He stood and looked at the clock. Three minutes before midnight, New Year’s Eve. He unfolded a worn sheet of paper and checked off “ten thousand pushups in one year.”

Two minutes, one item left. One round in the revolver; one minute. He squeezed the trigger.

The television exploded. Check.

B. C. Nance writes fiction and poetry. This story was inspired by a conversation with his good friend and fellow writer Randal Williams, whose story, “Sing, Oh Sinner,” was published In 50 Word Stories on March 6, 2019.