I was waiting for the train when I saw her at the station. A girl, age about 14, with a kind of hispanic look. Dark hair and a remarkably hawk-styled nose. She started to hack, and a deep coughing fit began. She coughed intensively for about half a minute with her left hand cupped over her mouth. I could clearly hear a rattling sound inside her. She removed the hand after her coughing fit and cleared her throat twice. I was waiting to see if she had to swallow anything down but suddenly the looked in my direction and instinctively, I looked in another direction.
I was about to pick up my pack of cigarettes from my purse when the train came and I went on. I found a smoking compartment and sat down when the girl came in and sat down to. Shortly after, a tall dark woman with short hair and a great nose like the girl's sat down too. It was no doubt they were mother and daughter. The mother put a pack of cigarettes on the table (I had chosen the seat next to the door, so they were sitting at the window side) and the girl started to cough again. This coughing fit was shorter than the first one, but it ended in her coughing a bit harder and she sounded like a lung was on its way up. She put both hands over her mouth, the fingers on her lips and tried to clear her throat by coughing hardly a few times before swallowing.
The door opened and a woman, age 60 or so came in and sat down. I understood this was grandmother. Again, the same kind of nose - long and curved with large sides and unusually long nostrils. She was still quite an attractive woman, I noticed. We introduced ourselves; Manuela, the grandmother with an extremely smoky voice, Ana, the mother had a tendency in the same direction and Christa, the girl, sounded like a normal 14 year old girl after a chest cold.

Manuela soon started to smoke, and it wasn't until after a minute or so I noticed she was smoking two cigarettes at the same time. Her nostrils and her mouth were pumping out smoke time after time, and she finished the cigarettes quickly, just to pick a new one from her pack. She saw I was watching her smoking with interest and was about to say something, when she started to cough. She sounded like her whole chest was full of thick, smoky phlegm and she coughed deeply, deeply in her hand for a while.
- Sorry, my smoker's cough, she said and smmiled but started to cough again. She let her hand remain over her mouth for a while when the cough had subsided.
- You're a heavy smoker, I noticed, I smileed.
- Yes, yes, Mom's a chain smoker, Ana smileed.
We started to chat, and I noticed Manuela and Ana were pumping out their smoke all the time, often through their nostrils. Christa's coughing fits was coming more and more frequent, and Manuela got a few bad smoker's coughing fits. At one time, she put her cigarette in the ash-tray and hid her nose and mouth under her both hands and bent her body forward. It sounded like she was getting her phlegm up in her mouth, and after coughing deeply for almost a minute like that, she got up and left the compartment without removing her hands.
- She coughs up her phlegm sometimes, Ana eexplained with smoke flowing from her mouth almost in Christa's face. She added a nose exhale directly in front of the girl's face and Christa got a long coughing fit. She coughed with her hands together a few centimetres from her face. I started to wonder how much second hand smoke that mouth and those fantastic nostrils had been receiving since she was born. I was about to light a cigarette but my lighter stopped working. Ana grabbed after hers but started to cough a little and turned her head to cough towards the window. Quickly, Christa took the lighter.
- I'll light it if could have a quick drag,, she smiled with a begging glance in her eye.
- You know Mom won't let you smoke, Ana saiid. - But, Mom knows that HER Mom lets the girl smoke when they're alone together, Ana smiled at me. - It's OK, she added and I put my cigarette between the girl's lips. I saw she only took a little drag, pulled it down and handed over the cigarette to me.
- Thanks a lot Helena she said, losing somee smoke when talking before she mouth exhaled.
- Now, where's Grandma, she's been away forr at least five minutes, Christa said and got up at the same time as she started to cough again. I looked after the girl who walked away along the aisle, coughing with her both hands up over that exciting nose.
- Oh, Mom will cough her lungs up soon, Anaa sighed and laughed.
- Yes, well, I couldn't believe my eyes wheen I noticed she was having two at the same time, does she often do that?
- Perhaps once or twice a day, I think. Christa and Manuela came back and sat down.
- Oh, I got another coughing fit, that's whhy it took so long, she smiled.
- Yes, we're actually a coughing family, Anna smiled at me like if she wanted to make an apology. - Please, I don't mind at all, I said. - Onn the contrary, I wanted to add, but didn't.
The two women continued to fill the compartment with smoke, that is, Manuela did most of it but Ana's contributions were noticable too. I had only two or three cigarettes myself. Christa coughed every now and then, and I just couldn't help watching her when she got longer coughing fits. One time, she got one that never seemed to end. Every time I thought it was over, it started over again, and the girl coughed in her hand, deeper and deeper. Finally, she put both hands up over her nose and I watched her fingers touching her sexy nose. I noticed how I enjoyed watching the girl coughing and coughing at the same time as her mother and grathmother smoked and smoked around her.
When the cough had subsided, Manuela pattered the girl on her breast, and nose exhaled some smoke close to Christa's face.
Manuela suddenly got an intense coughing fit herself, and coughed with her mouth shut while crushing the cigarette in the ash-tray. Quickly, Christa put her hand over her Grandma's mouth and received her by now almost wild cough in her hand. Manuela put her hand over Christa's to keep it closer to her mouth and again, Helena heard the sound of thick phlegm moving inside the woman. Her cough subsided and Christa left the compartment.
- I can't understand that she loves that, MManuela said in a low, raspy voice to her daughter.
- It's the same in the morning, when I get my morning cough you know. She wants to sit next to me in the bed, massage me over my breast, and tries to remove my hands to put her own there over my mouth.
- Do you let her?
- Sometimes, Ana said.
Manuela realized I must have heard everything and smiled a bit embarrassed.
- We're talking about Christa, she explaineed. - She seems to love my coughing fits, you see.
- Then there's two of us, I wanted to say, but didn't have the guts to.
- Oh, I guess, there's nothing wrong with iit, I said.

The train stopped for a 15 minutes break, and Manuela wanted to leave the wagon for a minute or two and left. Christa followed her. Ana leaned her head back a bit and inhaled deeply to cough. She coughed three times in her hand. I wanted so much to comment their coughing, but didn't know how to start.
- Oh, look at her, she suddenly said, lookiing out through the window. I joined her. Manuela was coughing so she was bending her body forward almost 90 degrees.
- Oh, her poor lungs, I heard how she was rrattling. It almost sounded like a rumbling.
- You should hear her in the mornings. Oh, it goes on for almost a quarter of an hour.
- How can she sleep, then, I asked.
- Actually, I think she coughs and swallowss while asleep. Last time we were sharing a hotel room, and heard it in the middle of the night. It was hot and I woke up and couldn't fall asleep again. I think, almost every two minutes or so, she coughed a little and swallowed.
- Christa is coughing quite badly too, isn''t she?
- Yes, she had a cold a month ago, and it nnever ends after.
I remembered how they had been almost like wrapping the girl in smoke, time after time.

We got off the train at the next station, they were going to the hotel and I was too. I got so excited on the way, because Manuela got a coughing fit and she was carrying to suitcases, one in each hand, so she was coughing right out. I watched her mouth while she was coughing, deeper and deeper. If we would have known each other just a bit longer, I would have put my free hand over her mouth to get her sexy, hot cough in my hand... Anyway, she coughed right out and finally she coughed up some phlegm and shut her mouth just in time to stop it from flowing over her lips. I got my key and said good-bye and Manuela pattered me kindly on my shoulder with that hand she had been coughing so much in. I thought I heard a rattling sound when she breathed.