I hadn't seen aunt Maggie for so long, it must be more than ten years since last time. She must be around 40 now, and she was around 30 when she had to move to find a better job after the divorce from my uncle. Of course, I had met Catty, their daughter, who was 13 now. They were coming to town and Maggie had called me and said that she so much wanted to meet me again. We had lost contact, me and her, when she left and I guess we both looked forward to meet now and to try not to lose each other again this time. Aunt Maggie had phoned me all of a sudden, totally unexpected of course, I told me that she and Catty were going by train via my hometown to see my uncle, and she had asked if I couldn't join them. First, I wasn't sure because I had pretty much work to do that evening, but when I had been hearing Maggie's voice for a while through the receiver, I started to remember so clearly what she looked like. Well, the way she looked almost ten years ago, that is. But, what I remember, I couldn't understand how I could almost forget it, was how I used to love watching her smoke when I was a kid. My Mom smoked, my sister had started, lots of women I knew were smokers, but Maggie was one of my earliest memories. I think that she, together with my Mom, were the women that had taught me to appreciate the sight and the smell of a smoking female.

Now, in the phone, I started to listen carefully to her voice. She sounded just a little raspy, and I wasn't sure if it was because of the phone, or if her voice had got a bit raspier. Or did it use to be like that maybe? Yes, sometimes, she coughed with a short hack, and I both assumed and hoped it was a genuine smoker's cough. I wanted to ask if she still smoked, but I didn't for some reason. Anyway, after having dreamt about seing her smoke again for a while, I completely changed my mind and decided to join them.

We met at the station; Catty had really been growing since last time, and Maggie looked like I remembered her, but ten years older of course. Upon getting on the train, Maggie suddenly disappointed me terribly.
- I really tried to get a non-smoking compartment, but it was impossible because I was a little bit late with reserving our tickets, she said.
- Oh, no problem for me, I said, almost in shock.
- Good, and I guess Catty can stand it for two hours, she smiled.
- So, you have quit?, I asked.
She coughed twice deeply with her soft hand cupped over her mouth.
- What does it sound like, she laughed. - Of course I haven't!
I really relaxed and felt relieved. "Never scare me like that again", I thought to myself.

There were only the three of us in the compartment. As soon as the train started to move, dear aunt Maggie put a cigarette between her big lips and lit it. I noticed how she put the whole filter inside, I had never noticed that before.
- I can go outside to smoke, of course, she said and looked at me.
- No no, please don't, I quickly said, trying to not sound too eager.
She exhaled the smoke towards the window and took a new, similar drag but longer. I glanced at her when she pulled the smoke down, enjoyed it for a while before turning her head a little to blew a smoke stream towards the window again. She then closed her mouth and made an even larger nose exhale towards the window. She turned herself back to her original position and I saw a small portion of some remaining smoke coming from her long, curved nose while she tapped some ash off the cigarette. She suddenly coughed three times, the cough even surprised herself, so the first, rattling, warm coughing came right into the air. She quickly put her hand over her mouth before the second one, so that one and the third warmed up her big, soft palm.
- Oh, your lungs, Mom, Catty moaned and put her arms around her mother's big chest. - And your smoky nose, she added, still moaning, and cupped her hands up over her mother's nose and mouth, caressing the sides of the nose up and down for a short while.

- You don't want your Mummy to smoke, I smiled?
- Don't know anymore, Catty smiled after hesitating a while. I used to hate seing her smoke, and I used to get almost scared when I heard her almost cough her lungs up in the morning, but I don't know now...
- This little lady is becoming a woman herself, I think, Aunt Maggie laughed and put her arm around her daughter. Her laugh was accompanied by a most soft and appealing rattling inside her, but it didn't make her cough. She took a new drag with the whole of the filter between her lips.
- I don't think you have so much against Mummy smoking, she said after exhaling through both her mouth and her nose. She coughed twice and Catty quickly put her hand on Maggie's chest, right under the throat and massaged her a little.
- Oh, wasn't that...? I think I saw an old friend passing outside the compartment, Maggie suddenly said. She put the remainder of her cigarette in the ash-tray, it was just a centimeter left of it, and left.

- Don't say anything, Catty said, took the cigarette and sucked a little on it. She inhaled hardly with a sound before mouth exhaling towards the window.
- Oh, why don't you take a real one while you have the chance, I laughed. There's at least one drag for you left there!
- No no, Mom would notice it. She lets me try it, but only when I'm with her. But it's much more exciting smoking her cigarette when she leaves it like that. I've been taking these small drags from her cigarettes like this since I was 11, but I didn't really start to inhale the smoke until last Christmas, I think it was.
- Do you smoke at school then, or with your school mates?
- No, I've actually kept my promise so far, she smiled.
- How much is Aunt Maggie smoking now? I can't remember how much she used to smoke anyway, by the way, I asked.
- Around two packs, I think. She has increased it, you know. Don't you think she's coughing a lot, really?
- Well, I noticed she's coughing, but it sounds so... warm and intimate... I think I..
- Like it?, she filled in. - Well, I've got used to hearing it, I guess. You know, sometimes in the evenings, there's some silly show on the TV that I just hate, but she sits there watching it, and smoking. Her cough usually increases in the evening, and I've started to sit down besided her to watch that crap too, or rather to sit close to her while she's getting those coughing fits. It just gets harder and harder for me to keep myself from touching her chest, putting my hand over her mouth and so on. And, from almost feeling scared by her morning cough, I've started to almost love it. I want to be with her when she's coughing, to touch her, to let her cough in my hands and so on. And... and sometimes I feel I want to have such a cough too, then we could cough together...
- Do you smoke together now, you and Maggie, I asked.
- Sometimes, she let me smoke a whole cigarette together with her. Usually after dinner. It's fantastic.

Maggie returned, talking about this old job mate she hadn't seen for years. She sat down and grabbed her pack of cigarettes when she recalled the one she hadn't finished.
- Hmmmmmmmmmmm, she said, taking the cigarette that had gone out by now. She looked at it carefully, pretending to be very, very serious. She then looked at her daughter and smiled at me.
- Hope you don't mind, she said to me, smiling in a teasing way, and took two cigarettes from her pack. I watched with the highest interest ever possible her putting one of them between Catty's lips and lighting it before lighting her own. Catty deliberately took a long drag, opened her mouth before quickly inhaling. She closed her eyes for a short while before mouth exhaling. Maggie and I chatted while she smoked, but Catty smoked her cigarette in silence. After finishing it, she closed her eyes and massaged her chest, moaning;
- Mmmmm, I feel so good...
- So you'll let your Mom smoke just one month or so more then, I joked.
- Mmmm, she nodded, she's the best smoker in the world. Promise to never quit, Mom...
- You know the agreement, Aunt Maggie smiled. - I'll keep smoking if you keep doing it only with me, at least until you're older. Maggie looked at me, smiling with one eye closed.
- So, if you find out Catty has been smoking alone, you would quit?, I smiled back at her.
- Don't complicate things, Maggie smiled, took a quick drag and mouth exhaled in my face. We all laughed.