Ssssh…Pass me the cigarette! Kere Kavuru! Original

Walking home from Korovou to RKS after missing the last bus and no carriers in sight. Sikeli and I, decided to walk home. This was on the old gravel road before the tar sealed well lit highway we have today. There were shortcuts that we could take thru dark wooded areas that would significantly reduce the time it takes to get home.

These dark and lonely paths, I would never walk alone but in the company of Sikeli and a hearty conversations. There were parts where we would remain silent, senses heightened. Eyes, hears, smell and skin, sensing for danger, ready to alert us to in the moment. The eerie silence in the woods, especially on moonless nights compounded your fear that some malevolent spirit stalking your movements as you pass these dreadfully awful patches.

Your spirit would lift again as your feel reconnected with the gravel road. A distinct feeling from the smooth mud path to rough uneven pebbles under your foot. Still a thick darkness surrounding you but your heart lighter that your on the road home.

On many occasions, Sikeli would light a cigarette, especially before the dark patch of forest. It would comfort me for two reasons, I would know where Sikeli was beside me and it provided a little light in that awful dark haunted spots.

As he would drag on the cigarette, the red embers of the tobacco would intensify as Sikeli sucked the smoke from the cigarette (Kavuru in Fijian).

In some spots, a faint voice would pierce the darkness from the other side of me. “Ssssh, Kere Kavuru” (Pass the cigarette).

Sikeli without hesitation would pass me the cigarette and I handed it off to the invisible figure on the other side of me. I would observe the amber light of the cigarette intensify, as if someone beside me took a drag. The smell of cigarette smoke would fill the air on the other side of me. I would observe the tiny amber light float back to me. As the cigarette would be passed back into my hand, then I passed it onto Sikeli and we continue on.

My imagination would go wild. Who was that lonely figure waiting in the shadows for passers by? Only to ask for a single drag of a lit cigarette.

I knew that Sikeli knew the answer but I never asked.

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