Mrs. Wong's Finishing School

Lilly took another puff and snapped it back in the way she had seen her mom do thousands of times. The nicotine jolt was immediate and powerful. She exhaled another creamy stream, this time cocking her head upwards and letting it loose into the airspace before her. She could definitely learn to like this. Who am I kidding? I already do!

She placed the cigarette in a clean ashtray Mrs. Wong kept on the desk and proceeded to open the book at the top of the stack. She picked up the cigarette and held it between her fingers, bringing it up to her lips every 30 seconds or so. Some puffs she inhaled, while others she let simply float out of her mouth before exhaling a bubbly stream towards the pages in front of her. After a few minutes, she looked at the cigarette and saw it was 2/3 of the way smoked. She had no intention of stubbing this one out early. She continued to periodically take a puff while reading until the filter became too hot to hold between her fingers. With a final exhale that hissed out between pursed lips, she felt a sense of accomplishment that she had smoked her first full cigarette. And she had to admit that her mentor was right: she did feel empowered by the experience.

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Only an hour passed before Lilly decided to light another Virginia Slims which she now felt comfortable doing freehanded. She sat back, took a long puff, and opened her mouth to let the smoke float beyond her lips. She then inhaled, taking back most of the cloud into her lungs which she held for several seconds before exhaling a thin stream. She stood and walked around the room. She felt so confident, so mature holding that long cigarette between her fingers as her arm swayed back and forth. She would pause at a bookshelf and take a puff while scanning the titles, then walk on, smoke cascading down through her nose or gushing out of her mouth like a firehose as she did so.

Eventually she ambled her way to the other end of the library, tapping the cigarette over one of the many ashtrays Mrs. Wong had placed in the room, and stared at a painting of a group of woman looking ridiculous dressed in fine formal gowns and smeared with heavy make-up at a tea party. Some of the women were clownishly sipping from fine China cups, while others were throwing tea cakes and plates. A few were fornicating on the table with men; others were engaged in cunnilingus with one another. Holding the cigarette aloft in her right hand while her left hand was placed under her elbow, she brought the cigarette to the center of her lips and took a soft puff.What the hell does this painting mean, she wondered?And why is it even here? It's hardly a work of art. It feels more like porn. She looked at the title on the bottom of the frame and softly read it out loud:New Money Sluts. She exhaled a creamy cone of smoke towards the portrait, shrugged her shoulders, and moved on.

When she came to the window which overlooked the entryway to the estate, she noticed a car parked in the driveway that she was certain belonged to Jenny's father. Sure enough, Lilly soon saw Mr. Chiu walking towards his car as he appeared to be leaving the mansion. He turned to shake hands with Mrs. Wong who of course was holding one of her long cigarettes, and then got into his car and drove away.What is he doing here? Is he the client Mrs. Wong spoke of? She brought the cigarette up to her lips and realized that there was hardly any tobacco left above the filter to smoke. She stubbed it out in an ashtray near the windowsill and went back to the desk to continue her studies.

Another hour passed before Jeffrey came back into the library. "Miss," he said after taking a sniff, clearly aware of the odor of second hand smoke in the room, "dinner will be served in half an hour. Madam says that you're free to rest in your room before then."

Relieved to hear that her incarceration had been reprieved for at least thirty minutes, she got up from the desk and began to head towards the door. She then stopped, returned to the desk, and picked up the cigarette case and lighter. She noticed the smile on the butler's face as she passed him in the doorway. "Can you keep a secret, Jeffrey?"

"Indeed I can, Miss," he said assuredly. He then walked into the library to open the windows and air out the room.

PART IX - LILLY MAKES HER CHOICE

Lilly decided to change her outfit, fearful that Mrs. Wong would be able to smell smoke on her blue dress during dinner. She had concluded that smoking during the wine tasting and while she was in the library were both a fluke; a momentary lapse of reasoning that she would not let occur again, certainly not while she kept company with Mrs. Wong. But when her tutor lit up after the second course, Lilly felt her defenses weakening. And throughout the evening she found herself pining for a cigarette.

