Ray is my first customer on this sunny Tuesday morning. This dude has sat down to eat the same thing every morning for the last thirty years—black coffee and a cream cheese bagel. His usual routine consists of his walking the same path to the same old chair. Once he passes his sitting spot, he sets his newspaper down on the table before going behind the counter to pour himself a cup of coffee.
Coughing a couple of times, while holding a cigarette between two wrinkled, leathery fingers, he says, “Good morning.”
Years of smoking each cigarette down to the filter has turned his nails yellow. Wheezing constantly the whole time he’s in the store, we tell him, time and time again, that he needs to quit, but he refuses to listen. The more we mention it, the more he smokes. Most of my regular cu
