Journey of a Lifetime

Rehab Sucks, Music Rocks

Sera walks into my room, where I'm smoking a quick joint. "Zoe!" she yells

"What?" I yell back

"Rehab, now!" she yells, taking my joint out of my mouth and destroying it

I look at her, still holding the frozen peas to my forehead. "Fine!" I yell back and get up.

She looks at me in shock, grabbing a bag they've already packed for me. "So you'll go?" she asks me, still in shock

"Yeah, at least when cold turkey hits me there, there will be people who know what to do"

"Oh, okay then"

We head out the door and into the car, driving me to a rehab center, where they've already booked me in for a 3 week stay.

"We finally got her" Sera says as we walk in

"Good, I'll notify her work boss"

"Could you also notify this guy? His name is Joe, we meet up every Sunday to play music, busking so to speak. We've got a gig in 5 weeks" I explain and hand the administration person a piece of paper with his number on it.

"Sure" she replies, taking the piece of paper

Another staff member takes me to my room. I look back as she's about to take me and look at Sera.

"This isn't over!" I tell her, before being dragged to my room. As I've said before, you never check yourself into rehab unless you see the light. I still haven't seen it, I'm being forced into it again.

My room in rehab is just white. White bed, white toilet, white basin, white walls, white door, white ceiling, white everything. Not much has changed, rehab, it's all the same. I decide to lie on the bed before cold turkey kicks in again. A couple hours later, it all starts up again. It feels even worse than last time. How can that be?

The first week and a bit all rolls into one long agonizing day. I didn't step out of my room. I laid on the white bed, sat in the white corner, banged against the white wall, vomited in the white toilet... shaking, screaming, sweating, scratching, hallucinating in all the places. I didn't know that a week pasted until I got a visitor the next Sunday. It was Joe. Why is it Joe? Why isn't it one of my best friends that I've known for years? He arrives with two acoustic guitars. By now, the vomiting and hallucinating has died down to what it was at the start. The sweating and shaking are still dominating.

"Well, we need to practice for our gig" he says as he enters the visitor room and sits on the table, opposite me.

"I guess we do"

He hands me one of the guitars and I stop shaking. Miracle. We do half a set including Patience, Home Sweet Home, Happy, Highway To Hell, and Bow River. We drew a small crowd who clapped at the end. He soon leaves, taking the guitars. Within half an hour, I'm shaking intensively again. The staff are confused as to what just happened to the shaking. I was shaking before I had the guitar, stop completely during the time when I had the guitar, and then started up again.

Meanwhile, back at home, the couples are getting closer. People get closer when I go to rehab. They go on a double date to a fancy restaurant, it has to be the fanciest in the state of Tennessee. All is good until John, Kim's ex, walks into the same restaurant with his own date. I'm sorry, but there is zero doubt that they still have feelings for each other. John and his date are seated at the table next to the double dating group. It just blows up. It's also quite obvious John is just trying to make Kim jealous, fake laughing at his date's jokes and stories. Later that evening, Phil pulls John aside in the men's toilets.

"What the hell are you doing man?" Phil angrily asks John

"What do you mean? I'm on a date"

"What's her name?"