his arms, Carter said sarcastically:
– Thank you, dad. Comforted.
12. Attention! Smoking kills!
Fourteen years old is, perhaps, not yet the age when you can take such a skeleton as cigarettes out of the closet in front of your parents. Despite the fact that classmates Gordon and Quentin tried to hide and smoke without prying eyes, they nevertheless held a cigarette quite professionally. They tried all types of tobacco products: strong, weak, filtered, unfiltered, Marlboro, Camel, Winston, Bond Street. At the initial stage, when preferences have not yet formed, you try the entire range. But as the lungs gain experience, a completely conscious choice arises. For Quentin and Gordon, the choice fell on Marlboro.
They were motivated to become intimately familiar with tobacco smoke by Nicolas Cage in the film “Wild at Heart”. To be more precise, it was a scene in which he and Laura Dern tear up the dance floor, with Cage, drugged up, boxing the air in front of him, then doing some vigorous kicking. But what was most memorable was how effectively Nicolas Cage got rid of his cigarette before cleaning the face of a stranger who was pestering his girlfriend. These were the shots that predetermined Quentin and Gordon’s passion for cigarettes.
It was a day off, but not for a tobacco get-together. They usually did this after school, but on weekends and vacations they gathered in a variety of places. However, the diversity was not due to their desire to somehow dilute the scenery, but simply due to the fact that in most places someone was constantly looming: either some young mother with a stroller, or two hags who would find a place to wash the bones of everyone in the area, or young punks will gather on the playground, or lovers of a healthy lifestyle will set up a running track. So they had to rush around all sorts of nooks and crannies. This time fate turned out to be more favorable to Gordon and Quentin and there was no one in central park. But it would be strange to meet someone in the park at half past ten in the evening who would like to get some fresh air. The teenagers walked deeper into the park and, once again making sure that there was no one nearby, began to light up. They took a drag on their cigarettes and continued walking, moving towards the playground.
– Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh… – Gordon said with a face as if he had experienced ecstasy, exhaling tobacco smoke. – No, it’s impossible without this. Dude, how are we going to get off this? – he asked, looking at Quentin walking next to him.
– Who is forcing you to quit?
– Dude, if my father finds out, he’ll rip my head off, and before that he’ll force me to quit smoking.
– Oh, well, yes – answered Quentin. – Well, here’s an incentive for you to try not to get caught. Exercise caution.
Gordon took a long drag and even before exhaling said:
– Why should everything that is addictive be prohibited?
– Everyone thinks that this is supposedly harmful to health.
– Why then was it necessary to invent? All the most stupid things are allowed, but all the things without which you begin to experience withdrawal are immediately banned. Damn, no logic. Why are there no harmless drugs?
Exhaling smoke, Quentin replied:
– Who said that they don’t exist?
– For example?
– Hmm… – Quentin grinned indignantly, and then added: – Sex. What is it not a drug? True, without safety precautions there are consequences.
– Dude, that’s what I’m talking about! To hell with cigarettes and alcohol. People came up with them on their own. But SEX! Where a person is not involved at all, nature itself punishes with syphilis, herpes, or paternity.
– You speak the truth – answered Quentin, looking at the tree crowns dissolving in the darkness.
They approached the balance swing.
– There are pitfalls everywhere in this life – Gordon stated.
– Hey, what is this? – Quentin said in a muffled voice.
– Where? – Gordon asked, narrowing his eyes.
Quentin stuck out his index finger, pointed into the darkness and said:
– Over there.
Without sitting on the balance swing, the friends walked a little further to the beam carousel. With each step the darkness became less dense, and the picture became more clear. They came close and took a better look. Quentin put his hand on it, shook it slightly and said:
– Hey beautiful? Wake up.
A few seconds later, Quentin was already tugging at her shoulder, but there was no reaction.
– Quentin? – Gordon said like a paralyzed man. Having received no answer, he repeated without looking away: – Quentin?
– What?
– Check your pulse.
Hearing about this, Quentin seemed to be overwhelmed and uneasy.
That evening Father Benetti stayed at Bernard Hughes’s house. It was common practice for him to occasionally visit homes where a family had suffered a loss. And in every home Leonardo Benetti became a welcome guest, especially in such difficult days. Martha topped up the tea every time the cup was empty, as bartenders do with alcohol, so that a client does not slow down. She didn’t want the priest to leave. His presence softened the mental pain and Father Benetti understood this, but he also could not sit endlessly.
The next morning, a funeral ceremony for Gloria Nelson was to be held and it was necessary to get some sleep, although such a series of unnatural deaths plunged the priest into the blues, which resulted in insomnia. At the same time, the craving for sleep arose unexpectedly and several times a day. Against this background, the padre sharply increased the dose of coffee he consumed, which he now drank every five to six hours. And all of this in total was already beginning to affect him.
Before leaving the Hughes family home, he asked for a cup of coffee when he felt sleepy again. It is possible that thanks to this, the priest noticed in time a boy who had jumped out onto the road, waving his arms above his head and shouting something. The figure of a teenager suddenly appeared in front of the car’s headlights and the padre managed to brake. He jumped out of the car in a hurry and didn’t even have time to utter a sound when the boy began to shout through his ragged breath:
– Fa… Father Benetti! Help!
– What? What’s happened?
– Th… There… – Gordon was breathing deeply and couldn’t really say anything coherent. He simply pointed his finger towards the park and called for the priest. Father Benetti put his hand on the boy’s shoulder and said:
– Let’s go to.
From Gordon’s appearance, he understood that it was easier to follow him than to wait until he calmed down and the ability to formulate thoughts returned to him.
Two minutes later they found themselves on the playground, where Quentin was squatting, hidden behind a tree, looking fearfully out of the corner of his eye towards the beam carousel. Gordon never managed to bring him to his senses enough to force him to go with him. Father Benetti came up to him, sat down and, placing one hand on Quentin’s shoulder, said:
– Look at me. Hey. Can you hear me?
– Father Benetti – Gordon said twitchingly, taking the priest by the hand. – It’s there. Come on.
Gordon led the priest through the darkness, which was thickening literally every minute and it was already possible to navigate only by faintly visible dimensions. Gordon felt the frame of the swing with his hand and said:
– Here. She is here.
Father Benetti