Chapter Four

Full, hard smoke from a kretek breaks the flow of oxygen to my lungs. The click of the lighter turning off and returning to my pocket punctuates the tendrils of smoke that rise from my lips, and i shake my head. Interjecting another bit into the conversation, i gesture towards my point, glowing tip tracing the route of my hand.

Smoke rises towards the trees.

A trip hop life indeed.

Its been a long time since i spent longer than an hour with someone, and still wanted to spend another hour sometime, somplace else. Most of the people i know around here have grown into known cycles, all produce predictable backgrounds to my normal everyday life. Still my friends, they fail to provide the one thing i crave as of late... something new.

I've met a few, but they all lend the same things, no one is truly intriguing...

But i think perhaps i have run into someone, inadvertantly, who is quite the opposite. She is like the ember that flew from the fire. She lends light and warmth where there is none. She holds two potentials...

On the one hand, she may start a blaze. She may be the begining of a series of events i can't begin to predict.

On the other, her time, in more ways that i can count, could be as fleeting as that ember.

Conversation illuminated only by the stray beams of light which fall from the moon, and the glowing tip of a cigarette. I can see her face, but only when one of us decides to strike another to burn.

A trip hop life indeed.