Gianluigi Ciaramellari - Clouds Of Smoke… The Story

Clouds of smoke…

The story

Damien is the attractive owner of an electronic cigarette store in Florence.He’s unfathomable, mystical, rich and above all, he has a healing power which is born from water, like steam. Desperate souls unconsciously come to Damien’s store for help. Like Sonia, a beautiful girl devoured by cancer; or Massimo, afflicted by serious economic problems; or Giorgio, young, rich and seemingly superficial, who hides within him the seed of Evil and pain.

Barbara Mennitti (Sigmagazine)

"The struggle between good and evil, in this novel, assumes the fashion of a thriller and it’ll surely catch all readers’ attention"

Sellerio Publisher

"The value of this anagogical book makes it essential, one of those books that you have to have on your shelf, because it’s much deeper than it seems. A work that makes you feel better than you did before reading it."

Sergio Bonfiglio (Aromatiere)

Clouds of smoke…

The story

To my Grandparents

Silvio and Vera

Clouds of smoke…The story

by Gianluigi Ciaramellari

Let me tell you a story that

began in an electronic cigarette store,

managed by a mysterious character.

Make yourselves comfortable...

Any resemblance to actual persons and to actual events is purely coincidental.

Health warning

Always read in a well-lit environment. Take regular breaks, about thirty minutes every hour of reading. Stop reading immediately if you experience dizziness, queasiness, lethargy or headaches. Individuals who are sensitive to flashing lights or to particular shapes or geometric forms may suffer from a type of undiagnosed epilepsy and could experience seizure attacks by reading this book. If you are caught by seizure attacks, consult your doctor (or an exorcist), or contact them as soon as you encounter one or more of the following symptoms while reading: altered vision, muscle twitching, other involuntary movements, loss of consciousness, confusion and/or seizures.

Because of the use of analogue cigarettes while reading this story and/or the use of smoking tobacco along with other additives, some individuals could experience various disorders, (such as fatigue and eye irritation, headaches or nausea). If you experience such symptoms, promptly stop using cigarettes, joints, chillums, or hookahs immediately, until the discomfort subsides.

We generally recommend avoiding a prolonged use of combustion tobacco and endorse trying an electronic cigarette (also called e-cig) for at least 15 days. However, in the beginning, the addiction recovery from smoking, the duration and frequency of the vape varies from person to person.

The reading of this book by minors (under the age of 18 years old) is yet unsafe.

While reading some short parts of the story, you will learn about certain features and functions of the electronic cigarette and its effects on health. In this novel, some effects have been enhanced beyond all limits of imagination.

Enjoy your reading and I wish all of you a "good Vape".

Gianluigi Ciaramellari

Once, my son Sasha and I, (who was 4 years old at the time), were traveling by car on a highway, when he surprised me with another one of his “whys?”, typical of that age.

It was a winter Sunday morning and the fog did not allow a good visibility, so I drove slowly, especially where the road crossed stretches of farmland. Sasha was sitting in the back, in his “car seat”, bound by the seat belt.

At one point, on the left we saw what remained of an old sugar refinery and the child asked me why there were flashing red lights on the chimney, which was still standing. But he asked me in this manner:

“Daddy, why are the lights of that tower on?” in the rear-view mirror I saw his face awaiting my answer, he was expecting a prompt and thorough response.

“Sasha, those lights are used to warn the birds to be careful not to crash into the tower. They light them at night and when it is foggy, like today!” I replied, waiting for him to ask me a second why. Instead he kept quiet. I felt guilty for not telling him that that was not a tower. Then I stopped the car in a rest area.

The old refinery was truly a ruin, only the "tower" still stood high and proud, it looked like a rocket stuck in the ground, after precipitating and destroying everything around it.

“Sasha – I said, trying to find the easiest words for him - that's not a tower. It’s a chimney and when it was alive, it smoked a lot.”

He looked at me as if I was about to tell him a story of wizards and dragons.

“Then it died because it smoked too much?” I wished I could have recorded him.

“No, it died because nobody needed it anymore” I noticed a change in his expression, he looked sorry.

“You know, - I continued - the chimney is a tall, tall tube, which is necessary to blow the smoke of the fire that is lit at its foot into the sky.” Sasha looked at the chimney and, without taking his eyes off of it, he asked again:

“Daddy, then all the clouds in the sky are made of smoke?” I needed to find a simple and short answer. You never know where children’s questions may lead you.

“No Sasha, smoke comes from fire, and clouds come from water and all the clouds in the sky are made of water.”

And for the rest of the trip, my son wanted to know everything, about smoke, fire, clouds and water.

Gianluigi Ciaramellari

In the beginning God

created the heavens

and the earth.

Now the earth was

formless and empty,

darkness was over the

surface of the deep,

and the Spirit of God

was hovering over the waters.

First entries

Massimo occasionally went through the street of the Novoli district of Florence in which he lived, by foot or by car, and he marvelled that he had never noticed that shop before. It seemed strange to him that in the year 2015, in the midst of the economic crisis, someone had decided to open a business and, moreover, in an unfrequented suburban area.

It was a warm mid-March afternoon, one of those days that whoever could afford it, didn’t waste by working. Massimo, as a young freelancer, could afford it, however reluctantly, because his work was scarce. Therefore he strolled around casually, but that store drew his attention and he stopped to look at the shop window, discovering that they displayed electronic cigarettes. On the sign it read: "Clouds of smoke - steam cigarettes".

A middle-aged man was sitting behind the counter, absorbed on working on something that glittered. The shop was decorated simply with makeshift furniture, all in all dignified, but not fancy and modern like many other brand stores. It looked more like a tailor’s shop, those of the past, in which the tailor, while he was taking your measurements for a suit, asked you if you had had the measles during your childhood. The lighting of the shop, from the outside, looked as though it wasn’t even fit for a card game, but once inside, you realized that the light was just enough to make you feel at ease.

Later, he discovered that it was the “Light” that he had been searching for his entire life. He decided to go inside, just to get some information.

Therefore, he entered.

He pushed the glass door with some force; he pushed hard because it looked closed, instead it opened and the light that greeted him when he entered was somewhat familiar, he felt as if he was in his room, in the evening, reading a book or playing the guitar.

Within the shop one could smell delicate notes of tobacco mixed with other fragrances; it reminded Massimo of his grandmother baking apple pies, his favourite dessert.