The 50 Day Bucket List

Make a New Friend

After showing Chloe around the hospital I came up with an idea: a bucket list. Tons of people have them and try to complete them before they get old and die, mine would just have to be shorter and a little easier to complete. When I went back into the room after showing Chloe around, Dr. Carl gave me a little more information based on the tests that finished while I was gone. None of the news was good news though. He had an estimated time left for how long I would live: 50 days.

Just 50 days.

I wouldn’t have Christmas.

I wouldn’t have my birthday.

I probably wouldn’t even make it to Halloween.

How could all this happen to me? Why would it happen to me?

My phone buzzed. I picked it up and read the message scrolling at the top, “Chloe: Hey! How are you today?”

I gave my phone a small smile and returned a message, “Not much better. I have 50 days.”

I pulled out a piece of paper and searched my desk for a pen.

My phone buzzed again: “Chloe: 50 days?!?!?!? That’s crazy! You know that stuff is never true, I’ve been through two times of them giving me days to live and I’m not dead yet.”

“Yeah, but the chemo isn’t working, I’m already getting worse,” I hit the send key and fumbled to turn on my desk light.

“Chloe: Girl, you need to calm down. Everything is going to be all right. Chin up.”

“I’m not sure it will be. Dr. Carl is never wrong. He won’t tell me anything unless he knows for sure.”

I picked up my pencil and slowly wrote on the top line: My 50 Day Bucket list.

“Chloe: And he can see the future? If he can I’d like to see when I can get a boyfriend.”

“Ugg…boys! Who needs them?” I started to number the page from one to fifty, but was only half way through when my phone buzzed again.

“Chloe: I do! You need to introduce me to some here, I don’t know any yet!”

“You don’t need to meet them. They are all ugly and weird anyway. How long have you been here?”

As soon as I finished the last of my numbering I got a return message: “Chloe: Just a week. They can’t all be ugly and weird. They can’t be like that everywhere!”

“You’d better believe it. There are a few good ones, but they’re all taken.”

I started writing out my list: swim with dolphins, go to beach, make a change…

“Chloe: I’ll win them over.”

“Good luck with that. Tons of girls have tried.”

…make a friend, have a sleepover, catch a fish…

“Chloe: We should get together sometime!”

“Yeah! That would be fun! You doing anything tomorrow?”

…sleep outside, make cake pops, go cliff jumping…

“Chloe: We have to go get the last of our boxes from the storage place, it will probably take all day, but maybe the next day you can show me around town.”

“Eww…moving’s not much fun is it? We can definitely get together in a couple days. We should go to the park and get fresh air!”

…watch sunset on beach, make a snow angel, make a phone case…

“Chloe: Fresh air would be nice. What are you up to right now?”

“Making a bucket list, you?”

…make a rainbow cake, watch Disney movies, do color run…

“Chloe: A bucket list? That’s cool! We should do it together! I’m just trying to figure out where these wires go on my computer. I think my dad might need to look at it if he has the time.”

“Yeah, computers don’t make much sense. I can use one, but I can’t put one together.”

…have a lemonade stand, get something named after me, and send a letter to a random address.

“Chloe: Definitely, using computers is easy. I’m not sure if I’m going to get this, maybe I’ll see if my brother knows how, he likes computers a lot.”

“You have a brother? How old is he?”

I thunked my pencil against the desk trying to think of another thing to add, but nothing was coming to mind. “I guess I’ll have to add more later,” I said to myself.

“Chloe: Sadly I do, he’s 14. He thinks he’s all high and mighty because he’ll be in high school this year. Really, he’s just annoying. Do you have siblings?”

“No, sometimes I wish I did and other times I’m glad I don’t. I can’t even imagine the sacrifices my siblings would have to make if I had them.”

I pushed my chair back and fumbled to turn off my desk light. I was walking out of my room when my phone buzzed again.

“Chloe: Yeah, thankfully my brother doesn’t like to do much, he’s a couch potato. I would feel really bad if he did do things because he wouldn’t be able to do much. He’s in here now and almost has my computer put together the right way. He wants me to pay him for it.”

“Pay him? That’s crazy! He’s your brother. You’re supposed to help each other. I guess you could offer to help him unpack for a little bit, or paint his nails.”

I walked to the kitchen to grab a snack, thinking it may help me think.

“Chloe: Thanks a lot for that message. He saw your message on my phone and now I have to help him unpack. I wish he had only seen the painting nails, but then again, but then again, I don’t want to get near his feet. I guess I’ll text you when I’m done.”

I giggled as I returned the message, “Sorry, have fun!”

My mom looked up from cutting vegetable, “I’m glad to see you are feeling a little better.”

“Yeah, Chloe is really fun to talk to.”

My mom set your knife down and turned to face me, “Who is Chloe? I don’t think you’ve mentioned her before.”

“Chloe is the girl I showed around the Cancer floor last night.”

“I don’t think I met her. You’ll have to bring her over to meet me sometime.”

“Yeah sure, we were thinking about going to the park in two days. She’s busy tomorrow, but the day after she’s free again.”

“I guess you can, but I would like for you to clean out your closet tomorrow since she’s busy and you have nothing better to do. I’ll have dad get a few boxes down for you to put things in.”

“Okay mom,” I said, turning back to go to my room, it seemed like my mom was already giving up on my life, but I wasn’t sure if I should too.