Roads Of Passage, Part 11

Roads Of Passage
by Blackbladder
Part 11

Will Smith continued to soothe Rose's brain, as her body lay limp in the
driver's seat of the car.  All the tension and worries oozed from her head to
her toes with each deep unconscious breath.  The Heating fan continued to
spin, providing a warmth to its occupant.  Footsteps padded the soily ground
the car was sitting on as a figure dressed in black walked around towards the
driver's side of the car.  Rose was unoblivious to this as she was now lost
in a dream, about her boyfriend and her sharing one another.  The figure bent
down and peered through the window at the sleeping beauty.  Fate smiled
enviously...

"Wake up!!!!" a voice could be heard as Pandora slowly opened her eyes.

The Law student brushed her hair out of her eyes, focusing on a frantic
figure, pacing back and forth in the room.  The Sunlight shone through
brightly from the drawn curtains, itching to be viewed in it's full beauty.
Pandora stood up and realised Maxine was walking from one end of the room to
the other end of the room, in a frenzied state.  

"What's wrong, Max?" Pandora muttered, feeling the effects of the smoking the
previous night.

"Look!"  Maxine shouted, her lively voice piercing Pandora's just-waken ears,
as she was ushered to the bedroom window.  

As they both looked out of the window, they saw the white Ford was no longer
sitting patiently.  So where was Rose?, Pandora thought.

"Want one?"  Maxine muttered, dangling a cigarette from the corner of her
mouth as she passed the pack to Pandora.  

"What happened, Max?  Where has Rose gone?"  Pandora said, concerned for
Rose's safety as she recalled the conversation between the two drunks in the
saloon last night.  

Had the Removal Man taken Rose?, Pandora wondered, continuing to pat the
cigarette pack gently.

Tears began to form in her eyes at the thought of her fellow student abducted
by a strange force.  Instinctively, she removed a cigarette from the pack and
stuck it between her lips.  She had to flick the lighter switch twice in
order to activate the enticing flame.  Once the flame was called, she raised
the lighter to the cigarette and embraced the gust of smoke now filling her
mouth.  Unlike her first experience, she had learned how to control and
tolerate the smoke from Iona, who even eventually taught her how to inhale
comfortably.  Remembering this, Pandora inhaled lightly to recreate the
feeling of jubilation her first proper inhale injected last night.  After
holding the smoke in for a few seconds, she opened her mouth and swallowed
the ball of smoke turning in her mouth.  Immediately, her panic and anxiety
decreased as the smoke arrived at its destination and hit the pleasure meters
of her brain.  Satisfied with the joyous emotions rippling through her body,
she tilted her head and exhaled a cone of smoke towards the ceiling fan.  

"Daisy is away convincing Jake to give us all a lift into town so we can use
a payphone."  Maxine said, with smoke filtering through her every breath.

The two twenty-somethings made their way down to the kitchen, where they were
greeted with a full fry-up.  With their thoughts on Rose's whereabouts, they
both found their appetite had deserted them and replaced with worry.  Pandora
and Maxine just continued to join Jean and indulge in their growing habits.
The alcohol, and peer pressure, had made Pandora's transition from
anti-smoker to smoker fairly non-turbulent.  

"Morning everybody." Daisy said nervously, greeting her friends and Jean at
the kitchen table.  As Daisy sat down at the table and placed her mobile
phone on top, she noticed Pandora inhaling comfortably on the cigarette.

"Just been in town with Jake to try the phones.  Rose is not answering her
phone..."  Daisy said disheartenedly, whilst reaching for the open pack of
cigarettes on the table and proceeding quickly to light up.  As Daisy
welcomed the fresh influx of tobacco smoke into her lungs, she composed
herself and continued.

"Jake has kindly agreed to give us all a lift home.  What on earth am I gonna
tell Rose's family, and Mark?" Daisy said, before exhaling smoke towards the
fan. 

"Why not go to Lucy's as planned and phone Rose's parents from there?"
Maxine asked.

"You really think Lucy is gonna invite us in now?" Pandora asked
sarcastically whilst holding up her smouldering cigarette.  Everyone smiled
at the rhetorical question posed.