When after the meal the two women went into Mrs. Wong's master bathroom for a beauty care lesson in which to show how a lady uses make-up sparingly, Lilly was so enchanted watching Mrs. Wong smoke a long cigarette in front of the mirror as she applied the brush to her face that the teenager nearly lit one for herself. Then they again watched a movie in the home theater,Pride and Prejudice, in which Lilly was beside herself wanting a cigarette as Mrs. Wong lit one every 15 minutes (though she did find it amusing when the old snob said derisively, "It's good fiction, but Mr. Darcy would never have married beneath his status in real life.") By midnight, Lilly could barely keep her eyes open as she lay in bed, working on another novel.

As with the night before, Mrs. Wong walked in with a freshly lit cigarette and sat on the bed next to Lilly. "How are you, my dear?"

Lilly took off her glasses and replied, "You know how to tire a person out. I'm exhausted!" She looked up at Mrs. Wong's face, her eyes smiling back at her. She felt so comfortable with this woman.

Then something odd happened. Without thinking, Lilly reached for the beautiful 120 cigarette between Mrs. Wong's fingers and brought it up to her lips for a soft but long puff. She closed her eyes as she breathed the smoke in deeply, exhaling it through her nostrils and blowing out the remaining vapors from between her lips. When she opened her eyes, she saw Mrs. Wong's face looking down at her with a wide smile. She smiled back, unsure of what had just occurred - and then realized that she was holding the Virginia Slims between her fingers.

"Oh my God," she said with much embarrassment as she handed the 120 back to Mrs. Wong, "I don't know why I just did that." Humiliated, Lilly sank under the quilt and covered her head like a little child.

"It's alright, my dear," Mrs. Wong replied softly. "You mentioned last night that my sitting here with you evokes memories of when your mother would tuck you into bed as a child. No doubt you're just expressing now at 18 the urges you had to smoke as a little girl. I understand."

Lilly peaked from under the covers and said with a guilty grin, "May I have another puff?"

"Of course, child," Mrs. Wong said and tapped some ash from the cigarette into the ashtray.

Lilly pulled back the covers and sat up. She gently received the cigarette Mrs. Wong handed to her and brought it up to her lips for an extended puff. Gracefully removing it with her fingers, Lilly opened her mouth, revealing a thick ball of smoke which she inhaled with a snap. She loved the tingling sensation in her body that the nicotine provided, and to prolong that sensation she exhaled slowly over the covers. She smiled with pride. "That felt good," she confessed to Mrs. Wong, a vapor of smoke still emanating from her mouth as she handed back the Virginia Slims.

"Would you like another puff dear?" her teacher asked.

"No, I better not," Lilly said with some hesitation, though in fact she wanted to light her own cigarette. Mrs. Wong could see the psychological addiction growing stronger in Lilly. Perhaps tonight would be the last smoking session the teen needed. "Tomorrow is another busy day for you. We'll be taking a field trip to the Norton Simon Museum, so you should get some sleep. You look very tired."

"Yeah," Lilly replied with a yawn. "I think I could fall asleep right now."

Mrs. Wong put her hand on the girl's face. "Rest now," she said, and Lilly fell into a trance. Mrs. Wong thought for a moment as she crushed her cigarette in the ashtray and reached for one of Lilly's Virginia Slims sitting on the nightstand. "Lilly," she said before pausing to light the 120, "did you enjoy our beauty care lesson today?"

A smile formed on the girl's face. "Yes," she replied slowly.

"So did I," responded Mrs. Wong after exhaling a cone of smoke above the girl's head. "You're sitting at the mirror right now, Lilly, the amazing assortment of makeup items in front of you. Do you see them?"

"Yes."

"You notice that there is an opened silver cigarette case near your hand. I want you to pull out a cigarette and light it." Geraldine paused for a puff, giving Lilly time in her mind to light the 120. "Now look at yourself in the mirror. You look so beautiful holding a cigarette aloft. Take a deep puff and watch the smoke float out of your mouth. Doesn't that look wonderful?"

"Yes, very sexy."

Mrs. Wong grinned, learning something new about Lilly's attraction to smoking. "Yes, my dear, smoking is very sexy - but that's for another session. Men love to watch a woman smoke. They love the confidence that it conveys, the sophistication and elegance. You are that kind of woman, Lilly. You are a confident smoker, one empowered by the long cigarette between your fingers." Mrs. Wong watched Lilly purse her lips and exhale a gust of air. "Good girl, Lilly. I want you to put your makeup on now, admiring how good you look smoking. Every woman should smoke when she puts on make-up so that she can watch herself in the mirror holding a long cigarette. This is what you will dream about tonight, my dear. When I count to three, you will fall into a deep sleep with these thoughts in your mind. One...two...three."

