Beth was 11 or 12, she hung around our
house and used to pretend to ride the dog
as if he were a pony. She had thick curly brown hair and a snub nose, freckles. She looked like a
Mary Jane. She looked like the girl next door. She used to pick
clover out of our lawn and
roll it up in toilet paper and try to smoke it. It never stayed lit. The clover was too wet. Beth started smoking when she was 17. She smoked Marlboro Lights.
Michelle was 8 or 9 when she used to steal my mom's
cigarettes and take each Kool out and break it, then put them back into the package, carefully replacing the
cellophane on the outside of the
soft pack. She would hold her breath until she turned
crimson if my mom lit up in the car. When she was 19 she started smoking
Marlboro Reds. She was the last one we thought would ever do it. She quit a year later. She's 25 now. When she gets drunk, she will beg cigarettes from people at the bar.
Vanessa and Evelina were 17 when they bought
cherry flavored little cigars and smoked them on the deck after drinking
peach schnapps. There is a picture of Vanessa
with a dirty dove's thick cloud of smoke wrapping around her face. Her eyes are red from the flash.