Nicole - A Smoking Fairy Tale

She looked out the window to see if she could look for Gotha, and looked down and noticed the ladder was gone, she looked around and she couldn't see it. It wasn't there.

"Aunt Gotha" Nicole called out. There was no reply. "Hello Aunt Gotha?" she shouted out louder only to hear the wind in the trees and the birds tweeting to themselves call back.

'Why would Aunt Gotha take the ladder with her?' mused Nicole. 'Where has she gone? I guess she will be back soon.' And Nicole returned to the chair and a lukewarm cup of tea.

With that she kept herself busy for the next half an hour making Aunt Gotha's cigarettes as she requested, she sat there putting a little bit of dried tobacco leaf in the paper, with a filter and rolled them licking each one and sealing them. She quickly ran out of tobacco and sat there with a small pile of cigarettes on the table. She looked pleased with herself and looked around as to what to do next.

She looked out the window again and saw no one. She boiled the kettle again and made herself yet another cup of tea.

As the sun began to set, and Gotha had not returned, Nicole was starting to panic slightly. 'Where has Gotha gone?' she asked again. She took her cup of tea to the window and sat on the ledge looking out through the forest trying to see where Gotha was. She sat there perched on the ledge taking sips of her tea. She looked around trying to work out where she should go to the toilet, and shrugged her shoulders.

Nightfall came and went, with no sign of Gotha, Nicole looked over the edge of the tall tower contemplating jumping and running home, she looked and looked again, and after biting her lips and screwing her face up a couple of times, convinced herself not to do it.

She looked around the small living area of the tower, there was a small bed there, there was a kettle, and there were some crisps and snacks in the cupboard. 'I won't starve, but, where is she?"

Nicole sat down in the chair with her cup of tea next to the small mountain of rolled cigarettes she had made this afternoon beside her. 'At least Gotha will come back for these." She convinced herself.

***

The following morning, she was awoken by a shout "Nicole, Nicole, let down your hair"

Nicole stretched and opened her eyes to try and work out where she was, the sun was shining through the window "Oh hell, I am still here." She said out loud.

"Nicole, Nicole, please let down your hair?" Gotha bellowed again with a gravelly voice.

"Gotha, I am on my way! What's wrong with the ladder?"

"Ah there you are gorgeous Nic." Gotha said looking up from the base of the tower.

"Ah you are back, can you get the ladder, so I can come down too?" Nicole asked.

"No dear, it is broken, can you please unravel your hair, I will use it as a rope to come up and join you." Gotha asked.

"Pardon?" Nicole replied.

"Just do it!" Gotha barked. As Nicole then untied her long hair that was in its large bun on top of her head, and she let it fall to near the ground.

"Thank you! Gotha replied as the she tugged on the hair.

"Ouch!" replied Nicole, as Gotha bunched up her long skirt, and for an elderly lady showing unseen agility started to climb up the tower using Nicole's hair as a rope.

"Take my hand" Gotha barked as she neared the top.

"Okay!" replied Nicole bending backwards and offering her hand to Gotha and then pulling her over the top of the window ledge.

"Thank you dear, let's sit down its time for a cigarette!" suggested Gotha as she panted from the climbing activity.

"Err Aunt Gotha are you going to explain where you went yesterday?" Nicole asked as Gotha rearranged her skirt and headed for the kettle in the corner.

"In time, boil the kettle dear, and let's have a cigarette!" Gotha ordered.

"Yes, Aunt Gotha, did you bring any milk? We, I mean, I drank several cups last night waiting for your return." She stated sheepishly.

"Yes, I did, but more importantly, did you roll my cigarettes?" Gotha asked as she rummaged around in her bag and brought out a bottle of milk.

"Of course Aunt Gotha, they are on the table for you." Nicole said as she stood aside revealing the neatly stacked pile of rolled cigarettes and the cleaned ashtray. She then sat down on the wooden stool and slowly but surely gathered her hair back in as Gotha went to the corner of the tower and boiled the kettle as she waited for it she got another mug out of the wicker basket on the floor.

Gotha and Nicole sat there and drank their cups of tea; Nicole was desperate to discuss the elephant in the room.

"So dear, do you want to join me for a cigarette?" Gotha asked as she sparked one of the rolled up cigarettes in to life with a deep draw, exhaling the smoke away from the two of them, before skilfully flicking the ash in to the glass ashtray.

