Future

Tom Petty

Dedicated to radiomeddows for the support and inspiration of the story.

~

He approached the machine with an attitude composing of disbelief and almost boredom. Tom Petty had never believed in fortune tellers or the supernatural. So, it was with the small recommendation from a fellow band mate that he walked up to the machine and shoved a quarter into the slot.

The lady inside the glass awoke immediately. Some sort of machine, she moved with rather realistic motions. Her hands clasped on top of the crystal ball before her. Her lips opened without a creak and proclaimed:

"Your card awaits. Your future has been passed from my hands to yours. Read of your fate if you only truly wish to do so. It's all true, all true."

Tom chuckled, thinking of how this had been a stupid idea. Nevertheless, he watched as a card was dispensed out of the slot. He picked it up, only after watching the fortune teller cease moving. The card read:

Though it may not seem like it, in the timespan of four decades, success will still be a part in your life.

Tom shrugged and laughed again. Despite his carefree manner, he could not help but wonder what would happen to his success fifty years from now.

He shook his head. This was ridiculous. Was he really going to put all of that hope into a children's gag?

He threw the card onto the ground. At twenty-six, he was no longer a child. His faith that had once been held in the silly things like Santa Clause and fortune tellers had vanished, had it ever been there in the first place. Tom shook his head again and left the park, still in disbelief of what his fortune had been.

~
Many years had passed since he had received the fortune. At the age of sixty-seven, it was a strange thing when it came back to him.

In the timespan of four decades, success will still be a part in your life.

Tom allowed himself a smile. So, it be, the fortune had been right. The Heartbreakers had finished up their 40th Anniversary tour, and everything was going smoothly. There had even been talk of a new album, which was only encouraged by the contract they had signed years ago.

He was thinking. Perhaps, he would write a few songs of the past, dive deeper into the veins that had been opened and never completely closed again. Foreshadow, Tom thought. For an album name? He shrugged and the thought vanished.

~
Hardly a single year had passed, and the Heartbreakers released their fourteenth album. Foreshadow was the name, and Foreshadow was the game, so spoke a lyric off the title track. The guys were satisfied with the success the album had, though it was ranked slightly lower than their previous release. That one fact hit Tom hard, and he planned to work hard to make the next album top both, and the next album did just that.

~
A little less than a decade has passed since then. Tom Petty, now seventy-six, has seen many of his childhood idols pass, but nothing can prepare him for the next death of 2027.

His telephone rings, some weird digital soundtrack if it can be called that, and Tom picks it up. "Hello?"

"Oh my God, Tom - I cannot believe it."

"Mike?!" Tom asks in disbelief. It has been within rare times, many years between, that he has heard his lifelong friend so distressed.

"Oh, God," Mike Campbell says again. Tom briefly hears his wife trying to comfort him with words.

"Mike, what is it?" Though he is so scared to ask, Tom knows he has to. There is no other way.

"Benmont - he - he-"

Many, many disturbing conclusions to Mike's words arise in Tom's mind. He brushes them off, but knows it could be any of them.

"He's not dead, is he?" Tom chokes out the words.

The silence on the other end is all he needs to hear.

~
Despite how recent, sudden, and fresh in their minds Benmont Tench's death is, the Heartbreakers attempt to record again. Tom decides to overdub himself playing keyboards. He had always known they were getting older as a band, and they had faced death before, but there had never been such a sudden jarring force between the band as there is now.

"Just forget it," Tom mutters. Take after take after take, he has been trying to get the keyboards down. It is not new to him to do this, but the obvious lack of their keyboardist is lingering and impossible to ignore.

"It's not like we cannot have keyboards," Tom says, "but I'm no Benmont." Tears burn at his eyes, and he rubs them away with shaking hands.

~
Somehow, the album is finished. Perhaps, it is only due to their usual combination of hard work and effort that it was put out. It is blatantly clear to the critics what the Heartbreakers are lacking. It is obvious to the audience too, when the Heartbreakers dare set out on a small tour dedicated to their late keyboardist and pianist.

It is on one of the lonely, quiet nights following the tour that Tom thinks back to the fortune teller. Our success only lasted forty decades, and then some. So, she was wrong. Wrong wrong wrong. He smiles bittersweetly with tears afresh in his eyes. We can still go on, somehow, with broken hearts and grief of our own. We can make records and do this. Work it out.

It is with thoughts of similarity that another album is produced. While it is the last of the bunch, due to health problems lingering within the band, it is easily one of the most successful albums of the Heartbreakers. So, it is with a mind, heart, and soul of the past events he has been through, that Tom Petty walks off stage for the last time.