Denise is wearing tight jeans shorts and a white T-shirt when she arrives
for the interview. She looks absolutely great with her long, straight blonde
hair. She laughs a little and shows me her bag, full of cigarette packs.
- I brought everything I had, she says, laughs again, and her laughter
turns into two deep hacks followed by a inhale accompanied by a thick sound,
and she coughs with two loud and thickly rattling hacks with her hand fist-formed
for her mouth.
- I've had a bad chest cold, but it just makes my smoker's cough better.
- Good, I say. - Any question before we start?
- No, don't think so, Denise smiles. - I just smoke and smoke during the
interview, and cough if I have to?
- Exactly. I hope this couch is OK?
- Perfect. I couch and an ash-tray, that's all I need!
Her laugh turns into two new hacks, followed by an inhale, in turn followed by two hard hacks. I understand the Denise, without thinking of it, deliberately coughs as hard as she can, like to avoid having to cough soon again. She must have forgotten that the idea with recording this interview was to have her coughing during it, but I don't say anything about her little mistake.
- Right Denise. First something about yourself. May I ask you about your
age and about when you started to smoke?
- Of course - I'm 28 and I started at... 12 I think. (Denise drags on
her cigarette, looks into the camera, smiles and nose exhales slowly.)
It was my big sister who taught me, and I became a regular smoker at 13 already.
Now, Denise, still smiling to the camera, inhales slowly but deeply, slowly cups her right hand over her mouth and coughs with two rattling hacks, then inhales again - as slow as the first time - and coughs again. She lets the hand remain over her mouth for a few seconds (still smiling) before slowly removing it. She looks at her palm, then slowly (and - still smiling!) rubs her palm over her white T-shirt, on the chest like if it was wet.
- And, what brands to you prefer?
- Marlboro reds, Denise smiles and drags again, longer this time.
- Have you ever thought about quit smoking? Have your parents, or some of
your friends tried to tell you to quit?
- My Dad tried when I was 15, but my Mom never did. And about my friends, no,
some of them smoke, some don't, but noone ever comments about our smoking.
Except that it makes us more sexy, of course, Denise giggles.
She then smiles happily, with her eyes locked into the camera's eye,
and inhales deeply. This time, she shows us another way and coughs with her
right hand formed as a fist. Two deep hacks again, an inhale and two new hacks.
- How does that cough feel in your chest?
- Oh, it's a thick one. I can feel something is moving, and if I cough
harder than usual, it actually hurts a little.
- Do you have a regular smoker's cough?
- Yes - I cough a little every now and then during the days, but it's a
dry one. And, I have started to get a little wetter one in the mornings. There
is something inside myself when I wake up in the mornings that I cough up
in the shower and spit out. Maybe that the little clumpse is full of nicotine,
if it is, I wish their was a way to re-use it. You know, catching what I cough
up and try to extract the nicotine from it in some way.
Denise giggles and gives the camera an even more sexy glance.
- But this cough isn't just your smoker's cough, is it?
- No, I always cough like this after a bad cold, and my cough always
lasts longer then it does for my friends. Probably because I smoke so much.
Denise giggles happily and she looks so satisfied when talking about her smoking and her cough. Suddenly she smiles even more happily and puts her cigarette in the ash-tray. She is about to start a new coughing with an inhale, but her chest surprises her with two rattling hacks, and she for the first time fails to keep her smile. She had started to cup both her hands over her face, but the hands were still some inches from the face when those two hacks surprised her. Now she locks her eyes into the camera's eye again, presses her fingers up over her nose, inhales and coughs with two hacks, inhales again and coughs with two new hacks. She lets the hand remain there for some seconds, but they feel like minutes, before she lets the hands slowly slide down over her long, straight nose. She smiles, looks into her hands, then suddenly puts them back over her nose and mouth again and inhales with her eyes closed like if she wants to enjoy the smell of her own cough. She removes her hands and moans at the same time as she opens her eyes.
- Did you enjoy it?
- Sometimes I do, yes, I mean the humid, smoky air that I cough out
from my lungs.
- Do your best friends ever comment on your cough or that you smoke more
than they do?