"Sorry Aunt Gotha, I'm confused, you run away taking away the ladder, leaving me up in this tower on my own, and the first thing you ask me is if I want to start to learn to smoke?" Nicole asked in an exasperated tone and then sipped her tea.

Gotha inhaled again on her cigarette, and as she exhaled she replied "You are now eighteen my dear, you are free to enjoy the pleasure of a cigarette" said with the smoke pouring out of her mouth.

"That may be the case Aunt Gotha, but why am I up here?"

"Yes dear, you are up here for, err, your, err, own safety, and I will explain all in the fullness of time." She replied and dragged hard on her cigarette, exhaled and drank a slug of tea.

Nicole looked down at her tea and stewed a little. "Are you going to leave me here again tonight?" she asked.

"Yes dear, I am. I will be back in the morning with more food and supplies." Gotha replied before toking on her cigarette before pulling a bit of leaf from her lips. "You need to get the cardboard in tighter next time you roll them dear." She advised before inhaling again.

"Yes, aunt Gotha," Nicole said as she looked down at her cup of tea perched on her lap and nodded.

"Excellent, I have dried more leaf and brought some more papers; once I leave you can crack on for me!" Gotha smiled and then inhaled again.

***

After an hour, a couple of cups of tea and a several cigarettes, Gotha inhaled deeply on the stub of her cigarette before putting out in the ashtray, as she got up and exhaled, she asked for Nicole to unravel her hair. "It's time for me to go, you will be ok here for the night again, and it is perfectly safe!"

"What?" Nicole asked.

"I need to visit the bushes, all this tea and my bladder is not as good as it was," She stated as she started to bunch up her skirt in anticipation of leaving.

"You could use the bucket in the corner, as I had to last night?" Nicole asked whilst pointing to the red plastic bucket in the corner.

"Well, yes dear I could, but anyway it's time for me to go home, and you really ought to learn to smoke dear, it is time! Oh you should regularly empty that bucket too, it will start to smell!" she sniffed the air.

"I understand that, but what am I going to do here on my own?" Nicole asked.

"I have left you some more leaf and papers, get rolling, don't be afraid to try smoking them either, it's a good way to while away the time. You will enjoy them! I've left you a match box, with plenty of matches; you will have ample time to practice." Gotha said trying to stop her evil laugh. "Nic, please get unravelling your hair."

"Yes Aunt Gotha," Nicole said in a subservient tone and moved to the window frame and started to unravel her hair whilst staring at the pile of cigarette papers and leaf.

"You are a good girl." Gotha said as she reached the window and patted Nicole's arm.

"Thank you Aunt Gotha." Nicole said as she followed orders dropped her long hair down to the ground, and Aunt Gotha hoicked up her skirt, flashing the top of her tatty laddered brown stockings and then unceremoniously climbed over the window ledge and started to abseil down the side of the tower using Nicole's hair as a rope. "When will I see you again?" Nicole asked once Gotha was at the bottom of the tower.

"Maybe tomorrow, you have plenty of bread, ham, butter, milk and cigarettes to last you for a couple of days!" Gotha shouted up from the base of the tower, she paused and thought for a second before shouting up "Remember to roll and smoke some of my cigarettes, I will be back for them, but do feel free to try them!" she grinned as she suggested it, before turning and waddling off in to the woods.

"Bye Aunt Gotha!" Nicole shouted as she waved and then watched Gotha walk quickly in the direction of the big house; she then stopped beside a tree and clearly squatted down to do her business. Nicole turned and looked inside her now empty small basic room and at the now smaller pile of cigarettes, and the bag of leaf and the stash of fresh papers left on Gotha's chair and then to her more pressing need the red plastic bucket in the other corner of the room.

***

Nicole dragged her chair closer to the window, so she could see the view, and started singing out loud as to entertain herself as she started the boring and laborious process of rolling Gotha's tobacco into cigarettes.

Paul Chandler was riding his bike through the woods, taking a shortcut from work to his house in the village. As he cycled he could hear a noise between the birds coming from somewhere. He stopped and listened to the sound, and followed the singing until he came across a scruffy tall old brick folly. He leaned his bike against the tree and walked around the folly there was no way in, he couldn't see who was in the tower, but the voice sounded angelic.

