Annie is a blonde girl, age 26. She's smoking a cigarette while we're standing in a park. All the time, I'm waiting for her to cough, just a little, but not the slightest track of any need for coughing. After a while, I can't resist asking her about it.
- No, well, I mean maybe a cough a little bit more than I wouldn't do if I didn't smoke, but nothing that bothers me so I guess I've never noticed it myself. She drags deeply on her cigarette.
- But my best friend, Effie, does. It's not a smoker's cough, I mean she's 26 like me, but after she has had a chest cold she usually coughs for weeks after it. You should meet her now, Annie laughs, she was ill last week.

Annie has finished the cigarette and puts a new one between her lips.
- How does she cough, then, I ask, a bit afraid that I'm sounding impatient (which I am, in fact).
- Well, she's getting long coughing fits, the worst ones probably last more than 15 minutes. Fortunately, it's quite long between each though.
- Mmm, I see, I reply, - does she smoke by the way.
- Yes, she does. I've told her to try not to when she's having her cough, but she can't, Annie smiles.

Finally, Annie does what I've been dreaming about the last ten minutes - she puts both hands up over her mouth and nose and she inhales deeply. You can imagine my disappointment when I realize she was only about to yawn. I sort of give up and I'm about to start talking about anything else when she all of a sudden goes on:
- Poor Effie, I was waiting for her outside the university yesterday morning. Then I saw her coming, she was cupping both her hands over her mouth and nose, coughing without interruption. She was bending her body forward so she could hardly walk upright. She stopped by my side and bent forward 90 degrees and coughed so she almost was shakening. I put my arms hardly around her and pressed them around her poor chest. Finally, it stopped and after some seconds she removed her hands. I glanced at her long, straight nose and I realized how hardly she had been pressing her fingers on to it. Don't know why, but I put my hands there, just like she had done, and let my fingers slide up and down over her nose.
- Oh, I've been coughing since I left home, Effie said. I know it's about 10 minutes from the university, so she must've been coughing for 10+5 minutes.
- Does she manage without coughing during the lectures?, I ask.
- Yeah, as I said, they're not actually very frequent.

I'm afraid I can't hide my curiosity, but I just must ask;
- Do she always put both of her hands up over the nose, then?
- Never thought of it, Annie replies, - but I think she's doing it quite often. Why?
- Oh, nothing. I'm just talking.

I feel it's really time to find something else to talk about, when Annie points at someone walking in our direction, quite far away.
- There she is!, Annie says. It's Effie, a tall blonde girl with long straight hair. She's holding a cigarette in her left hand, and she's coughing in her right hand.
When Effie is a few metres from her, her cough stops and Annie introduces us. I don't know what to do when we're shaking hands and I have that hand she just had been coughing in in my hand.
- How's your cough today, Annie asks.
- As usual, Effie sighs.
- You shouldn't smoke today, Annie tries, but Effie then drags deeper than usual on her cigarette, opens her mouth to show all the smoke she has sucked in it, then inhales to the bottom of her lungs. She then makes a long nose exhale and smiles. Suddenly, her smile disappears, and she starts hacking with her mouth shut. Some smoke is being pumped out through her nostrils. She puts a hand on her chest and turns around a little. I can see that she's fighting to keep her cough back, but she starts hacking again and Annie puts her hand over her friend's mouth, and receives the first part of a new, long coughing fit in her hand.
- Do you often do that, I ask Annie when Effie has pushed Annie's hand away.
- Sometimes, it's a joke. Sometimes, she tries to remove my hands and I try to keep them. We sort of fight during her coughing fit. But, she's stronger than I am, so she almost always first manages to remove my hands. Then, when she's holding my hands in her hands, I sometimes hold hers, so she can't put them over her mouth. She struggles and struggles, but she can't get loose from me. The more intense she struggles, the more intense she coughs.
- Oh, you're cruel to her, aren't you?, I smile.
- Yes she is, Effie says. She has stopped coughing but breathes a little heavily. - Sometimes, the only way to stop her is to cough right in her face, Effie laughs.
- Don't laugh, Annie laughs, - you'll get another coughing fit...

Too late... Effie's hands are over her nose and mouth again, and she coughs so deeply this time. Her face turns red after a minute.
- See ... you..., she manages to say and leaves.
- I'll follow her, Annie quickly says and leaves, too. I hope one day I'll meet Effie alone so I can hold her hands until she coughs in MY face...