Smoking Paradise Origin's - Martha

Hannah winced. "I feel there is but coming on!" Hannah shook her head as she picked up her wine glass and took another gulp.

Marth nodded in agreement "Yes there is...But for others it's just the beginning of an almost pleasant slide into a full-blown smoking addiction. It goes from having an odd cigarette throughout a day to then a few weeks later the brain is numbed to that amount it no longer gets the desired the rush it was used to, one cigarette just doesn't contain enough nicotine, it wants more. Then over time it slowly increases what its wants, it's a drug, the body is desperate for the dopamine hit. So, roll forward four to six months it's now asking for ten or so cigarettes a day to achieve that rush. Then over weeks or months those ten just becomes background. The brain is not really getting the dopamine hit it feels its owed by filling the lungs with toxins. It is no longer getting that dopamine style rush that it originally was getting when you started smoking and its flinches and starts demanding more, and more. The brain loves the rush and wants and needs that extra buzz and the feeling that a few months or years ago that it can remember that time when nicotine produced that rush when you smoke. The brain starts suggesting that it wants just that one extra cigarette to give it that little bit of extra pleasure."

"Don't you hear gamblers are like that?" Hannah stated gulped, nodded, and picked up and then gulped her wine as Martha dragged again on her cigarette; she exhaled a narrow cone out to the side of her mouth and continued.

"Yes, one more gamble will win, it's the same dopamine feeling when victory is achieved, nicotine is no different. When you go out for a drink with the guys and girls after a stressful day at work and with the rounds rotating and conversation is flowing, and your Marlboro pack is open in front of you. Soon without actually realising you have smoked your normal half a pack during the day and the rest in the first couple of pubs, and you had to go to the corner shop and buy another pack when moving between pubs and somehow you smoke another twenty in just that evening. The brain is absolutely ecstatic it believes pure dopamine is being pumped around the body. Because alcohol and nicotine are being pumped around, the brain is loving the dopamine affect that is flowing around the body so it rides a huge wave of euphoria for the whole night, there is a downside again." She paused and pulled hard on her cigarette, exhaled, and smiled.

"Oh, the morning?" Hannah asked tilting her head inquisitively yet again.

Martha nodded as she trimmed the now large ash balancing on the tip of the cigarette as the remnants of her last exhale drifting out her nose, she ran her finger across her lips and chuckled to herself as she looked at Hannah "It must be said that the body swiftly and conveniently forgets the banging headache of hangover doesn't it, along with the saw croaky throat and feeling groggy on the Sunday morning but soon enough with the gallon of coffee and orange juice. The sugars from the juice and the caffeine from the coffee start working its magic the body and brain. BUT there is still one missing thing. Dopamine. The body feels like shite. It knows there is something that will make it feel better. It suggests you are missing a morning cigarette as the dopamine level has dropped and the hangover hurts, and the body still believes that the very next hit will make it and the day start even better and you start again, filter between your lips, lighter flicked, and the delightful nicotine rich smoke filling your lungs.

"That's madness!" Hannah exclaimed.

"It is and then by the following week your body then remembers this feeling it had and wants the same again, your friends suggest a drink and cigarette and of course you agree, away you go, but then over time it doesn't just become every Saturday night that delightful need for pleasure gets louder and more desperate you are not going to be silly and give it alcohol in the morning but nicotine is easy and the brain is wanting the whole pack cigarettes now and doesn't wait until that Saturday night for it so after a few months or years it needs more on a Sunday morning, and then the afternoon, and then the evening and oh well Monday mornings need a pick-me-up and lunchtime...and then without really trying it becomes a pack day, unless you go out for drinks...when yes you've guessed its more..." Martha stopped and finally took another drag and stubbed out the cigarette.

"Like you, mum and dad?"

Martha smiled as the final drifts of smoke ghosted out her nose and nodded, then gently coughed to clear her throat. She took a recuperative large gulp of her wine, "Guilty as charged, but as I work 24-48 hours shifts, I really don't smoke anywhere near as much as them as I can't. But it's definitely not because I don't want to, I would love it, I love smoking and working 24 hours shifts doesn't stop my body wanting to smoke, as the brain consumes the nicotine the warm buzz wears off and after time the body starts demanding that feeling again. so as soon as I finish work, I am absolutely desperately wanting a cigarette, and I am not happy until I've had one." She frowned and pulled another fresh cigarette out the pack and placed it between her lips.

"So, Mart" Hannah gulped her wine again "that's the brain pleased with the top up of legal drugs, this is again an upside, but I guess with the slight downside of the addiction, stinking of smoke etc. but what about the poor lungs?"

Martha smiled and fresh unlit cigarette dangling in the corner of her mouth she picked up her pen again and frantically coloured in the circles.

"You see Hannah..." she said removing the cigarette from her lips as the smoke drifted out, she then pointed her pen at the drawing "...the other major problem is it's not just the nicotine in these cigarettes that gets absorbed, rather it's not only nicotine the lit cigarette produces you see as I said earlier the smoke formed contains small soot particulates from the burning leaf and paper. It also produces carbon dioxide and other good stuff like tar that as I said earlier that normally the lungs would expel it with a gentle cough and all would be okay, but here we are trying to unnaturally force it in."

