their mega hit to any degree and after a couple of
more songs that got mid level air play, they faded to oblivion.

     "Yeah, I did tell you about them. Remember the song `Closing Time'?" I
asked, "I put a copy of it on your iPod." 

     "Yeah, I know that one," she said, smoke swirling from her lips.  "But
the rest of these songs: `In Another life',  'Brand New Baby', and `FNT.' You
never told me about these. They're really good.  No, they're better than
good, they're fucking awesome. They sound seventies. Sorta like a mix of the
Eagles, The Knack, and Eric Carmen. I need to research this more and find out
why they weren't bigger than they were."

     She had just uttered those words when I saw a grimace cross her face. 

     "What's the matter babe?" I said.

     "Umm, I'm not sure, I just felt something. Probably nothing," she said.
Within minutes she felt it again. "Ohhhh," she groaned, "that was big, I
think someone's getting a little restless in there," she said as she rubbed
her stomach.

     We sat on the couch and when she took a couple of deep breaths the pain
subsided.  For a minute or so, that is. I was on the phone with the doctor
when Meghan walked in.

     "What's going on?" she started to say as she heard her sister scream as
her contractions started up again but more intense this time. "Umm, yeah, ok,
that's going on," she realized and lit a cigarette. "Did you guys call the
doctor?" Erin pointed to me on the phone.  "You got everything packed
right?" Erin, in the midst of another contraction pointed at the suitcases.
"Ok, what about - oh fuck, Meghan, breathe, calm down." The teen said out
loud to herself as she inhaled a deep drag and then another to try and calm
herself.

     The doctor asked me a few questions which I relayed across the room to
Erin and her answers back to the doctor. This went on for a couple of minutes
before the doctor said I should bring Erin to the hospital. Meghan and I
gathered everything and I guided Erin out the front door. As I helped her
into the back seat (the doctor had advised  us to have Erin lie down) she
motioned me to come closer. 

     "Next baby you're carrying, ok?" she said with a smile. We smiled at
each other. I bent down and gave her a kiss and jumped in the front seat with
a chain smoking Meghan.

     We got to the hospital and they immediately rushed Erin to her room
since she was already in labor. She would stay in labor for awhile; seven
hours and thirty five minutes to be exact. Meghan and I stayed in the room
with my mom as well as Decker showed up for support. I actually broke up both
of the girls somewhere during the middle of Erin's labor by saying, "God, I
hope Decker isn't trying to recruit my mom for RJT, I can only imagine how
that conversation would go."

     Finally it was over. At exactly 11:36 pm on the night of March 17th, our
baby girl was born. "We did it!" Erin said, tearing up a bit as the nurse put
our new daughter on Erin's lap. She was healthy, seemingly happy and already
had a load of jet black hair on her little head. Twenty inches, nine pounds,
six ounces were the numbers. 

     We all took turns holding her: first me, then Meghan, my mom, and even
Decker. Decker was a bit taken aback when the baby immediately started
screaming the instant she was placed in his arms. After a few minutes when it
was just me, Erin, and the baby in the room I crawled in bed next to both of
them. 

     "I need a cigarette," Erin said. I reached in her bag and grabbed a pack
of Kools. With one arm still holding the baby she put the cigarette in her
mouth and then made a flicking motion with her thumb as if she were lighting
an imaginary lighter. The memory of a drunken Melissa doing the same thing at
the end of our club night back in 2002 briefly came flashing back to me. I
reached for the lighter and touched the flame to the Kool and watched Erin
inhale a deep satisfying cloud of nicotine, holding the smoke in her lungs
for a second or two before filling the hospital room with a smoky exhale. "Oh
man, that feels soo good," she said. She took another inhale, this time
double pumping and unleashing a billowing cloud of smoke upward, careful not
to blow it on the baby who was now sound asleep.

     "Hey, what do you think of Cameron?" she said suddenly, taking me by
surprise.

     "WHAT?" I said, in total bewilderment that she would be asking about
Cameron of all things, minutes after delivering our baby. She seemed to read
my mind.

     "No, I mean for her. She looks like a Cameron don't you think?" she
said, looking down at the baby.

      I looked at our daughter, and then at Erin, who was in the middle of
another exhale and absolutely beaming. She was right about the name. I
honestly couldn't think of anything more perfect. Cameron it was. 

     "Marry me," I said. She smiled and then leaned over and kissed me. I
tasted the stale stench from Erin's just finished cigarette as Cameron opened
her eyes.

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