I've decided to hear what the doctors at Duke have to say about my options. The last time I was at Duke was for open heart surgery. I arrived at six in the morning and found my way to the new heart center where I was greeted and given a hospital gown to wear. Then I was escorted to the operating room where I lay on a table with at least twenty medical personnel surrounding me. I was prepared for surgery, and all eyes were focused on me. I'm the professional actor who was contracted to be the patient on the operating table. The shoot and simulated operation went well. Everyone said I was the first patient to ever jump off the operating table after open heart surgery. It was a fun day and the real medical professionals thought John Travolta must have been hired for the part. Now reality - cancer and I'm going to Duke Cancer Center. Wow...I have cancer...this is no act! Cancer Resilient By David McCune AuthorHouse Copyright © 2015 David McCune All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-5049-1832-9 CHAPTER 1 Six months you say. Wow, not very long. What should I do? No, where will I go? Yes, where will I go? Dad's on Jekyll Island so I'll go there. Yes, Rufus, my dog, and I will go to Jekyll Island. And, the three of us will have a grand old time. I've had a charmed life, always, since I was a child. Don't know what it's like not to be in the public eye. At three I caught a fish, and the fish and I made the front page! When I was sixteen I was awarded a commendation from NASA for my rockets and mice that flew like the wind. A rocket, a mouse, a transmitter in the rocket, a receiver on the ground and an electrocardiogram to record the brave mouse's heartbeat. Yep, NASA took interest. At seventeen, when the big three automotive giants were attempting to solve the automotive pollution problem, I solved it with propane and an afterburner. Those were the days ... Then at twenty I invented the rear window louver for various import and domestic automobiles and founded McCune Technology. Being in the light has been the norm. And to think the curtain may be closing. Sixty. On Earth Day 2014, I'll be 60! It's been a fun life. Made millions of objects ... touched millions of lives ... met some really great friends. God, Family and Friends. Makes one feel like a Toyota commercial, "I couldn't ask for anything more ..." Yep, been a pretty good life. And Rufus, come to think of it, my dog with almost 200,000 followers on Facebook, is more in the light than me. Rufus is pretty special to me and he's great fun to be around. Eating wings is also fun. Just about everything can be fun, I guess, because life is what you make of it. I've accomplished enough. I would have done, or will maybe do, a little more ... but, like Picasso, know when to stop. It has been a great life. CHAPTER 2 Finally, a good night's sleep and a new day awaits. The rest of my life is off to a great start. First on the agenda is getting my affairs in order. Don't want to leave a bunch of turmoil and stuff for those left behind. Funny, how I suspected ... well, something ... and began this exodus a few months ago. I sold my Lotus and accepted an offer on a property that I had hoped to build on; a property that had held some long-cherished dreams. But all possessions are like anchors on a ship. In the end, a loved one desires to have one, it ends up at an auction, an antique store, a thrift store, given to a stranger, or dumped in a landfill. I begin by opening drawers. Let's see what we have. The best thing is to have separate boxes for sorting ... classify and decide. ... or just say the hell with it and throw all of this accumulated shit away. ... yes, just leave it to the vultures. That wasn't very nice. Everyone, for the most part, has been pretty good to me. My possessions ... what do I desire to keep? Keep for what? For whom? A funny idea flickers through my mind: I'll spend the next six months, the last six months, getting rid of accumulated stuff. In the end I'll have peace knowing that all of the chains from all of the anchors have snapped; and, yes, I will be free. Like that old Negro Spiritual, "Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, I'm free at last." I push the drawer closed and call out, "Rufus, let's go. Ready for a walk?" My faithful companion stares down at me from the bed, hovering over my smiling face. In a flash, off the bed and onto the rug he flies. I slept great last night! Normally I wake at four and my mind immediately comes to consciousness. Like a flash on a camera ... pop ... I'm wide awake. I start mentally nursing and rehearsing my latest drama. Now, with the possibility of passing on in the near future, there's not much left to worry about. I must be at peace. The latest Subaru commercial shows an automobile, with its front end completely demolished, sitting on a flatbed tow truck. People at the salvage yard survey the damage and say, "They lived." Then, the family is seen getting out of their new Subaru and the