A John Mellencamp Music Journey: For Brenda

By Gail Tolbert

Brenda and Gail have been friends for most of their lives and are devastated when Brenda is diagnosed with breast cancer. By a strange occurence they are propelled back through time and space to the time before Brenda had the cancer and try to figure out how she may have been exposed to a cancer-causing material. Some of the events in this book are true to a point, but have been embellished to entertain the reader. If only we could go back and start over or do our lives over. Wouldn't it be wonderful! Well yes it was!

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: May 11, 2007
• ISBN: 9781434313256

Gail Tolbert

Gail E. Tolbert an up and coming novelist has one of the fastest growing collections of new books to be published at this time.  This is her fourth book to hit the shelves in less than eight months.  Ms. Tolbert has written and dedicated this book to a dear friend of hers.  This friend was diagnosed with cancer and has had a very hard time dealing with the whole ordeal.  Ms. Tolbert thought that by her dear friend reading this book and remembering the good ole days it may in some way give her happiness again.  Ms. Tolbert is enjoying her retirement and centering on her writing.  From her home in southern Indiana she wishes her dear friend well.  Hang in there Brenda!

Book preview

© 2007 Gail Tolbert. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 5/9/2007

ISBN: 978-1-4343-1325-6 (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-4343-1323-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4343-1324-9 (hc)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2007903328

Printed in the United States of America

Bloomington, Indiana

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

About the Author

I want to dedicate this book to my dear friend Brenda Kay Morris Davis. She was diagnosed with cancer in 2006. And that part of the story as well as several other parts of it are true. And those that knew us over the years will remember times that we touched in their lives. Some of you will probably remember that blue Ford Trino, as I did own one and it was a running piece of machinery! And how Brenda or I survived that car I’ll never know. It was wrecked nine times of which being totaled twice! But I wouldn’t give it up and keep repairing it. The wrecker driver for Teke Burton and Mitchell Motor Sales in the seventies should remember dragging that car in a few times! Don’t you Frank! It was a beautiful car, but it was possessed! Brenda didn’t like driving it as she said it tried to drive itself. And it did or how else had Brenda and I made it through some of the crashes without a scratch! Here’s to you Bren. May you always be able to climb in that blue Ford Trino and take ‘A John Mellencamp Music Journey’!

Chapter 1

Hey Brenda, put in that John Mellencamp CD and let’s go back a ways and just enjoy the good times one more time!

Brenda turned giving me a wicked smile as she selected the year she wanted to go back to. Slowly as the music pounded and boomed I opened the sun roof (it was the end of April in Indiana) and let the good times roll!

We were going back in time and hopefully would once again reline the balance of the universe around us putting our lives back into perspective. It had been a rough year or so for Brenda, but now she was the picture of health and I couldn’t be happier for her.

So as we cruised along the highway we sang along with John Mellencamp and went back through time with ‘A John Mellencamp Music Journey.’ As we turned the volume up to the max and dialed in the heavy base I relished in the thought of what we were able to do and do for people that we loved and cared about.

I would never understand the reality of what we were able to do, but I would continue to do it as long as I was capable of doing it. To be able to go back and start over was the most mind boggling, yet fascinating thing I had ever experienced.

This had all started as an accident one day as I had left Brenda’s house and hated the fact that Brenda may die of breast cancer! She had been diagnosed with breast cancer a few months before.

By this time she had had to have one breast removed and was doing the all evil, taking chemo treatments.

The first treatment didn’t have much effect on her except to make her thirsty a lot. But the second and third ones were taking a toll on her. Her hair had started to fall out, her skin was dry and rough and sometimes raw.

Now she had had her head shaved to remove her hair completely. And she was starting to feel pretty rough.

And her emotions were running rampant and totally out of control. But what could you expect? She had cancer and would probably die a lot sooner than she had ever thought. She and I had talked about living forever.

Of course none of us ever know when we will die, but we always plan on our elder years and growing old. I don’t think that any one of us ever plans on: When I die at the age of twenty, or forty-five, or even at the age of ninety!

No one ever plans on their death. We may try to prepare for it by buying life insurance and burial plots and that sort of thing. But never believing that we will ever need any of it.

It’s human nature to avoid things that we don’t want to think about. Dying is defiantly one thing none of us want to discuss. Especially if it’s our own death!

And today neither Brenda nor I wanted to think about anything that was sad or depressing!

So kicking in that cd we sped out onto the highway and prepared to see just where we were going to end up next. We never knew exactly where, but sometimes when and what era we would unwind to.

