Smoke, Clouds and Lights

It was a grey Monday. The previous night, the storm had been throwing lightnings and rain. Although the tempest had ended, the sky above the city was fully covered by dark clouds. The sun tried to shine, but its light hardly illuminated the highest buildings.

She woke up very early in the morning, took a shower, got dressed and had breakfast. She look fleetingly through the window. Out was the utter darkness. The next step was to leave home. She got into her car, started it, lighted a cigarette and turned on the radio. She drove into the heart of the big town. Few people were on the streets. The new day seemed still in bed.

On the radio, the speaker was interviewing a famous doctor, whom speciality was lunge cancer. He repeated one time and another, the two mantras to avoid an early death: "Do some weekly exercise" and "smoking is forbidden."

Just after hearing that, she preferred to change the dial. The second cigarette blazed on her left hand.

"I´m going to continue smoking, I don´t want to give up." - Thought instinctively.

She knew that it was damaging her. Despite it, she preferred the little pleasure of her routine cigarettes.

That day, she felt in a extraordinary good mood. She didn´t want to change it because a bad chosen radio programme. She was looking for energetic music, she wanted to sing. She had slept the whole night without awakening. She felt full of energy.

After eight hours of work, and a few more cigarettes, she remained in the same good mood. She might go to buy some stuff to the supermarket, and then she would pick a film from the video club. She had planned to get asleep at the sofa, with her favourite blanket on her feet.

While she was doing her mental plans, in her way to the car, she looked for the packet of cigarettes. She found no one inside, and felt the urge of buying a new one. She knew that there was a nearby bar where she could get another. But, all had been sold previously.

She was starting to get angry. "ok, I´ll get tobacco at the supermarket, I can wait ten minutes", she thought. She arrived at there, quickly parked the car and run upstairs.

By a misterious conspiracy, there was no single cigar. As the manager explained her, direction decided stop selling tobacco. The company now followed a non-smoke and friendly area policy, and they didn´t want to provide youngsters access to cheap tobacco..

Friendly with whom??? She argued. Why don´t you stop selling alcohol too? She couldn´t understand it. Why in the hell today seemed impossible to get a cigarette?

She was so desperate that she didn´t stay to do the weekly shopping. She got into her car, more and more angry as the time without smoking passed by. She sat down and tried to think: Where would be possible to get it?

"Maybe at the petrol station...? No, it was already closed. Or at the 24-hour-shop? Yes!

She got there in ten minutes. And there was tobacco available! After paying it, her mood changed. When she got out of the shop, teardrops started to fall from the grey heaven. So she decided to take a walk round the block. She loved to walk under the rain, with his yellow umbrella on her left hand. The smell of wet ground, and few people at the street. She lighted a cigarette and got into her car.

She felt herself totally relaxed, and thought: "I will consider giving up smoking... next year."