I had nightmares that I was smoking in front of my mother last night.

I think they were a result of my odd experience people watching yesterday. I was sitting looking out the window of Perks, a coffee shop in Norwood Center, waiting for my dad to meet me so we could carpool our way to the Patriots pre-season game and save $30. I could watch the world outside the window from the high perch of my stool and the article in the Globe about kayaking wasn't holding my interest very well. A man was sitting outside with a cigarette in his mouth and a tattoo on his arm. He had thinning blond hair and his left arm was painted with fading tattoos that had been aging for at least ten years. I wouldn't have paid him any mind but a pair of young looking girls walked-up to him and sat down with him. They were dressed in Delores, Lola, Lolita, fashion with the blond one looking more confident than most. She was smoking a cigarette along with mr. Tattoo. I have trouble telling the precise ages of young girls, especially ones wearing mascara, mini-skirts, and smoking. I was willing for a minute to convince myself that they were actually short women and he was their friend or lover. Then came the transaction. The smoking blond opened her wallet and pulled out some crumpled dollars and handed them to mr. tattoo. He then walked with the money into the next door convenience store. He popped back out to bark out a question about what the girl really wanted. When he returned looking mildly guilty and secretive he handed the blond smoking girl three packs of cigarettes. She flashed them in her hands, did a jumping jack of excitement, and worked to get the more timid brunette sitting in the seat excited as well at their lucky conquest. All three of them sat together, smoking girls and mr. tatoo chatting and enjoying each others company.

I was thinking to myself. Could my daughter become that smoking Lolita? Yikes. I was turning paler by the minute. Then a man stood hunched over a runners sipping bottle who either had CP or DT. He was shaking his hands enough to spill half of the two cans of Pepsi onto the ground as he was coached by a friend to pour the contents into the sipping cup. He came inside Perks and sat down shaking to drink his beverage.