You see that particular day as I left Brenda’s house I was feeling so distraught I cursed and spit because I couldn’t deal with once again loosing someone dear to me. Brenda and I had become good friends many years ago.

Growing up near each other in the same little country neighborhood we had known each other for most of our lives.

I was a few years older than Brenda and that was even harder to handle. I was the oldest and was supposed to die first! Not Brenda as she was the youngest and hadn’t had the time or finances to live the good life yet.

Maybe she would be able to enjoy life when she retired in a few years, but now she wouldn’t be able to, not now!

Brenda wasn’t supposed to die yet! Not this soon! Not like this! I just couldn’t deal with all of this right now. I only wanted Brenda to get better.

Brenda had just become a grandmother and hadn’t had time to enjoy the baby or the wonderful gift of being a granny! How could she not live to enjoy all the rigors and the most of all wonders, just being a granny?

That dreadful day as I left Brenda’s house I kicked in a John Mellencamp cd, turned up the volume and cried as I tore up the country rode. I was driving too fast and not caring enough about my sped. I just didn’t care about anything right now!

As I rounded a sharp curve and topped the Tom Daniel hill I thought that I had missed the curve and was going to go crashing through the trees! Even that didn’t bother me at this point.

I know that the car had left the pavement and I no longer had control of the wheel as I careened off the road. I knew that I was going to crash as I was sure that the tree was going to hit me straight head on! I must have been knocked out because I saw things sort of fuzzy as I blacked out.

But when I opened my eyes I gasped! I was driving a car over thirty years old and no way in the world could I grasp what I was seeing! I was a very young and shocked woman. What had happened? I wasn’t me, except I was me!

Only it was me, thirty plus years ago! I wasn’t even thirty years old yet! I was young and beautiful again! What had happened to me when I crashed? I was sure that I had crashed.

Was I dead? Is this what happens when you died? I had always heard that your whole life passes before you right before you die. But things weren’t going fast. It was real time as I drove along. This was weird and I had to figure it out.

Stopping and turning around I headed back to Brenda’s house and nearly fainted! Her new mobile home was gone, but her Mom and Dad’s older home of thirty years ago was there! But how? How had I gotten to where I was? Pulling in to the drive I nearly fainted again as I saw Brenda!

She was much like that kid she had been way back in the seventy’s she looked like to me. In her mid twenties at the most! I couldn’t believe what I was seeing! Everything had retroceded back over thirty years.

I could only stare at Brenda as I fought to keep the tears in check. She was young and beautiful again as I was and she was cancer free!

Walking out to the car Brenda asked why had I came back, but I couldn’t answer her. I could only sit and stare at her not believing what I saw or understood.

At that moment I realized that the John Mellencamp cd was now an eight track tape in the old tape player hanging from the dash of my car. And the song that was playing was one of his songs that had been released only a few days before.

I had gone back to the time of the new release! Why, how and all the other words of question reeled through my mind. I was in the same time as the music. I was in A John Mellencamp Music Journey time warp!

Looking at Brenda I asked her to get in and go for a ride with me. She thought it strange that I asked her to go for a ride as I had just dropped her off at home and now I wanted her to go for a ride with me, but she got in anyway.

We tore out of that driveway and it seemed like we were flying as I raced toward my childhood home, hoping my parents were still there.

My parents had been gone for many years, but maybe, just maybe they too were still the same as they had been thirty years ago! I had to go see! I had to see them again. And yes! Yes they were there! Just as they had been thirty years ago!

Jumping out of the car I raced to the house and couldn’t hug either of them tight enough! I was crying like an idiot and blabbering about being gone so long and sorry for all the hell I may have put them through as I grew up!

Needless to say everyone thought that I had totally lost my mind, hell I had been thinking that for the last ten minutes or so. But here they are! My parents, my wonderful living parents! I couldn’t stop talking and hugging them.

We visited for several minutes before I started to feel sick and weak. It felt like I was going to pass out. Brenda laughingly asked that I take her home before I totally flipped out and left her stranded. I didn’t want to leave my parents, but knew that I was leaving whether I wanted to or not.

I walked slowly to the car and waved back to my parents as we drove away. I knew that they would think me totally insane, but I relished in the idea that I had spent the most glorious few hours with my parents.

Even if it was a dream or death, I had been so happy for a few moments. But I wondered where my children were and asked Brenda.

Looking at me oddly Brenda answered that they were with their Father and I was supposed to pick them up in about twenty minutes. She then asked if I was going to be able to drive or did I need her to go with me and drive?

She was quite concerned at the way I looked. She said I was looking pretty