First Cigarette
"What a crazy day" Mikel said when they were at their street.
"Yeah" Luke answered absentmindedly.
"You didn't believe her, right?" Mikel looked at Luke and frowned.
"Yeah" Luke still answered the same way he answered the previous question, absentminded.
"Hey!" Mikel poked Luke with some force.
"Ouch, why did you do like that?" Luke came back to his sense and exclaimed.
"You didn't actually believe her, right?" Mike squinted his eyes.
"No, I was just thinking about other things" Luke said suspiciously.
"Look, I knew your thought like the back of my hand.
Do you think I can't tell if my best friend is lying or not?" Mikel said.
"Did you really believe what that crazy woman said?" Mikel asked further his face full of disbelieved.
"I mean, she was pretty mysterious and she evade that rock like she has some kind of a six sense.
The situation was too strange. She even know your grandfather." Luke looked at Mikel trying to convince him.
"Did you hear yourself just now? My grandfather was abusive so my mother took me away since I was young.
He was just a merchant roaming around the Capital and that's why my mom could get away since they were traveling so much.
Is this how your logical thinking work? Can it be swayed this easily?" Mikel asked Luke seemingly disappointed.
"Yeah, you are right. I have too many things on my mind and it crooked my line of thought" Luke sighed, shaking his head.
When they reached Luke's house, they saw that Gram and Mikel's mom was talking. Their face serious.
"Just remember what he said, he may seem unreliable but if he already said it, then it's a done deal and you know it.
So think carefully"
After glancing at them, Gram left and entered the house leaving Kate stood there with a heavy heart and she sighed.
"See you tomorrow, Mike" Luke said and entered his house.
"Mom" Mikel said looking at Kate.
"Let's get back. It's time to sleep" Kate patted her son head and then walked to their house.
Mikel followed until they were on their porch and asked.
"What happened?"
Kate stopped, her back facing him.
"I know I owe you an explanation, Mikel.
But now is not the time" Kate spoke while keying her door.
"Not the time, not the time.
It's not always the right time, so when would be the right time Mom.
Why are we running to this hellhole in the first place?
I haven't got any honest answer since I was born and I still wouldn't get one now.
What nonsense is this? My father and grandfather were not a merchant, right?" Mikel turned his mother around while looking at her eyes.
He saw a reluctant and unwillingness in them. It was like she was holding herself back from speaking the truth.
A light flashed across Mikel's eyes and he asked,
"What did my grandfather do that made us running for our lives like this?
What decision did he make, Mom?"
If the emotions that were in Kate's eyes were the mix of reluctant, unwillingness and sad previously.
Now it was replaced with pure shock like she had seen a ghost staring at her instead of her son's.
"How did yo.." She blurted out before she managed to suppressed her shock but her eyes betrayed everything.
"Cough. Cough.
I don't know what you are talking about and that was the last thing that I will speak regarding this. Not a word more." She opened the door and half-walk, half-run to her room before closing them with a bang.
Mikel looked at his mom entering the house and went to her room while he just stood there silently. His gaze complicated.
He sat down at the front porch and looked up when there was a soft thud beside him like something has fallen out of his pocket.
At first he was curious, as he didn't have the habit of bringing anything with him so he normally wouldn't have anything in the pocket either.
Mikel reached out to grabbed it and he was surprised that it was actually a cigarette.
But no matter how he think about it, he couldn't remember who put it there when he was present all the time and nobody actually got really close to him except Luke.
'Inserting a cigarette in someone else's pocket without them knowing, huh?
You would progress very fast in the 6th Street' Mikel thought.
He looked at the cigarette between his finger for a long time before he got up and head straight to the kitchen drawer.
"I hope that legend is true" Mikel mumbled to himself
There.
He saw a lighter which his mom bought in case there was an electrical outage and they needed to light a candle to illuminate the house.
He brought the lighter out to the same place he was sitting a moment ago and just stood there looking at the sky.
His gaze filled with melancholy.
He lit up his first cigarette and started smoking for the first time.
"Cough. Cough. Cough"
"It was as bad as everybody say" Mikel smiled wryly and looked at the disappearing shady grey sky.
His heart was heavy and downcast.
The reaction of his mother confirmed that the woman he met on the street really knew who his grandfather was and what he did.
With addition to the situation his mother was in when he was young, further reassured his theory as Kate was indeed running away from something life-threatening that caused her to travel all the way to the outskirts of Area-29.
He frowned with a heavy heart especially the last sentence of that woman.
'not standing on the same side, so enemy, huh?' Mikel thought and then smiled before continuing to smoke his cigarette with higher frequency.
After round and round of puffing the cigarette, he was getting a hang of it and he exhaled the last bout.
There was still some smoke remaining in every breath he took, even though the cigarette was finished, however, he didn't seem to mind.
Mikel looked at the sky one last time, his gaze filled with determination before he enter the house.
...
In the dark corner near the houses of Luke and Mikel, there was the same crazy woman sitting near the trash can with two corpses of thugs lying beside her. There was a cigarette in her mouth that she was puffing non-stop and if Mikel was here he would notice that the cigarette that he smoked just now was the same.
"He actually knew the legend of that old smoker. A cigarette was not wasted, Hahahaha" Her eyes flickered with nostalgia for a little at the mention of the old smoker and she sighed.
"One of the boatmen is here, so there is no need to worry about the safety of the mother and that boy for the time being but what if they move.." The crazy woman seemed to try to calculate something before one of her knees went weak and she almost kneel to the ground.
She, then, moved away clutching her head along while mumbling something about the pain to herself.
The same condition when Luke and Mikel saw her for the first time.