This post is in the response to Friday Fictioneers.
My dad spent his entire working life for that company. I remember him getting up at 4:30 in the morning, fixing his own pot of coffee and smoking that first cigarette.
He spent between eight and ten hours a day at his rolling machine with a 17 minute break before lunch and a thirteen minute break in the afternoon. For the life of me I could never figure out how they arrived at those exact break periods.
The cancer killed him before he could retire. All his dreams up in smoke.
The company closed the plant four years ago.
Oh Danny Boy! 
Maddeningly ironic, painfully tragic.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This sounds like an uncle of mine who worked in a rubber shop his whole adult life and died in his 60’s of cancer. Very sad. Well written, Danny. — Suzanne
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for commenting Suzanne.
DJ
LikeLike
Sad.
Even if fiction, it is true.
too many lost in smoke – or working in/with cancer producing agents.
Randy
LikeLiked by 1 person
True! And so many people just will not learn that cancer kills.
DJ
LikeLike
Good title, adds to the story.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dear Danny,
A wasted life summed up in a hundred words. Well done.
Shalom,
Rochelle
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for the nice words!
DJ
LikeLike
Lost too many to lung cancer. IT is sad how many work themselves so hard only to die at, just before or just after retirement.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Very sad. Damn cigarettes. Killed my father, too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Poor chap, after working his fingers to the bone. Up in (cigarette) smoke indeed.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Is this true? Very sad and believable.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Total fiction. Thanks for stopping by.
DJ
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is dark.. so existential, where is the purpose except placing the next generation on earth?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Depressing isn’t it!
DJ
LikeLike
Actually I thought of Camus when I read this… 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
up in smoke….got that right! been missing you, DJ! Good to see you back.
LikeLiked by 1 person
What a nice thing to say! It’s great to be back.
DJ
LikeLike