What Happened To Helen

An extramarital affair?

It was past 11:00 pm at the time, and the only person at the bar – asides from the bartender – was a man drinking and soliloquizing. Helen could barely make out his features as that part of the bar was in the shadows. She went to sit at the other end of the bar and set her laptop bag on the stool right beside her. It was then she remembered she had left her phone in the car but at that moment, she neither cared nor bothered to go and retrieve it. She set her wallet on the bar, pulled out a pack of cigarette along with the firelighter, and signalled to the bartender. She watched him walk towards her in his best professional manner.

"Can I smoke in here?" Even though there were just the three of them in the bar, she didn't want to come off as unconcerned about other people's smoking preference or health history.

"Sure, but you might want to ask the man over there," the bartender replied, pointing towards the man Helen had noticed earlier. "What may I get you?" he added.

"Catfish pepper soup, please, with extra sauce... and a bottle of Hennessey," she added, pulling out a cigarette from the pack which she then stuck in her mouth. She was about to light it when she took a glance at the man sitting across the bar.

Sitting down now, Helen was at a better position to see what he looked like from that distance. He was tall with a slender but athletic figure, and he had dreads falling across his shoulder. He had on a headband to keep the locks from falling on his face and blocking his vision, a moustache, and well-trimmed beards growing neatly with not a single strand out of place. Overall, he looked handsome.

That was the first time in a long while that Helen actually noticed an attractive man; ever since she got married to Michael, she hadn't bothered to look at men up to the point where she would start regarding them as being either attractive or not. Her husband was a very handsome man – the dream man of every ladies – and no matter how much she tried, she couldn't get him out of her head.

At that point, she didn't care; she was fed up with everything going on in her home. She lit a stick of cigarette and took a long drag, and did she miss that swoony feeling!...the rush of nicotine that filled her mouth, as she breathed out white smoke that gathered like a cloud of happiness above her. She coughed repeatedly and wiped at the tears that were beginning to blur her vision, she hadn't smoked in years and the suddenness of her action shocked even her body system. She heard a sound like feet shuffling and turned to see the man cover the distance between them and set his stool beside her.

The bartender brought Helen's drink to her together with a plate of fish brimming with extra sauce as she had requested, then walked over to the other side of the bar to arrange the stools and clean the mess left behind by those who came to party earlier that evening. Helen took a sip of her chilled Hennessey drink and cut a sizeable chunk of the fish with her spoon, taking with it a spoonful of the soup. She took another drag from her cigarette and coughed again.

"Hey! Do you have more of those?" the stranger asked, pointing at the lit cigar Helen held between two fingers.

Helen nodded in the affirmative and reached into her wallet, pulling out another pack of the cigarette and handed it over to him; an action that would later cost her her life. Helen watched him light his cigarette before taking another puff from her own. It tasted just as horrible as she had remembered it and knew well about the dangers of smoking, and also that she would have to take at least two baths to get the irritating odour away from her body.
"You look too responsible to be a smoker," the stranger started, blowing out a cloud of smoke from his mouth.

"I was once a smoker, but I had to quit a few years back."

"And what is it that has brought you back to your addiction?" He took a sip from Helen's drink.