Second-Hand Smoke

By Michael Rooney

Sonny was devastated at the recent loss of his wife from lung cancer. She didn’t even smoke! He thinks of the years she spent behind the bar, serving drinks to those degenerates at the Boathouse.

On his kitchen table, he lays out an assortment of rolling papers, with precision, some tobacco and a little rat poison.

Neatly rolling each cigarette individually, a broad smile comes across his face.

Parking his car at the far end of the parking lot, Sonny makes his way slowly toward the Boathouse. He’s approached by a disheveled young man who asks, “Hey mister, got a smoke?”