‘Click!’

 

She tried pressing the ice burst inside her thin cigarette and it wouldn’t burst as it possibly had gone soft. She loved to hear the click sound it made before she lit it. “Shit”, she exclaimed, “Why wouldn’t it burst!!” 

“Had you kept the pack exposed to the elements?”, he asked. 

“No. Looks like the shopkeeper has given some old stock. I hate it when it doesn’t click”. 

“Do you smoke because you want to hear the sound?”

“It makes me go back to some crazy but fond memories of childhood”, she looked at him and winked with a grin. 

“Humour me”. 

“During school holidays, we all cousins would gather at our grandparents’ in the village. Some of the girls - even boys - would have a head full of lice, and our granny and all of us would indulge in cleaning them every other day with a wooden comb, after duly oiling our hair”. 

“Oops! Do you still have them?”

“No, surprisingly I never had them, but several of the cousins used to have loads”. 

“Okay? And, how’s that related to now?”

“Patience! I am coming to that. So, every time we would find a louse, we would carefully place on the left thumbnail and crack it with the right thumbnail pressed over it”. 

“Ewww. Gross!”, he threw a disgusted look at her. 

“But, it used to be so much fun to hear the louse crack and making a clicking noise. Like how this ice burst does”. 

She took another cigarette from the pack, checked if the mint inside was hard enough to crack, and when it burst with a click, she flicked away the old cigarette, lit the new one, and exhaled contentedly. 

He continued to stare at her open-mouthed, not knowing what to say. She was too busy puffing away to notice his expression. 

#veryshortstories