Kick the Habit, or Kick the Bucket Stephen King's short story "Quitters, Inc." implies that a smoker tries to kick the habit and achieve results regardless of the means. Dick Morrison meets Jimmy McCann, an old friend, in the bar at Kennedy International Airport. McCann has quit smoking, gotten a promotion and become physically fit since they last met. He tells Morrison about an agency that helped him quit smoking and gave him a business card for Quitters, Inc., which Morrison just put in his wallet. A month later he sees the card fall out of the wallet and decides to go visit them. After going to Quitters, Inc., Morrison meets Vic Donatti, the man in charge of his case. Morrison signs a contract stating that he will not reveal anything about what they do during treatment. Donatti tells Morrison that he will never smoke again after that day. When he returns for his next appointment, Donatti begins punching the cigarettes Morrison was carrying while still smiling. Donatti then reveals how much they know about their clients by referring to Morrison's handicapped son who he hasn't told them anything about. Donatti tells him that he is a pragmatist, meaning someone who is oriented towards the success or failure of something through practical means. Donatti shows Morrison that a rabbit can be taught that eating food will cause an electric shock and then after sufficient aversion training the rabbit will starve to avoid the shock. Donatti then explains the various ways they discipline their clients for mistakes, the tenth and final being death. They guarantee you will never smoke again. After a series of non-smokers, Morrison makes a mistake, his wife is kidnapped and he is called in to watch her electrocuted for thirty seconds. She later tells him that she understands what they are trying to do. After months of not smoking Morrison gains weight and Donatti says that if he doesn't manage to lose it they will cut off his wife's little finger. Morrison later gives the Quitters, Inc. business card to a man known only as Crony, and tells him that they have changed his life. Years later Morrison and his wife meet McCann and his wife at the theater. When he shakes hands with McCann's wife he realizes that something is wrong. He later realizes that he only had four fingers; her little finger was missing.