- My Dad has given up I guess, my Mom often tells me that I cough
much more than she does - she has a smoker's cough herself - and Karen,
my best friend, gets irritated when I cough like I do now, I mean after a cold.
Denise now feels the urge to cough again and quickly drags on her cigarette,
and fills her lungs with cigarette smoke. She then manages to control her own
coughing reflex and lets that reflex pump out small portions of smoke through
her nostrils at each hack. She then inhales and coughs the normal way,
through her mouth but with no hands, and there's still smoke being coughed out.
I notice that after those first, smoke-pumping hacks, she's back to
her usual style.
- You're coughing quite often now, we could say. Do you have any idea
about for how long it will go on like this?
- I'm in the middle of what I call a coughing fit. That's when I
start to cough over and over again, even if it can be up to minutes
between each, I mean. It usually lasts for half an hour or so, then it calms
down.
Denise interrupts herself to light up for the third time already,
lets a little smoke cloud disappear from her mouth before inhaling.
Before I ask my next question, it's like if Denise knew it already.
- I'm actually varying my coughing style a bit deliberately now,
I mean how I cover my mouth. I usually just cup my hand over my mouth,
and when I'm in the middle of a coughing it, like now, my palm gets
warmer and warmer and a bit humid. Sometimes, if the coughing fit gets
more intensive, though, I can cup both my hands up over my nose and
turn around and so on.
She smiles happily again and inhales deeply, while she's holding her
cupped hand around 20 centimeters from her face. She makes sure her mouth
is visible from the camera's angel. She frowns a little and her smile
disappears at her two rattling hacks, then she inhales deeply to
produce two new hacks. But for the first time, those two hacks are
followed by three more quiet but faster hacks and she suddenly
covers her mouth with her arm so that she coughs two new harder hacks
after another inhale into her white T-shirt sleeve.
Her smile is back and she puts the sleeve, right where she just
coughed, under her nose and inhales deeply.
- Does it smell good, I ask.
- Mmmmm... with just a little imagination, I can feel how the wet
spot on my sleeve smells from my smoky breathe... mmmmm.
She drags on her cigarette and inhales deeply.
- Do you ever decrease your smoking during a coughing period?
- Never. I love chain smoking, even during a coughing fit.
- Do you ever try to do something to reduce your coughing, I mean
like taking coughing syrup?
- It must be years ago since last time. Sometimes, when I get
a bad coughing fit after going to bed, I cough and cough with my
face buried in my pillow. I drink water and I smoke until it calms down.
Time again...
Denise inhales with the back of her hand a bit from her mouth,
coughs with her normal two rattling hacks towards the hand, inhales,
coughs again, but then inhales again and coughs harder three times.
Just as she removes her hand, she starts hacking again, and her cough
really surprises her, because her wet rattling sound is gone and is
replaced by a sharp, hard sound that sounds like if it hurts. And
it probably does hurt, because her smile disappears quickly.
- Oh, I feel so dry inside, could we stop the interview for a quick
glass of water?
- I'm so sorry Denise, but it's just one minute left, I've only
got two more questions, and I'm a bit short of time. Do you think you
can manage?
- Sure. Go on.
Denise inhales heavily and starts coughing with a dry, sharp sound.
Three bad, loud hacks, an inhale, three more hacks. Her voice sounds
weak and dry when she answers my next question.
- How much do you normally smoke?
- Around two packs per day, she almost wheezes and starts to cough
again. She coughs and coughs with that dry, sharp sound with her palm
for her mouth. Her face is a bit red when it stops but she lets the palm
remain. Just I ask my last question it starts again, and she just keeps
coughing, harder and harder.
- Finally, how do you feel about that people want to learn more about
your cough?
Denise makes a sound like if she's about to whoop.
- Sorry, I can't talk, she wheezes and starts to hack again.
She removes her hand and tries to smile into the camera, will her eyes
a bit red and full of tears. She's pressing her hand on to her chest
and coughs out "I LOVE it!".
She then gets up from the couch and runs out of the room, still coughing without interruption to get some water. She sounds like her chest is breaking or something.