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Show 186 "A cigarette?" she managed to say. "Yes. I know you carry a pack in you purse sometimes. If you have some, I*d like one." Her purse was in the kitchen, where she left it when she came home from work; she fetched the pack and some matches, wordlessly handing them to him. And returned to the vacuum, to put it away. "Leave it for awhile," he said, "if you would." He struck the match, lighting the cigarette. "Here," he returned the pack and matches to her. "I .didn't know you smoked." "Oh yes," he said. But he didn't smoke often, he held his face back away -from the smoke, so it didn't get in his eyes. "Two or three times a year." She watched him. He seemed a different man with the cigarette in his hand. Katie's request-that she make allowances for him, that she really did not know him-came suddenly to mind. "What do you use for an ashtray?" he said. "Oh, usually just a tin can from the garbage." He followed her out to the kitchen, she found a tuna can in the garbage bag under the sink, from the tuna casserole that she had fixed for supper. "Yes," he said, "two or three times a year, I give in and have one." "This is the first time I've ever seen you smoke." "Yes, I suppose so," he said. "Usually it's something that comes up at work." The sound from the t.v. reached them, the frantic chase |