She took a long drag off her cigarette as she looked pensively toward the cloudless blue sky.
"I'm torn," she said. "Sometimes I'm glad I didn't see Dad before he died and sometimes I wish I had - so he would have made me promise to quit smoking. That's the only way I could do it. He made me promise before, and I quit for three years."
She took another puff and continued, "'Cause you can't break a promise to your daddy."
She shot a sideways glance at Sara and finished with, "Or at least, I can't."
"You're smoking now," Sara said.
"Right, but if Dad made me promise, I'd do it - like I did before," she said with some annoyance. She raised her voice slightly and added more force, "Like I quit before when he made me promise."
"Mm-hmm," Sara responded quietly. "I just thought 'quitting' had more finality to it."
"Look," Darlene spat, as she began her march across the yard, puffing away vigorously, "I'm just revisiting an old habit!"