The Longest Three Minutes

Marcus Chen had been sober for fourteen months when the craving hit him in the parking lot of a Houston grocery store. It was a Tuesday evening, unremarkable in every way, except that the neon sign of the liquor store across the street suddenly felt like it was speaking directly to him. His sponsor, a retired Marine named David, had told him something months earlier that Marcus wrote on a card and kept in his wallet: "When the urge comes, don't fight it alone first.…