His Proposal

His Proposal - 45

Aleysa and I walk into the hospital. She looks at me. "This sucks." She takes my hand as we make our way to the cancer ward. When we get there I open the door and we enter the reception area.

The nurse behind the desk looks in our direction. "How can I help you?"

Aleysa crosses her arms. She looks at me. "I'm going to take a seat." She walks over to a chair without answering the nurse.

"Aleysa Knight,"

She looks at the piece of paper in front of her. She puts a strike through Aleysa's name. "Take a seat someone will be with you in a moment."

I walk over to Aleysa and she pulls out her phone. She begins to play angry birds.

I'm sick of that game.

She spends all her time looking at that phone and playing the game. She doesn't talk much to anyone unless we force her to talk.

A woman walks into the waiting room and she looks at Aleysa. "Aleysa Knight,"

Aleysa looks at the woman and a smile spreads across her face. "Kathy," she hugs the woman. "It's been a long time since I've seen you."

The woman steps back and she looks closely at my sister. "You look like your mother." She looks around the room. "Where is she?"

Aleysa gulps. She holds her hand out to me. "This is my sister, Chloe."

The woman turns toward me. She whistles. "You're the daughter that lived in New York. They told me everything about you." she smiles. "It's good to meet you, but that doesn't answer my question about your mother?"

Looking away from her I answer the dreaded question. "About Mom. She died a couple of months ago."

The woman covers her mouth with her hands. "Oh," she pulls us into a hug. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to bring something like that up."

Touching her arm. "It's alright. You didn't know. We're not going to hold it against you, Kathy."

Kathy looks at Aleysa. "Can you climb on the scale? I need to check your weight."

Aleysa climbs onto the scale. She looks away as the number pop up on the machine. "30.5kg" she steps off the scales without looking at it.

Kathy writes the numbers on the chart.

I knew she lost weight, but not that much.

Aleysa holds my hand as we walk down the corridor to the seats. She pulls me to the back of the room.

Kathy looks at Aleysa. "I'm going to get you a blanket." She looks at me. "Can I get you anything?"

"A bottle of water? Other than that I'm perfect."

She smiles. "Okay, Chloe." Kathy walks away from Aleysa and me.

Aleysa looks at me. "Can we leave now?"

"You need to be here, Aleysa. I know this sucks, but it's going to help you in the long run."

She shakes her head. "The only thing it's doing is prolonging my death. I'm going to die this time, Chloe. Why can't you accept that?"

Putting the magazine on the table I run out of the room and make my way to the public toilets. I lean my head against the mirror and start crying.

Aleysa has accepted her fate and she wants me to do the same. It's hard for me to accept something like her dying. I should probably help her make a bucket list. That way I could move forward and accept things for what it is.

Washing my face with cold water I take a couple of deep breaths before walking out of the bathroom. When I get back to the room I see Aleysa hooked up to a clear bag.

She looks away from me as I take a seat next to her. "You should leave."

Shaking my head I look at her. "I'm not going anywhere little, sis. What we're going to do is create a bucket list and we're going to complete it in the next two months."

She smiles. "Fine, Warner Bros, is what I want to do and we're doing that this weekend. Paris which is booked." She scratches the back of her head. "I want to bungee jump from a bridge and skydive."

Looking at her. "Anything else?"

She shakes her head. "We could add a few things that you'd like to do and we could do it together?"

"I'll think about other things that I would like to do and then add to the list. One thing comes to mind."

"Okay?"

"Yosemite?"

She smiles. "Okay, but those bears better be in hibernation when we go."

"Sorry, sis. The chances of that happening are slim to none. You might have to put up with seeing a bear."

She screws up her face. "I don't like bears. They scare me."

I start to make chicken noises and she laughs.

***

At twelve, Jai walks into the room and he takes a seat next to us. He looks at Aleysa. "Hey, Aleysa." He looks at the piece of the paper on the table. "What is this?"

Aleysa turns towards me. "It's a bucket list. Chloe and I are going to do these things in the next two months. Do you want to add some stuff to it? We could make it a family bucket list. We just have to do my things first."

Jai looks at me. "Seems like fun." He rips off a piece of paper and writes something on it. He shows it to Aleysa.

She gives him the thumbs up and then she writes something on another piece of paper and she hands it to him. They go back and forth with it.

I look at them. "I'm going to get something to eat. Do you want anything?"

They ignore me.

Rising I walk away from them.

It's not the first time they've done that while I was in the room. It feels like I'm missing something when it comes to them.

Walking up to the cafeteria I wait in line to order some food. My stomach grumbles as the line moves slowly forward. When I reach the front of the line I have a bottle of diet coke in my hand, a small bag of chips and assorted sandwiches. I pay for the items and make my way over to a vacant table. I open the container and start to eat the food.

The seat across from me is pulled out and a guy sits across from me. He smiles. "You don't mind do you?"

"Nah, it's all good. I'm about to leave anyway." I close the lid on the sandwiches and rise. I take one last look at the guy before I quickly walk out of the cafeteria.

That guy creeped me out for some reason and I couldn't sit close him any longer.

As I make my way around the corner I quickly take a picture of him.

I will see if Jai knows who this guy is.