On D-Day, a Lucky Strike named Chance rides in a GI’s pack, witnessing landing, loss, and the long echo of silence, showing that sometimes the bravest act is never to burn.
On June 6, 1944, a Missouri farm boy lands at Omaha Beach with a ration box on his chest and a single Lucky Strike inside. That cigarette survives the landing, the long march through Europe, and the silence that follows the war home.
Told through the eyes of an unlit cigarette, *Death of a Cigarette* is a story of courage in many forms: the spark that burns bright, the voice that steadies, and the choice to endure without flame. From the tobacco fields of Virginia to the Stars and Stripes Museum in Missouri, Chance bears witness to memory, sacrifice, and the legacy passed quietly through generations.
Lyrical and haunting, this novella reminds us that sometimes the bravest act is not to burn at all.