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Lilly walked down a hallway and opened the door into Mrs. Wong's kitchen. There she saw Auntie Elizabeth and Auntie Georgia sitting at a small table, smoking and talking with Jeffrey who watched them with a hungry smile on his face.

"Aunties, what are you doing here?" she asked quizzically.

"Why are you fighting what you are meant to be, Lilly?" Elizabeth replied while Georgia slowly blew a cone of smoke up towards the light. "Stand up straight." She heard voices in the living room and walked in to find Caroline standing on a winding staircase, wearing a debutant's gown and holding a long lit cigarette.

"You know you want to," she said to Lilly as she brought the Max up to her lips. "What are you waiting for?" added Jenny who was now standing at the bottom of the stairs, also dressed in a gown and smoking a long Eve. The two girls laughed and walked out of the living room through a door.

"Wait," Lilly said, and followed them through the door, finding herself in the back of a church. At the front, Caroline and Jenny, still in their gowns, were standing side by side. Lilly heard the preacher mumble something while the two girls slowly brought their cigarettes up to their mouths and exhaled successive streams of smoke into the air. Lilly didn't understand what was going on. Were here friends getting married?

"I now pronounce you debutant and debutant," Lilly heard the preacher say, and everyone in the church stood up as Jenny and Caroline turned to face the audience and march down the aisle, arm in arm.

Lilly ran up to them. "What's happening?" she asked frantically.

Jenny smiled at her. "What are you waiting for, Lil' Lilly?"

"You know you want to," Caroline added as the two breezed by Lilly, smiling, waving, and smoking.

When Lilly turned to follow, her mother stepped out of one of the pews and offered her a glass of wine. "You must go to finishing school," she told her daughter. Lilly knocked the glass out of her hand onto the floor and watched her mother crouch down to clean up the mess. But when the crouching woman turned her head upwards, Lilly realized it was actually Mrs. Wong.

"Choose wisely," the woman said mysteriously.

Lilly ran down the aisle to the church door and suddenly found herself in her bedroom in Mrs. Wong's home. She turned to the vanity mirror, the desktop covered with makeup items. When she looked into the mirror, she saw her reflection holding a cigarette high by the side of her cheek. She looked beautiful, confident, self-assured...empowered.

"You know you want to," the image said to her. "What are you waiting for?"

Lilly watched her reflection bring the cigarette to her lips and take a slow burning puff. She could suddenly feel the incredible sensation of the inhale move through her body like a tidal wave. She realized that she was having an orgasm.

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Lilly woke up with a start! She looked over at the clock and saw the red numbers reading 4:30. It had only been about 4 hours since she fell asleep with Mrs. Wong in the room, and she could still smell the smoke hanging in the air. She felt a tremendous sense of anticipation flowing through her body, and her heart was pounding. She knew what she wanted. She turned on the light and reached for a Virginia Slims out of the cigarette case.

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"Miss, your presence is requested for breakfast in the dining room," Jeffrey said with a knock on the door at 7:30 am.

Lilly opened her eyes and replied in a scratchy voice, "Thanks," followed by a wicked cough.

"Are you sick, Miss?" the voice behind the door asked with concern.

Lilly cleared her throat and said, "No, I'm fine. I'll be down soon." She put her hand onto her aching chest. "Oh my gosh," she whispered to herself as she looked over at the ashtray. "How much did I smoke last night?"

In addition to Mrs. Wong's crushed cigarette, Lilly counted three that she had smoked in the one and a half hours before feeling so dizzy that she put the last one out and fell back to sleep. Now she was regretting smoking so much. "How can Mom do this every day?" she murmured as she pulled back the covers and walked into the bathroom to take a shower. But with the images of her dream still playing over and over in her mind, Lilly felt the urge to have a cigarette by the time she got out of the shower.

"Maybe just a quick one," she said, biting her lip in anticipation of the wonderful feeling she knew she could experience from that first inhale of the day.

Before she could light it, however, Mrs. Wong was knocking at her door. "Lilly, breakfast is waiting," Mrs. Wong said with the door closed. "We need to get a move on if we're going to go to Pasadena this morning."