He shrugged his shoulders and got back on his bike and cycled off in to the distance.

***

As Nicole got on with busily rolling the sweet-smelling tobacco in to cigarettes for Gotha, she sang and mused to herself why on earth she would smoke them, the smell so sweet before they were lit, yet so pungent and the taste she assumed so awful once fire had been added to the mix. She brushed the last crumbs of split tobacco leaf off her lap and picked up the last of her recently rolled cigarettes and placed it between her lips, and looked down her nose and at the neatly rolled white paper stick now protruding from her mouth.

It reminded her of the candy cigarettes Gotha used to buy her to have after school which allowed Gotha to smoke in peace, Nicole could pretend to smoke with her and get the bonus of eating the sweets. She used to mimic Gotha flicking the crumbs from the end she had eaten on the floor as Gotha flicked her ash. Nicole giggled to herself and refocused on cigarette between her light pink lips and the on to the table beside her, she picked up the match box and pulled a match out just as she had watched her Aunt Gotha do hundreds of thousands of times.

Nicole stroked the match along the abrasive strip and it caught alight. She jumped back in chair, semi scared of the fire on the top of the match and between her fingers. She brought the flame to the cigarette and watched as the paper crackled and came alight. She then gently sucked against the cigarette and wiggled the match in the air to put it out and then she didn't cough as much or as hard as thought she would as the unfiltered tobacco smoke entered her mouth.

'Christ that is strange, its acrid yet nice' she said to herself and sucked gently again, filling her mouth and then lungs with smoke before letting it out again. 'But why?' she asked herself as she sucked gently on the cigarette again. After several brief tokes letting the smoke in and out of lungs and mouth, Nicole looked at the end of the burning cigarette and smiled. 'I will keep you happy Gotha' she mused and drew again on the burning cigarette between her fingers.

Chapter 5

The days drifted as Nicole focused on practicing smoking, with the aim of keeping Aunt Gotha happy, Gotha once she acknowledged that Nicole was listening to her, and following her instructions had set her a target of smoking at least five a day, as she had nothing else to do.

"It would be easy, just don't smoke them all at once" she was reminded, Gotha kept bringing more leaf and papers, and Nicole sat there looking out the window, singing and smoking. As the weeks went past, Gotha suggested she smoke ten a day. There began an almost consistent cloud of smoke wafting from the open window at top of the tower. Gotha visited Nicole daily delivering supplies of ham, bread, water and more and more tobacco and papers for Nicole to roll for both of them, taking away the majority of the cigarettes and her dirty clothes to wash.

Each morning Gotha would check how many cigarettes Nicole had smoked, and suggesting that she smoked more, as it was something to while away the hours. Whilst over on the other side of the woods.

Paul sat in the shade of a large tree one hot Saturday morning, as he did most sunny weekends with a clear view of the tower, as he watched what had become a ritual of this little old lady carrying a large hessian sack stub out her cigarette in the ground with a pile of other ones and call up in her gruff gravelly voice "Nicole, Nicole, let down your hair."

He watched as this long blonde hair was dropped and rolled out from the window at the top of the tower, he was still taken aback by the agility of the little old lady as she climbed the tower using the long braided hair as a rope. As the old women reached the top, he smiled at this young pretty face that peered over the edge and helped the old lady in.

Paul sat and watched through the open window as the two women talked animatedly and then they clearly both lit cigarettes, and puffed away with the smoke drifting out through the window. He smiled and watched as they as they went about cleaning and tidying up, as bin bags were thrown out the window followed by emptying buckets of water.

After a couple of hours the hair was rolled over the window sill and the old lady abseiled elegantly down the side of the tower, stepped over the damp mud from the water being thrown out and picked up the bin bags, throwing them over her shoulder, and waddled off in to the woods.

Today Paul gave it 20 minutes to be sure the old women wasn't coming back and watched other couple of small clouds of smoke be exhaled and drift out through the window before he walked over to the base of the tower and in his best imitation of a female voice called up "Nicole, Nicole let down your hair."

"You back so soon Gotha?" She replied out, "one minute!" she said as the hair started to slowly fall down to the ground.

Paul started to make the climb using the hair as a rope, just as he had watched the old lady do.

"What are you bringing up Gotha? It's heavy!" Nicole stated as Paul grunted his way up the side of the wall of the tower.

