Last Puff

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or otherwise, is entirely coincidental.


Did you smoke now ? How many times do you want me to tell you ? Did I not tell you if you don't quit this is not going to work. She had figured it out from the excess smell of mint ,which filled the air the moment he talked . She looked at him with a mix of adoration and anger , the anger for having smoked and the adoration for not being able to hide it . She gave him a big lecture and he appeared to regret his action . She was happy that she was finally able to put some sense into his head. He spent another hour with her and promised he was already trying and would quit asap . As soon as he dropped her ,he bought a pack of Lights ,lit one and told himself that he would quit soon.

He remembered the incident and smiled to himself as he lit his last cigarette . He was working now and the smoke hating girl had left. What good times those were ! It had been more than two years since then . A lot had happened in between . He had quit smoking,briefly,  they had fallen in love madly all over again , left college , found jobs , did long distance ,admired the beauty of life  and then fell out of love .She carried on with her life , he couldn't . He took to smoking again . The time had come to stop now . He had tried quitting a couple of times before and failed miserably , but somehow this time felt different . This time he really really wanted to quit .

Man , I need a cigarette now . Why does this girl not understand my need to smoke ? It's okay now ,It's just visits now and then , I can manage without my cigarette but can I do this my whole life ? Imagine having to sneak out to smoke , everytime , your whole life ! God , That's a lot of sneaking out  and a lot of toothpaste wasted trying to make your breath smell humanly again . Good food, good sex, good sleep: to these basic animal pleasures, man has added nothing but the good cigarette and now she wants me to drop that too ? If only I could somehow convince my girl that in comparison to the smoke  from cooking and driving ,mine was nothing .There's only one problem though . You could succeed in convincing a drunk man that he is wrong but you can't succeed in convincing a woman that smoking is okay. Talk about women being stubborn .

That was after college , when he had gone to visit her . He would not smoke for days together when he was with her . He had started the habit again as problems began to resurface between them but he didn't have the heart to tell her . He remembered the mind-voice like it had happened to him yesterday . He took in another puff  . His last cigarette was half way through . He had thought he could never quit . He had started smoking during his final year at college . The addiction had become so intense but sooner or later, everyone stops smoking. One sudden day the smoke felt disgusting to him and  decided he didn't want to do this anymore.

The cigarette was almost over . He could feel why this white stick had enslaved him for years .He imagined how he felt during his times with the stick. When he didn't smoke he scarcely felt as if he was living. He didn't feel as if he was living unless he was killing himself. The cigarette had burned it's course out . There was one last puff . He looked at it . Hours , days , months and now years of smoking had to end at this puff . The last puff is always the strongest and it looked inviting but he realized he didn't need it anymore . He threw the cigarette down and put it out . A flash of how happy she had become when he told her in college that he had quit crossed his mind . He had never seen such joy on someone's face . His face showed a gentle smile. If only quitting her was as easy as quitting the smoke was .