"Oh god, oh why Martha?" Hannah exclaimed.

"Well, yes and normally over time once someone stops the smoking the lungs do an amazing job at cleaning themselves over time and expel all the crud."

"That's great news Mart, please, pretty please, stop smoking!" Hannah exclaimed praise written across her face.

Martha smiled as she shook her head then she paused as she then flicked the lighter and protecting the cylinder with her hands lit her cigarette with two long deep drags, before continuing whilst exhaling thought her nose and mouth "...So the other unwanted things, like soot, poisons including tar that over time don't get absorbed in the blood stream, over the day you smoke, let's say conservatively for our parents, twenty cigarettes every day, that is a lot of smoke going in and out extremely frequently and which each drag has in it, along with the positive wonderful needed nicotine, it also has all stuff you don't want, that kinda wants to start to settle in the small branches of the lungs."

"Ugggh!" Hannah screwed up her face.

"Yeah, so over decades it starts to harden them in the process, like a river that silts up when no boats are going through, there is nothing to stir it up, and the body doesn't really have a chance to remove it before the next volley of smoke, and that is why smokers sometimes cough especially in the mornings, you've heard mum and dad, it's the natural instinctive response of the body to try dredge the lung canals of settled gunk and it wants to remove the crap to allow oxygen to flow again."

"Ugh!" Hannah again twisted her face up. "And the very first thing they do after clearing the lungs is light another cigarette and put the very same crap back in... why Mart do you do it to yourself you are a bloody doctor?"

Martha smiled wryly as he knocked a couple of millimetres of ash off the white cylinder "You remember Grandpa George?"

"Mums dad? He died when I was still young."

"Yeah, well he was geologist and catholic." She brought the cigarette back to her lips and pulled hard.

Hannah laughed rolling her eyes, "What's that got to do with smoking?"

"Well during the working week, he would look at rocks millions of years old developed over time, but on a Sunday would go to church and agree he believes the world was made in seven days."

Hannah screwed her face up "What?"

"I look at it that on a Friday morning as a doctor I can tell someone to stop smoking and on a Friday evening light up and enjoy one or two of my own!" she proudly smiled.

"You're my lovely sister, but I think you're totally bonkers!" Hannah sipped her wine again "So go on before I finish the wine and need another drink, what is the gritty stuff?"

Marth shrugged her shoulders and took a short drag "So other problem with smoking is that over very long time, years, and years the poisons contained within the smoke particulates and crud actually start eroding and break down the surface of the alveoli which have for decades worked so hard transferring oxygen and nicotine into the blood stream. Which the breaking down of course then hinders their main role and function for us all which is of course getting oxygen into the blood stream. They have been so good at getting nicotine in that when they collapse and well that means that they then fail at their main job.

"Oh my god!" Hannah's eyes widened.

"Yes, which is why in some older smokers, unless they are extremely active with the ability of moving the crud around in the lungs a lot, can't move as quickly as they can't get the oxygen the body needs through the barriers of tar into the broken alveoli and the bloodstream."

"Okay...that not good..." Hannah took a longer gulp of wine whilst studying her sister and then looked at the drawing on the packet as Martha again inhaled on her cigarette.

"It's not; that's why we see people with oxygen bottles, forcing pure oxygen into the lungs, smoking also thins the skin and ages you, there a whole list of issues... including cancer..." Martha stated as she flicked the ash from her cigarette and looked up as Hannah studied her face.

"...so simply Mart again please just stop smoking?"

"Well Hannah that's the easy statement, but almost impossible to do," she stated as she paused as she had yet another double pump inhale, before billowing a cloud up above her shoulder, "or even want to think about doing as my body is so used to getting the pure pleasure that high levels of nicotine" she said with smoke still tumbling out of her mouth "that I provide it, it actively looks for it, it demands that hit, it's also habit, over time you just get used to the rhythm of sitting there drink whether its coffee of wine, putting a cigarette between your lips and then getting that feeling the excitement build in the body."

"I just don't get why you do it to yourself!" she frowned and raised up her glass and finished off her wine.

"So, I can't tempt you with a cigarette before we go home then?" Martha asked with a wry smile. "As I think I personally think I look hot with a cigarette between my fingers, and so would you!" she grinned and took an exaggerated inhale.

"The parents don't want you to go; I don't want you to go to the island." Hannah replied ignoring the question.

A smile crept across Martha's face as the smoke was forced out her nose "It's my future, I like smoking and I want to go on an adventure, I will come home for holidays and of course you can come out and visit."

"Why would I want to be on fricking Smoking Island?"

Martha shrugged her shoulders as she picked up her handbag and pulled out a fresh pack of Marlboro Reds and unwrapped the cellophane and flipped open the lid and placed a fresh cigarette between her lips.

"You probably wouldn't like it, but I think I will!" she half grinned and then tilted her head slightly and lit the cigarette with another cheek collapsing, alveoli covering inhale.

