smoking room

I am working the front desk at a 

budget motel in the throes of winter and
there is snow everywhere and a woman walks in
and asks for a room
being the face of a business
I oblige
I notice she is extremely pregnant
garishly pregnant
so pregnant it is almost like her uterus is bragging
waving it’s baby at other
more empty
uteri
in the general vicinity
and she is string thin
barely standing
even her jeans seem to have anemia
I am looking at her and knowing that everything is not all right and questioning my own compassion wondering how much should I care about this woman that obviously doesn’t
and I give her a room
and she goes “wait,
is this a smoking room?”
and I go “oh, I am sorry
I thought that since you are pregnant
you wouldn’t want to smoke”
and then she glared at me
like I was the idiot
have a smooth one on me, little man
I thought as I handed her the keys
it’s marlboro time