"You will see!" Paul tried to squeal as she climbed up the wall. As he reached the top grabbed hold of the brick window sill he pulled himself up to see the very beautiful blonde girl.

"Aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" Nicole screamed at the top of her voice. When she got her breath back she questioned in quick fire round "Who the hell are you? What are you doing here? What have you done Gotha?" and then coughed to clear her throat.

"Hi, calm down! Sorry for barging in." Paul replied and tried to calm her down, he explained who he was and that he had seen watching Gotha climb up and down the tower for several weeks and had been very curious to who was up here. He detailed how he had sat under the tree listening to her singing most afternoons, watching her exhales of cigarette smoke drift out the window, wishing he could share a cigarette with her.

"Its very kind of you to be very friendly to drop in, but I think you ought to leave, I don't think Gotha would like you being here!"

"I am sure she won't come back again this afternoon?" Paul asked.

"How do you know, she comes and goes as she pleases!" Nicole stated then thought for a second. "Fuck it, sorry for my language, I, err, need a cigarette, pardon for my bad habit, Gotha got me started on these smelly things several weeks ago, and now I can't stop!." as she turned and picked up one of the neatly rolled cigarettes off the table and placed it between her lips. Paul produced the lighter from his pocket and offered her a flame; she drew deeply and got it alight. "Thank you, feel free to take one!" she said with her exhale as she relaxed and explained that Gotha grew the tobacco herself.

"It's ok, I have got my own." Paul stated as he produced his own Marlboro Red's pack from his pocket and took out a cigarette and lit it for himself. "See, I mean no harm to you, just being friendly." Paul said with his exhale.

"Well, if you are staying, do you fancy a cup of tea, Gotha has yet to bring anything stronger for me." Nicole asked and then exhaled and dangled her cigarette as she had practiced after watching Gotha and then spent a few moments as she skilfully bundled her platted hair back up in a large top knot.

"Err, yes please." Paul stated and followed her from the window sill around the two chairs to the corner with a bottle of water, a small camping gas stove and a kettle.

"All mod cons in here" stated Nicole as she showed him the extremely basic set up and poured the water from the bottle in to the kettle and placed it on the gas stove. She then poured some of the water in to the mug and swilled it around before walking over to the window and throwing the contents out. "Only have two mugs, not really expecting visitors." She stated "It's fine, thank you very much." Paul smiled as she sat down on the old chair which creaked as his weight rested on it.

With the kettle boiled and as the cup of tea was drunk Nicole explained that she was effectively a prisoner, but is being looked after well, being supplied all that she needs, and is kept busy rolling Gotha and her cigarettes. "Talking of a cigarette, do you fancy another one?" she asked as she picked up another rolled cigarette and her match box, Paul leaned across and dug in to his trousers for his lighter and lit it for her again. "Thank you!" Nicole smiled before dragging hard on the cigarette again.

They sat there for the afternoon chatting, drinking tea and smoking together. "Could I ask you a favour? I know I have only just met you, but could you whistle or sing loudly and look out the window?" Nicole asked with her latest exhale as she got up flicked the ash from the cigarette as she had practiced watching Gotha and walked around the furniture to the corner of the room.

"Err, why?" Paul asked as he got up as requested and followed.

"The couple of cups of tea have gone through me, and I need to use the bucket facilities." She stated.

"Oh" Paul said as he stopped following and turned and walked over to the window and looked out at the view and whistled a really bad tune. Nicole lifted up her skirt as she hovered as she squatted over the red bucket, dropping the blue skirt protectively around her and the container.

"Sing louder!" she stated as she dangled her cigarette bounced as and did her business which thundered against the plastic bucket.

"Okay!" Paul said as he paused and ramped up his tune.

Nicole finally called out "Thank you!" as she bounced then stood up and stepped to the side to let her long skirt fall to the ground. "Stand back I need to flush." she said as she smiled at him as she walked up to the window and grin emptied the contents over the side.

"Ahhh!" Paul said knowingly as she did it.

"Thanks Paul, You can sit down again now." She said offering him the chair as she sat down, stubbed the cigarette out in the ashtray and the then promptly, flicked the match and lit another one.

"You like your cigarettes!" Paul said nodding as she inhaled on the rolled cigarette.