"I will miss you!" Hannah dejectedly sighed as she looked at her empty wine glass. "I really will."

Chapter 8

Martha nervously looked around the wooden panelled room five freshly lit cigarettes burning between fingers in front of her not helping the heat of the island as sweat was pouring down her spine and running down between her breasts and pooling in the cups of her underwired bra. She sat at the far end of the table in her long summer dress, in the noticeably non-air-conditioned room. The large window was open, but with no perceptible fresh air was actually circulating in the thick smoky room.

The tall dark Martin Fitzpatrick placed his cigarette in the large glass ashtray, gulped from a plastic bottle of water and stood up at the end of the table.

"Afternoon everyone, thanks for convening on yet another hot day. I feel that I should introduce our new member of the team here rather than in the bar as usual. As you all know we have been short in medical assistance since Dr Johnson sadly left us and so without any further ado, please give a warm SPIL welcome to Doctor Martha Wilkinson." He gave a little clap and the others followed.

"You will be pleased to know that she has been fully vetted, haven't you, and Tanya confirmed to me she passed the test last night in the bar and that she is happy!" he stated and looked across at Tanya sitting beside him as she shrugged her shoulders and nodded and he looked back at Martha as she nervously nodded too and pulled a cigarette from the pack in front of her, and with 10 eyes staring at her she wiped her forehead and then quickly lit the cigarette pulling of a double pump inhale.

Martin smiled with the visual confirmation as she exhaled "So she is here to work with us all to maintain the health and I guess safety of all customers, staff, and residents here on the islands. We have had a brief discussion about a couple of things, and I totally agree with them as such, I will quickly let her introduce herself and give you an overview of her plans going forward."

The gather members then like a tennis match looked from Martin back to Martha.

Martha took a drag on her cigarette and as she exhaled pushed the chair back. She rubbed her nose with the back of her hand then leant forward and placed her burning cigarette in the ashtray as she got up.

"So..." She nervously coughed "...err, don't worry I am not ill, just nervous I guess...anyway thank you for employing me at such a special place. I am Mart, Martha, Dr Wilkinson, I'm twenty-five recently graduated junior doctor, don't worry I have done my full training. I am an actual real doctor, so thanks again for employing me and letting me look after you all. I have got to thank Tanya for giving me such an interesting and detailed tour of the island yesterday, I don't think I have actually walked that far in years!" she grinned. "I also appreciated, even if my liver and kidneys didn't, the welcome from many of you in the bar last night. It was certainly an intensive, but enjoyable evening!"

As the eyes glanced back to Tanya and then back to Martha "So, let us get to the important hurdle, firstly as a Doctor I totally condone smoking right, I have seen the damage it does to many a patient in the last few years of training, it is bad for us, right? Everything that they in the media have told us is true...However as you may have noticed I also smoke..." she leant forward and picked up and flicked her cigarette and took a long cheek inverting drag "...and I really enjoy smoking as such I smoke a lot when I can" she said exhaling the smoke twisting and dancing in the room in front of her as it collided with haze above the table, "...yes get me, yes I am as deeply addicted as the rest of you." She said before smiling, and taking another deep drag building her confidence as she both smoked and spoke "So how can we help us help ourselves, other than actually doing the dirty and quitting?"

The room groaned knowing what was coming next.

"Yes, other than that dreaded word quitting there is the equally dreadful and almost evil word exercise! I get the impression you knew it was coming?"

The overweight greying John Harrison stood up "Sorry love, but we and the wife come here to get away from health lectures thanks very much, we came here to sit and quietly smoke. It's the whole point of being here!" As swiftly as he got up, he sat back down again and pulled hard on his own cigarette.

Martha rubbed her thumb along her lip and nodded. "I totally agree with you, I wouldn't want to be lectured at either. You want to enjoy yourselves!"

"Maybe we could do this later at the bar then?" Martin suggested. "That's the best place to enjoy ourselves!"

"Actually Dad, maybe we should listen to her?" Tanya interrupted as she shuffled in the chair and manicured her cigarette.

Martha pulled on her cigarette as she looked at the group, exhaled and then bit her bottom lip before she continued "As Tanya showed me yesterday, and all I was going to suggest is that maybe once a week, residents and visitors are suggested to go for gentle walk up to the waterfall beautiful waterfall a have a paddle?"

"Is that it?" John asked.

Martha nodded as she chuckled "Yes."

"Oh, well, I can agree to that. I thought you were going to get us roller skating or cycling hundreds of miles or something drastic." John replied.

"God no, that's far too much like hard work!" Martha grinned as her hand brough the filter to her lips and in took a drag on her cigarette.

"I can easily arrange that! Take peeps up for a walk" Tanya grinned and pulled on her cigarette.

"Excellent" Martin said, "So without further ado, we welcome Martha to the islands, and I think we should quicker than soon get out of this hot room and get down to the bar for a proper welcoming drink?"

Martha nodded in agreement, wiped her forehead of sweat, as she took yet another drag on her cigarette and stubbed it out as she exhaled, she picked up her pack and lighter, pushed her chair back and looked to follow the crowd to the bar.

THE END