A Young Girl Has Her First Cigarette

A Young Girl Has Her First Cigarette
a true story, only the names have been changed.

Many years ago I had a small business in my home town, I had to work late,
often until 11Pm one night a week, so I advertised for some one to help.
Several people applied, but one young girl seemed ideal, so I offered her the
job, my instincts were correct, she was an excellent worker.  The bonus was
that she was a smoker, even though she was only 14.

On the first evening we had 2 ciggy breaks, and her smoking style was
excellent mainly long draws, deep inhales and lingering nose exhales.

She lived on what I would describe "the wrong side of the tracks" and I would
run her home after we had finished.  She was having a cigarette as she gave me
directions to her home, and when we pulled up outside, she got out of the car,
still smoking her cigarette and went into her house, even though she told me
her mother was at home.

The next week, I commented on the situation of her smoking when she went into
her house, she seemed surprised that I found it so strange. She had been
smoking with her mother's permission for some years.

Anne proved to be an excellent and a reliable worker, until one day I got a
call from her only about one hour before she was due to start work saying she
would not be able to make it that night.  When I inquired why, she told me
that the lady she baby sits for had to go into hospital at very short notice,
the 2 younger children had gone to stay with their respective fathers, but the
eldest "Christine aged 8" was unable to stay with her father (I found out
later no one knows who he is) so Anne was roped into looking after her for a
couple of days.

I was really busy and really could of used her help. She suggested that she
could still come, but Christine would have to come to.  I had concerns about
her being up so late, as it was usually after 9pm when we finished; Anne just
chuckled and said she is never in bed before 11pm!  so I agreed, and at 5:15
Anne and Chris (as she liked to be called) turned up.  As I said Anne came
from "the wrong side of the tracks" I think poor little Chris must of never
seen any tracks to be crossed.  

Well they both got stuck in, and worked really well, and after about 90 mins
we took a break.  We always had a drink, Anne usually had a coke, but little
Chris's face lit up when I said we had strawberry shake.

I always serve the drinks in tough plastic glasses, as glass ones never seem
to last very long.  Anne had finished her coke, and was squeezing the glass
between her 2 hands while slowly exhaling smoke from her nose. I will never
forget the next few words that exchanged between the 3 of us.

Anne  " oops sorry, I will break it if I squeeze it if I squeeze it to hard"

Me  " there is no way you will ever break that glass like that"

Anne then dangles her half smoked cigarette from her mouth and tries to break
the glass.  The smoke is getting in her eyes. She removes the cigarette 

Anne to Chris  " here hold this"

  Anne then passes the cigarette to Chris, and continues to try and break the
glass

Chris sits there strawberry shake in one hand, strawberry shake all over her
top lip, and a half smoked cigarette in the other hand.  She then raises the
cigarette to her lips and sucks on it, and blows out a decent amount of
uninhabited smoke.

My mouth drops.

Me to Anne  "did you see that"

Anne  "what"

Me    "she just smoked your cigarette"

Anne   "so what"

Me   "how old is she?"

Chris   "I'm eight"

Then she took another suck, and blew it out.

Anne  " that's not smoking proper"

Chris   "why not"

Anne  "You have to inhale the smoke"

Chris "How do you do that"?

Anne  "you breath it in before you blow it out"

Chris then took another drag, opened her mouth, and breathed in, and exhaled a
decent plume of smoke.

Chris  "I like that"

And she took another drag, inhaled again, and blew out a second stream of
smoke.

Anne  "gives it here"

Chris immediately gave the cigarette back to Anne.

Anne  "it's full of shake, here finish it off if you want"

A big grin came over Chris's face as she took the slightly (well very soggy)
cigarette from Anne and continued to smoke it, there were about 3 or 4 more
drags left in it. When it was finished, she put it out.

Chris to me  "can I have one if we have another break"

Me to Chris  "you better ask Anne if it is ok"

Anne  "smoke if you want to"

We all continued to work, and about 10 mins later 

Chris  "are we having a nother break yet?"

Me "no, we just had one"

This continued every few minutes for at least an hour, so eventually I gave
in, I went to get the drinks, coke for Anne, and a strawberry shake for Chris.
We all sat down, and I pulled my cigarettes out, the expectant look on Chris's
face was unbelievable. I took a cigarette out for myself, and threw the pack
on the table.

Me  "help yourself"

Chris jumped up and eagerly grabbed the pack.

Anne   "hey!  Slow down and give them here"

Chris  "oh"

Anne  "is it ok if she has one"

Me  "it's your decision, your looking after her"

Chris  "please, please let me have one"

Anne  "well wipe your lip, I don't want it all soggy again"

With one quick swipe of her dress sleeve, the strawberry mush dash was gone.
Anne pulled out 2 cigarettes from the pack, put one in her mouth, and gave the
other to Chris.

Chris quickly put the cigarette to her lips and looked expectantly at Anne.
Anne flicked the lighter to life, light her own cigarette, and with it
dangling from her lips, she took a long pull, inhaled, and exhaled a long slow
stream of smoke from her nose, lent across to Chris, told her to suck as the
flame met her cigarette, the end immediately glowed bright orange, Anne
removed the lighter, Chris continued to suck for a short time, removed her
cigarette, opened her mouth, you could see the blue/white smoke in her mouth
for a brief moment before it disappeared down her throat, a look of delight
and a great big smile appeared on her face as she exhaled a very decent plume
of grey/white smoke.

She continued to smoke her very first cigarette, and with some coaching from
Anne, she was doing beautiful nose exhales that lasted several seconds. I just
sat there amazed at how a young eight year old could smoke so well especially
as it was her first ever cigarette.  Her dress sleeve had at this time turned
strawberry red from the constant wiping of her mush dash before every drag on
her cigarette.

Half an hour later all the work was finished, and I took them both home, Anne
and Chris sharing a cigarette on the journey.

The following day I received a call from Anne, it seems that Chris wanted to
come with her to work the following week.  How could I say no, providing it
was ok with her mum when she got out of hospital.  Anne recond she (in the
famous line from gone with the wind) "wouldn't give a damn."

So it was a regular thing, and Chris came to work (and smoke) for at least 2
years, I watched her style develop over the years, at the age of 10 she was
exhaling every draw over three to four breaths.

Well as I said this is a true story.  I have an idea in my mind for a follow
on, which will be entirely fictional.