Boston adventure...a judgment call

I decide to walk from the Roxy to Faneiul Hall marketplace for the next party. It's a pretty straight shot, but just to be sure, i want to check my map.

I duck into the lobby of my hotel and pull it out to confirm. A guy starts talking to me.

Turns out he's a pilot for a major airline with a 37 hour layover in Boston. He's been drinking a bit, but is friendly and says he's just looking for conversation. I'm skeptical a bit, but after drilling him with questions for a while, he seems like he is who he says he is.

I've been in his shoes (well I've never been an intoxicated pilot) in the sense that I've been alone in a city by myself looking for human connection.

I decide that in an act of kindness, I am going to take him to the party I'm going to and get him in.

It's a bit of a risk, but seeing that he's generally a nice guy (he's also an Air Force/Gulf War I vet, i make the call that it is ok.)

On the way, he says to me as he pulls out a pack of ciagarettes, "do you mind if I smoke?"

"Actually, I do. Did you not get the memo about lung cancer?" I lecture him on my thyroid cancer and suggest that he really value his life a bit more.

I get him in the party. You've never seen a more appreciative guy. He's having a great time (though at one point, I needed to tell him to calm down a bit.) I introduce him around to my colleagues and make sure that he knows the name of the upcoming Microsoft Windows OS release (Vista).

I turn to him and say, "let me have your cigarettes."
"Why?"
"Because you need to quit starting tonight."

He gives them to me. I open the pack and break them all in half, discarding them on the table.