The Island - Part 2 (Fallen Earth) Read Online Free Page B

held salt, pepper, and creamer, along with a dozen other small containers.
    Most of the cups had company logos emblazoned on them from my corporate days. I’d learned early on to generate goodwill by buying up small items from clients. Back at the house in Tennessee, another shelf in the cabinet held a couple dozen others. My bedroom closet also had a box sitting in the corner full of company T-shirts and hooded sweatshirts, most of which still had the sale tags on them.
    I poured a cup, and made as if to sit back in the entrance way, using the cockpit floor as a seat. Elsie however motioned for me to move farther back. She followed me outside, carrying the blanket from the bunk. She shivered and pulled it around her shoulders as she sat. I started to ask why she wanted to sit out under the tarp, but that question vanished the instant she pulled a pack of cigarettes from her pocket. She held it up in her wrinkled old hands and pulled one free.
    “I think you lied to me,” she said.
    I frowned. “About what?”
    She waved toward the cabin.
    “I asked if you smoked and drank. You said you did. There’s liquor down there, cigarettes down there, but nary a one has been opened and I ain’t seen you partake in either since we left.”
    I sipped at my coffee, enjoying the rich taste and noting her slip back to the country-girl language.
    “This stuff is good.”
    She nodded.
    “That it is. I have that coffee imported from Hawaii. It’s one of my few indulgences. A pound of that runs about sixty dollars. Enjoy it. What gets me is why a man would carry tobacco and alcohol and not use either.”
    I lifted my shoulders in a slight shrug.
    “It wasn’t a lie. I used to smoke, a long time ago. A lot of ex-smokers will tell you that the urge never really goes away. Even now, after fifteen years, I still have times when I find myself reaching for one.”
    I offered her a wry smile. “It’s just not often. I figured if I wanted one while I was out here, I’d indulge. Right now, the Surgeon General is probably more worried about the Fever than whether or not someone smokes a couple before he dies.”
    I watched as she lit the cigarette she had pulled from the pack.
    “As for the alcohol, I like a shot now and then.”
    She blew smoke into the cockpit. Although the tarp shielded the back of the boat from most of the wind, enough slipped through the edges to whip the plume away.
    “The trick to enjoying things like this Hill William, is to control them and use them when you want. Addiction is all about letting stuff pick for you. Pleasure is about choosing when to indulge--like first thing in the morning with a cup of coffee. You want a smoke now.”
    I raised my eyebrows.
    “I do?”
    She nodded and shook another from the pack. I stared it at for a long moment. Quitting had been one of the hardest things I had ever done. The thought of lighting up seemed to crap all over the years of fighting back the urge. Even so, resisting then seemed stupid.
    I sighed and took it. You’d think that a decade and a half of staying away from them would have left me hacking and coughing on the first pull. You’d think that if you had never smoked. Therein lies one of the most insidious characteristics of tobacco. Two puffs in, the smoke went down as smooth as the last puff had fifteen years earlier. That didn’t stop the immediate head-rush that left me reeling.
    Elsie laughed.
    “God you are a bad influence.” I said hoarsely. “How the hell am I supposed to drive the boat out of here when I can’t even stand up?”
    The laughter died away.
    “We ain’t going anywhere. That water ain’t going to get better for a while. We’d probably make it okay, but not by the deadline and honestly, I don’t like the word probably. I’d just as soon not take the chance. Besides, I’ll call the Judge once the weather dies down.”
    It took a minute to get my wits back.
    “Who’s the Judge?”
    She sipped at her coffee.
    “The Judge is