Emma Horak Berenice’s Lover – Rachel Denham-White

AN ODE TO THE SMOKERS’ AREA

When not consulting strangers for life advice, eMMa horak is thinking of the Macca’s order awaiting her at the end of the night. Note: the author does not condone smoking, just conversations with said ‘smokers’!

In the Smokers’ Area, you can be known by any name besides your own. The amicable pang usually starts to set in between the fourth miscellaneous shot and the ninth stab from an anonymous stiletto. You find yourself in a bathroom cubicle just to breathe, your ears still ringing from an attempted conversation with your mate. Maybe it was their heel that delivered the deathblow to your foot.

The truth is, you actually enjoy those visits to the boogeymen of the night out. And sure, you might be continuously assaulted by the perfume of a lit cigarette, or that familiar desire to itch at the suffering, but with just a little patience, the magic of the smoker’s lover’s lane always reveals itself. Perhaps you may wish to do as the Romans to blend in, but there is no rule for it. Sometimes all the heavy hearts there just want another to press up against.

You’ll have to be sneaky on this journey. You can’t be caught visiting how the other half lives, lest your party greets you with a curled lip and a snarled where have you been upon your return.

Everything is muted out here, subdued. Bodies sway to the muffled music, undercut by swells of laughter. On nights like these, the smokers are the most sociable people in existence. Their chatter curls around you in plumes.

Picking the night’s confidant may also take scrutiny, but you need not delve into more than shallow conversation to reveal them, a simple Hi, a How are you? Unstitch those social formalities and let the alcohol bleed into the rest of the small talk.

You’ve heard sagas and epics spilled from all sorts here: characters and wallflowers all combined into one little rendezvous. Smoking is no discriminator.

All you need do is sit back and watch the night burn down like the last dart in the pack.