Everyone in the restaurant is quitting smoking.
Zyban, Champix, they're all taking medications that are making it easier for them to quit.
I look them up. Side effects include, but are not limited to: dry mouth, headache, insomnia, rash, dizziness, agitation, anxiety, depression, taste disorder, constipation, nausea and vomiting and tremor, ringing in the ears, disturbance of vision, faster heart beat, confusion, chest pain, raised blood pressure and seizures.
Pretty much exactly what you could expect if you quit smoking cold turkey. And the success rate, it's about the same.
Then a customer comes into the restaurant, the owner greets him at the door. He's got a small oxygen kit with him, rubber tubes running from it up to his nose, The owner, he plays dumb...
"How are you? You look great...what's this?" (indicating the oxygen on the wheeler) ..."you just get back from vacation?".
They sit for a coffee. He comes to the bar to grab his own, he whispers to me under his breath "Ex smoker...".
They talk. The owner about how his quitting smoking is going, the Champix, the guest about how tough it is to get a lung transplant. He seems pretty upbeat, all things considered, if the government won't give him a new set of lungs he's going to go to the US or India, he needs a new lung. The owner, he's recommending he look for Pulmonary Surgeons in Cuba...
I gotta quit smoking.