One day, one of Johnny’s kids was really sick. He took care of him as much as he could. Then Farmer Johnny Bucket went into the field to see if he could come up with a cure for the sickness. The sickness is called “The Mystery Flu”. A seriously, deadly, harmful case of the flu. It’s worse than the swine and the regular flu. Johnny got some crops to mix up together to see if he could create a cure for it. It didn’t work. The hospitals all over the country were testing people for what they called the “Perfect Blood” to use to come up with a cure. They had newsletters all over the country in newspapers that read:

“Please come out to St. Jude Hospital on Saturday to see
if you can help us find a cure for this horrible case of the flu”

So several hundreds of people dropped everything that they were doing, loaded their vehicles and traveled nonstop to Memphis, Tennessee to get tested. It took Johnny a day or two to get his family all packed up and ready for the long drive ahead from Knox City, Texas to Memphis, Tennessee. They eventually got everything packed into their truck and started down the highway to find I-30 E to Memphis. It took them 10 hours and 48 minutes on the interstate to get to Memphis, the family wasn’t happy about being stuck in the truck for 10 hours, but the trip was well worth it. When they got there, there was a long line of people waiting down outside of St. Jude to be tested. The line stretched down the country roads until it got to the state line of Tennessee and Arkansas. When Johnny arrived in Tennessee the weather was not what they expected it to be, they expected it to be a beautiful day for kite flying but it ended up a beautiful for the fellow storm chasers like Reed Timmer of the Dominator from the hit TV series on Discovery Channel was even there. Several tornados touched down around the area so the traffic was backed up into a major traffic jam bumper to bumper type. It eventually got better after the day went by, the family was stuck in their small Ford F150 truck for two and a half days until the Mother Nature made its course of action around the area surrounding Memphis. The people that were outside during the storm were praying to God that He will keep them safe and lead them to safety. God more than just that, He lead the storm around the outskirts of Memphis and the cities that housed the people in the lines. The storm made a complete circle around them including the Bucket family was safe from the F5 tornado that lasted for two days. Johnny got the all clear to keep trucking along the highway when the person in front of them zipped from like 0-60 in 1.9 seconds. He thought to himself “Dang! Those people got to be rich to a Bugati Veyron in these parts.” but he ended up saying it out loud. His family’s expression was like “Pop, what have you been drinking lately because we didn’t see anything like that.” but Johnny doesn’t drink any kind of alcoholic beverage nor he doesn’t smoke cigars not even cigarettes and he didn’t even chew tobacco. Lucky for him he almost died when he was a senior in high school at Knox City High School for drinking beer behind the wheel of a Lamborghini, but he got lucky thanks to having his best friend Rocky Balboa in shotgun next to him. They where speeding down the highway at top speed one Friday night on the way to a football game. The car ended up getting blown off the highway by an eighteen wheeler traveling at speeds near 80 in a 25mph zone. Johnny was drunk behind the wheel so he forgot all of the techniques that he was taught in Drivers Ed 2-3 years ago on what to do when you get in that situation, he did the complete opposite. He almost drove the nice car into a tree but Rocky regained woke up just in the nick of time so he grabbed the steering wheel put his foot on the brake and jerked to the left at the same time of putting on the brakes so the car skidded to the left and was slowing down gradually then Rocky released the brakes picked up Johnny real quick tossed him the back seat and took over the wheel. While they were still skidding sideways towards this huge massive tree Rocky released the brakes and gassed the thing as hard as it could go, he ended up digging a trench across a field that they drove in by accident. He created the trench by applying the gas after releasing the brakes and gunning it to 100mph to miss the tree. They made it back to the highway safely. When they got there, there was a lot of cruisers and an ambulance out there on the highway. The cops were standing outside of their cruisers starring at Rocky and Johnny in amazement that they made it ok. Rocky ended up being hired by the Texas State Police Department in his area while Johnny was recovering from almost dying. Okay now back to the present, Johnny was driving down the interstate when he recognized a State Trooper but the state trooper wasn’t from Tennessee, he was actually from the one in Knox City. So Johnny pulled up next to the trooper and got out walked up to the driver and said “Rocky, is that you?”. The state trooper answer back saying “I’m sorry sir, Rocky didn’t make it. He died in the line of duty in a standoff; he died saving my hide from the criminals. He wanted me to give you this. And by the way I’m his son Ricky Balboa.” Ricky handed Johnny, Rocky’s Medal of Honor and his certificate for being on the highest ranking trooper in the county. Johnny gave Ricky a hug and said “I’m sorry for the loss of your father; he was my best friend and also saved my hide once. When we have time I’ll sit down with you and tell you all about how he saved my life. In the meantime do you know the quickest way to get from here to St. Jude? I need to get my son there ASAP.” So Ricky gave Johnny and his family a police escort to the hospital and helped rush Caleb in so he could get checked in to be cured of the Mystery Flu. Johnny and Ricky went to the room that they were testing people and when they got there a nine year old boy with the name of Jed was being tested. When the doctors finished testing Jed, they walked up to his dad and said “Sir, we have found the Perfect Blood to cure this horrible disease, so could he stay with us for a few days so we can run some more test and eventually curing all of these sick men and women and children?” Jed’s dad said “Yeah, he can stay for a few days.” then left after giving his son a hug and a kiss good-bye and said to Jed “I love you Jed, I could never be so proud in my life that God has given me a son just like you.” then left the room. Two days later the hospital ends up having to drain Jed’s blood every last drop in order to cure 9,999 people with the disease. Jed eventually passed away with his dad sitting next to him holding his hand.
Three years later Johnny got with Jed’s dad Frank to discuss about having a memorial service for Jed for being so brave and generous. Frank agreed that they should so they set the date for three months away to have the date on the same day Jed passed on. Johnny shacked his hand and said “Frank, you got yourself a deal.” The memorial service was hosted at the families cemetery Mt. Zion Baptist Cemetery in Coushatta, Louisiana. Several hundreds of people showed up from all over the country and some just stayed home to watch the Saints and the Colts in the Superbowl. Johnny and his family including Caleb and Ricky came to the service with their church family to bless and thank the family of Jed Huckabee. After the service the Bucket, Balboa, and the Huckabee family went out to eat at Janelle’s Speedy’s Pizza place in Coushatta to watch the game and celebrate the life of Jed Huckabee.

The End!!!

I hope you enjoyed our presentation of the “The Mystery Flu” and that you would recommend this story to your friends. God bless!!!