by Karl Stephany

Created on: December 30, 2010

A New Years Resolution

Bernie was ready. He had the week after New Years off and this year he will quit smoking. His wife Helen and their two children went back east by her parents saying she didn’t want to be around him when he did his quit smoking thing. After smoking for thirty-five years it was going to be hard, but he made up his mind to do it this year for sure, even though his last six tries ended fruitlessly.

On the tv he watched the ball fall down in Times Square and at the stoke of midnight he crumpled up his cigarette pack and tossed it into the trash even though it had two cigarettes left in it. He was determined to be nicotine free from now on. He shut off the tv and went to bed.

At 2:17 A.M. he turned on the light and sat up in his bed wide awake. The old craving started and he wanted to light up.

"No, I’m going to quit," he said out loud to himself.

He lay back down after shutting off the light and stared at the darkened ceiling for several minutes.

"Maybe if I get a glass of cold milk, I can get back to sleep," he mumbled to himself and got up putting on his bathrobe.

He got the glass of milk and sat down in front of the tv turning it on. A movie was running that he had never seen before and he became involved in it. On the table next to the television was that two pound box of candy his sister Franny had dropped off yesterday. After he finished the milk, he continued watching the movie, but the box of candy kept beckoning him.

"A couple pieces of candy won’t hurt me." He said getting up. "It might even get rid of my craving for a smoke."

By the time the movie was over, so was the box of candy–all forty pieces, even the ones with jelly inside that he usual tossed out after biting into them. He stared at all the little paper cups that littered the coffee table and felt guilty.

"I’ll get another box tomorrow and Helen and the kids will never know."

Back in bed at 4:21 he settled back feeling a little nauseated from all that candy. He kept wondering if anyone ever died from an overdose of chocolate. He rolled and tossed for a while, then sat up again wide awake. The clock read 4:47.

"Maybe I could just have one little puff and I will be okay."

Out to the kitchen he went and dug around in the trash until he found the crumpled pack, which he carefully unwrapped. Luckily they were only bent and not broken. He straightened one out and lit it up. One puff led to two which led to three and soon there was nothing left but

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