1336. A puff of smoke

Cedric lit a cigarette. It was his ninety-seventh birthday. He’d smoked a packet of cigarettes every day since his fourteenth birthday when his father had given him a packet of cigarettes.

“You should give up smoking,” Cedric’s doctor had said. “You’ll get cancer and heart disease. It will rot your teeth and give you all sorts of ill things. You’ll die earlier than you should.”

Well, today was important day – apart from being his ninety-seventh birthday. Cedric was dressed up to attend a funeral. His doctor had died suddenly, aged fifty-three.