novel « Robin Writes

For your reading pleasure, my new WIP:

Aurora hated her name. It was so weird. None of her friends had weird names, they had normal names like Beth and Michelle and Tammy and Carrie. Or Lisa or Tina.

She sighed. It was hard being seven years old. She tenderly tucked in her doll, Mary Elizabeth, for a nap, and returned to picking up the rest of her toys before her mom called her for supper. If she hurried, she’d have time to read.

When Aurora was thirteen, she got a new bicycle, a red one. A grown-up bike, with gears and handbrakes and everything. She rode all over the neighborhood, to the park, and once she and Carrie went all the way down the main road to a pizza place.

At seventeen, she graduated high school and went off to college; at twenty-two, she was married and had a daughter. Throughout the next three decades, Aurora’s life was quite normal in spite of her name, but it was never boring.

And now, she was fifty years old.

And the unthinkable had happened. The world had ended.

Yeah, I smoke. I’d tell you how long I’ve been doing it, but in this day and age when we’re supposed to be tolerant of EVERYTHING ELSE, I’d probably just precipitate a long comments section of lectures.

Last Thursday, I bought an e-cig starter kit—the idea is that it delivers nicotine but not the rest of the crap in regular cigarettes. Water vapor, no secondhand smoke, etc., etc. I started using it Friday afternoon, after charging, and have so far, by alternating, cut my cigarette consumption in half. Not bad.

Except.

There’s a definite learning curve here—who knew? And I’m likely getting even less nicotine during this trial period, since I’m not very good at this new method. Anyway, the less nicotine, the less I’ll want it. Theoretically. Like I said, I’ve been doing this a while . . .

Someone pointed out a little factoid this morning: what happens when SHTF and we can’t charge those e-cigs? Well, we’re already going to have to find ways to recharge other things, and there are plenty of options, so it shouldn’t be an issue. If you plan ahead, of course.

Now, I’m a little old school—or old, take your pick—and I haven’t lived my entire 50 years with the technology we use daily and often take for granted.

This is why I need to get with the program: charging your cigarette pack is just plain sci-fi space age stuff!

Let me think about this for a moment . . .

I’ve been using computers since 1989, although I didn’t own one until 1992. Can’t imagine NOT having one now. Car phones, too, have been around for a while; that’s what they were initially called, and they were plugged into and stayed in one’s vehicle. It was considered tres cool, believe it or not—I had one in, let’s see, 1995 at least. Pretty much haven’t been without one since.

Twenty years of technology—but an e-cig? Odd. Eventually, of course, all bad habits will disappear when SHTF. We’ll all be too busy surviving, or trying to.

Think about it—if you get any of today’s dread diseases and illnesses, you likely won’t survive them, just like our ancestors also didn’t make it through cancer, measles, even pneumonia. Guess you can look at it two ways, probably just as they did: either you enjoy what you have and don’t obsess over “health,” or worry yourself into an early grave anyway.

That’s kind of how I look at smoking, anyway. Over my lifetime so far, I’ve heard of dozens, if not hundreds, of “things that will kill you.” And some of those, depending on the year and the expert, were contradictory!

So do what you want, as long as it works for you, and of course, as long as you’re prepared to quit or carry on, one way or the other.