Everyone continued to smoke in silence until Daisy's phone beeped twice,
sending small vibrations through her side of the table.  As Daisy exchanged
the cigarette to her right hand, she picked up the phone immediately and
smiled at the message on-screen.  Her anxiety disappeared as her smile grew
as her eyes scanned the new message on her mobile phone.

"I thought none of our phones were working...?" Maxine asked curiously before
inhaling another delicious lungful of smoke.

"It's from Rose.  She is fine.  She is back in Everett....Oh...Mark has been
in an accident." Daisy said monosyllabically, her smile increasing with each
sentence read.

"So this is the road we should have taken?" Pandora asked, accepting the
offered lit cigarette from Maxine in the front passenger's seat.  

The Land Rover continued to burn rubber down the road as the girls entered
familiar territory.  They sighed with relief at the Sun welcoming their safe
return.  

Daisy reflected on their trip as she accepted Maxine's offer of a cigarette
too, inhaling deeply.  

"Isn't it weird how this trip has turned out?  Who could ever have predicted
us gettin a ride back to Everett, smokin at our own leisure?  I couldn't
stand the damn things when we started our trip..." Daisy said, admiring the
now ever-present cigarette between her fingers.  

"So what happened with this Mark fella?" Jake mumbled, whilst dangling his
cigarette, its ash falling onto the overflowing ashtray in the car.

"Mark is a race car driver.  He was injured in a race yesterday.  He was very
lucky he could have died.  Rose is his girlfriend, and loves him dearly.  In
her text, she was in shock I think.  She said it no longer mattered what Mark
did, cause she did not want to be away from him anymore.  I think this
accident has made her priorities change."

Maxine remained silent, simply basking in her freedom to smoke whenever she
wanted now in front of her friends.  She was glad Daisy and Pandora now
understood fully about her habit of four years.  

The hospital was buzzing with doctors and nurses pacing the wards as the
group of friends entered the building.  Walking calmly to the front desk,
they approached the busy receptionist.

"We are here to see Mark Faulin.  Can you tell us what ward he is in?"

"Friends or family?" The receptionist asked plainly, smelling the stained
smoke from their clothing.

"We spoke with his mother over the phone this morning.  We are allowed to see
him."

"Well...He is currently been taken out to the Gardens....and he has company
already."  The receptionist replied with hostility, ducking her head back
into her paperwork as the group of friends walked calmly down the hall.

Upon arriving at the gardens, the friends stood open-mouthed at Mark sitting
in a wheelchair.  A sight more amazing was of their friend, Rose, her arm
around her boyfriend's shoulder, comforting him.  The other arm was in the
process of raising an unlit cork-tipped cigarette to her virgin lips.  Daisy
watched in amazement as Rose accepted the insecure flame from Mark, whose
gaze met hers directly in admiration.  Rose's cheeks caved in as she began
sucking the smoke into her mouth - her eyes fixated on her boyfriend during
this whole process, oblivious to the arrival of her friends peering from just
inside the building.  Seconds later, and Rose exhaled a calm stream
downwards, watching nervously as the smoke flirted with the breeze.  As Rose
coughed slightly, she raised the cylinder to her lips once more, gaining more
confidence from an onlooking Mark.  

"Let's go." Maxine whispered to her shocked friends, guiding them back to the
entrance of the hospital.

"I-I don't understand."  Daisy said monosyllabically.

"Rose said they needed to do more things together........so the answer is
simple........especially when she says shes gonna let Mark do what he likes
now instead of trying to control him.......In order to be with him always,
she's gotta embrace and share his habits, like smoking...." Maxine whispered
as they walked out of the Hospital entrance, their scuffling attracting the
attention of the receptionist. 

Maxine withdrew her pack of cigarettes and lighter, and offered her two
friends a cylinder each, which they accepted with little reluctance.  Over
the period of twenty-four hours, they had all become devout followers of the
habit.  They each secretly wet themselves at the thought of initiating Rose
back into their friendship circle.  

As they continued to inhale deeply on their new addictions, they smiled at
the receptionist, who snarled at their disregard for their own health.

"So Pandora.....You still planning to ban smoking when you become a lawyer?"
Daisy asked rhetorically, producing an infectious laugh amongst the friends.

"No way Daisy, I've seen the light."  

THE END

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