"Okay," she replied, disappointed with herself that she didn't light a cigarette after waking up. She grabbed her purse off of the bed and was ready to head towards the door when she looked down at the cigarette case sitting on the nightstand. "Oh, what the hell," she muttered as she snapped the case shut and put it into her purse. "Mrs. Wong's gonna find out anyway when she sees the case nearly half empty," she reasoned.

Lilly remained quiet at breakfast, offering short answers to Mrs. Wong's attempts to make conversation. Mostly her mind was on how - or even whether - she was going to tell Mrs. Wong that she was ready to start smoking - at least for now.

For her own part, Mrs. Wong could tell that Lilly was preoccupied with issues other than the weather or what she hoped to accomplish before the Fall semester at UCLA. She assumed this was due to the dreams that she had planted in her subconscious the night before, and so sought to move things along a bit by lighting a cigarette.

"So, my dear," she said, casually blowing smoke in her direction, "are you ready to visit the Norton Simon Museum today?"

Lilly couldn't take her eyes off of her teacher's cigarette. She reached into the purse resting on her lap, ready to come out of the closet, and then had second thoughts. "Yes," she stammered, finding it difficult to concentrate.

"You know," Mrs. Wong said, the cigarette stylishly held with her elbow resting on the table, "I can never decide which artist I like best, Picasso or Monet. Both have such incredibly different styles." She brought the 120 to her lips and gently puffed. "Do you have a favorite?" she asked after exhaling.

What are you waiting for? a voice in Lilly's head asked. "I like...Rembrandt, myself," she replied, her eyes fixed on the smoldering instrument between Mrs. Wong's fingers.You know you want to, the voice continued.

"Yes," Mrs. Wong replied, cocking her head back and blowing a milky white stream that cascaded upwards, "Rembrandt is a master."

Lilly couldn't stand it anymore. "This is ridiculous," she muttered and quickly pulled out the cigarette case in her purse, opened it, and reached in to pluck out a Virginia Slims. As she put it into her mouth and began searching for the lighter, Mrs. Wong reached over with a ready flame and a smile. Feeling a little guilty, Lilly moved her head towards the flame and lit the tip freehanded. She brought her fingers up to the base of the 120 as she drew hard on it, pulling the smoke back with a snap, and sitting back in her chair as she exhaled across the table. "Oh my God," she sighed, "that feels good."

"More importantly," Mrs. Wong said as she placed the lighter on the table, "it looks good."

Lilly took another deep puff and held the smoke in her lungs for several seconds before exhaling a sputtering cloud.

"Tsk, tsk," Mrs. Wong said, "you've no style at all, my dear. Smoking is an art form, and you must learn how a woman of means smokes a cigarette while still thoroughly enjoying every puff."

For the next 15 minutes, Mrs. Wong showed the new smoker all the tricks of the trade: how to light a cigarette, how to smoke it with poise and grace - and just a little seduction. "Never hold the cigarette down low when you smoke in public," she explained. "Always hold it high, making sure that everyone can see you are a confident smoker."

"But most people these days don't smoke," Lilly said with concern. "Won't I be ostracized?"

"My dear, remember - you are better than the vast majority of people who inhabit this world. Don't ever forget that. You will always find friends and loved ones within our social class who will accept you for who you are. I guarantee that if you take these smoking lessons to heart, you will never be lonely."

Lilly believed and trusted Mrs. Wong. She knew that she had taken a big step on that path of self-discovery that her teacher had spoken of on the first morning. She wanted to learn more about herself and her status. "I'm ready to come out in public now," she said, holding her 120 proudly between her fingers.

"Yes, Lilly," Mrs. Wong replied with much satisfaction, "I believe you are." Geraldine rang the small bell next to her plate.

"Yes, Madam," the butler said after promptly arriving in the room. A large grin appeared on his face as he saw Lilly holding that beautiful Virginia Slims with such ease and self-assuredness.

And, of course, Lilly noticed. She liked the fact that a man, especially a man as handsome as Jeffrey, found her so attractive holding a long cigarette. "I should go freshen up before we go," she said to her tutor as she stood up from the table and confidently walked out of the dining room with the 120 gently swinging by her side.

"I see you chose wisely, Miss Lilly," Jeffrey said softly.

Lilly looked at Jeffrey with a grin of her own as she brought the cigarette to her lips for a gentle puff.Yes, she thought to herself,I did.