The Cigarette Break

By Nabucco.

It's five minutes before the Cigarette Break part of the "Enjoy your Life" TV show, the show that talks about wine, beer, whisky, cigars, travelling etc. Every week, after around 40 minutes, Nancy O'Shanahan talks about cigarettes. She tests different brands, she teaches smoking style, she interviews guests about their smoking habits etc. Anything around the pleasure of smoking cigarettes (while cigar smoking is beyond her ten minutes' topic).

- Do you always smoke just before your own appearance?, Mary asks her. They're standing just outside the door leading into the studio from the boxes. Mary is 22 and has got the pleasure to be her big idol's assistant this night. Nancy finishes her cigarette with a large mixed exhale before answering.
- I'm a smoker, simply. I would never go out there talking how fantastic cigarette smoking is without really meaning it, simply.

Nancy coughs a little and smiles.
- Nervous?
- Yeah, a little. Maybe I should have had a cigarette too. Guess it's too late now.
- Yes, it is. We're going in there any minute now. You look great, by the way.
She caresses the girl's cheek and smiles again.
- But what if I have to cough, Mary asks anxiously.
- Then you cough, simply. I often have to!

Mary relaxes a bit and smiles back. She glances at Nancy. She has been watching Nancy's own TV shows since she was 14, plus lots of other shows like this one. Nancy used to make interviews with artists like pop stars and actors. Now, when Mary had seen that "Enjoy Your Life" asked for young assistans just for one night each, she had written to them. It had actually been about serving wine in a competition about who could distinguish between French and Spanish white wines, but when she had been to the first meeting to prepare, Nancy had been there and suddenly asked if she smoked. She did, and Nancy said she needed Mary for "The Cigarette Break". Mary accepted, and they found another young woman for the wine glasses.

-It's time, come on!, Nancy says when the door opens. They go out on to meet the hand-clapping audience. Mary stands smiling in the background in the beginning, while Nancy lights up, talking about what her little show will contain. She smokes interruptedly while talking, Mary watches her talk out the smoke time after time. After something more than half a minute, Nancy interrupts herself and coughs once like to clear her throat. "Excuse me", she says and patters herself a little on her chest. After a minute, she has finished the cigarette, and noone can avoid noticing that she has smoked the cigarette in one minute with proper inhales all the time.
- Tonight we're going to make a test to see if five women can distinguish between a red Marlboro and a Camel. No menthols, no lights in this show, at least not tonight!, Nancy adds almost shouting and laughs. She then quickly inhales and coughs loudly twice.

The women that will do the test enter the stage, and it's Mary's job to ask them about name, age and profession, together with some quick smoking details:

While Nancy talks while smoking her next cigarette, Mary quickly covers the test group's eyes with black, big handkerchiefs. She then lights the Camel cigarette, takes a long drag, shows the audience and the cameras the smoke in her mouth before inhaling. She blows some smoke from her lungs into the face of Wanda, before putting the cigarette between the girl's lips. The girl keeps the smoke in her mouth to feel the taste. She blows it out fairly quickly while Mary again sucks, inhales and exhales in the face of Cindee. She then let Cindee take a drag. She notices how Cindee makes sure to inhale deeply.
Same procedure with Winnie, who nose exhales, and Betty who coughs a little. The last and oldest, Maggie, also inhales deeply.
While Mary steps aside a little and smokes the remainder of the cigarette, Nancy repeats the whole procedure with the Marlboro. The only difference is that Nancy probably inhales deeper than Mary did each time and - above all - that Nancy nose exhales into their faces, each time!
Mary then takes the handkerchiefs off and the five females will write on a piece of paper which one they smoked first. Meanwhile, Nancy smokes the rest of the Marlboro.

Result: Maggie writes Camel first, without any sign of hesitating. Betty, the least experienced, actually also succeeds but maybe she's just guessing. Winnie, the party cigar smoker fails and, surprisingly, Cindee too. Wanda succeeds, though. Anyway, all of them gets four packs each, two of each brand, together with a T-shirt. They leave the stage, and it's time for Nancy to say thank you to Mary and to say goodbye for this week. Mary gets ten packs of cigarettes for her good work, but Nancy also asks if there's anything else she would like. This isn't anything prepared, but Mary directly knows what she would like from her big idol.
- I want you to exhale from your lungs into mine!
Nancy doesn't hesitate a second, she lights up, takes a huge cheek-hollowing drag, inhales with a deliberately loud sound before putting her wide open mouth over Mary's. She breaths the smoke out through both her mouth and nose, and Mary inhales the smoke coming from the mouth, with her face wrapped in smoke from the nostrils. The audience spontaneously stands up, clapping vigorously.
Mary leaves the stage and Nancy says thank you, goodbye etc while smoking the cigarette. She leaves the stage with it between her fingers. As soon as she's out of the stage and door is closed behind her, she coughs three times loudly.
- You were GREAT!, she says and embraces Mary. Let's go up to my box to wash off the make-up, then we'll sit down and smoke together for a while. Or, even better, let's go out for a drink! Hmm, I'm really interested in having you in my show some other time.

She hands over the cigarette to Mary and they leave the studio area together. 1