After learning that his wife is pregnant with their sixth child, Charlie puts his long awaited escape plan into action. But leaving his sassy wife, rambunctious kids and a mountain of debt behind may not be as simple as Charlie thinks.

The Great Cigarette Escape

Leaning against the post—the one with splinters like porcupine quills—Charlie stared at the fading sunset. He yearned for the day when he too could melt like fallen ice cream upon a warm sidewalk. If I were Houdini, thought Charlie, I would say a few magic words, tease the audience and puff, I’d be a happy, single man again—free—free of wife, free of kids, free of responsibilities I never wanted. But there were no magic words or a slick vanishing act that would free Charlie from being Charles Kennedy, husband, father and would-be escape artist.

He enjoyed the long slow drags off of his last cigarette like a condemned man standing before the firing squad. Blowing smoke gently from his lips, watching it float up in the air, smiling, Charlie imagined himself cruising freedom’s highways in his restored 1968 Mustang Fastback 428 Cobra Jet—white exterior with a bold kick-ass black stripe across the hood—a happy single man’s car. Charlie inhaled deeply, releasing the smoke quickly and quietly, before mashing the butt into the side of the post, and then thumping it upon the growing pile of discarded dream butts on the ground below.

Sneaking one last peek at the sinking sun, Charlie managed to hold on to yesterday a bit longer—when his prematurely graying hair was dark, thick and wavy, the kind of waves that girls like to run their fingers through, and he would happily let them. In Charlie’s world, that small but noticeable spare tire around his waist would deflate and quickly be replaced by the abs of steel he’d maintained when he was in his twenties. Back then, he would stroll shirtless in appropriate but mostly inappropriate places just to impress the ladies whether they wanted to be impressed or not.

With freedom, he would regain his life. The life he had before the needy hands and screaming little mouths crying ‘gimme, gimme, gimme’ stole his soul, emptied his bank account and killed his dream of sharing his love with all of the Sea Gal cheerleaders, past and present.

Download this FREE ebook Today!

3 Responses to “FREE eBook: The Great Cigarette Escape”