A Dying Girl's List

Chapter 10

(19 months left) (January)

New year's eve was amazing, mostly because Lissa completed number forty: see a new year's eve fireworks display, that night. 31 December 2020.

During the following two weeks, Jace and Lissa completed numbers 41–50. Firstly; they found a secret place, that only the two of them knows about. The main reason why Lissa wanted to find a place like this, was so that Jace had somewhere to go to after she died. If he was ever missing her, this place should be the first place he goes to, besides her grave.

“So where do you want this special place to be?” he asked her.

“Somewhere where there's a huge willow tree, so I can do number forty-three as well,”  this may seem highly unlikely to find...

“Two birds with one stone,” he smiled.

“Exactly,”

•

And that's exactly what they did, it's a bit further away from Lissa's house, and it took them an hour to find it, but they did – it has an amazing waterfall as well.

The equanimity of the area made it the perfect place to forget about all the troubles they faced. The grass seemed greener, the air smelled fresher, the water in the lake was bluer than the ocean itself. It pales in comparison to the outside world. It has no covering overhead, so the sky could be seen from any spot in the garden. Lissa imagined herself, lying sprawled out on the grass, on a picnic blanket, and cloud-gazing with Jace, on a warm summer day. She would've done it today, but the weather seemed suspicious. The sky was grey and the clouds seemed ominous. Not a great day for finding shapes in the clouds.

So they completed number forty-one: find her secret place,

number forty-three: carve her name on a tree, and number forty-nine: take a picture in front of a waterfall. The pictures turned out beautifully, and the next day, they went back again – for the next activity.

•

Jace arrived the next morning, at Lissa's, with two packets filled with marigold seeds. Lissa specifically chose those seeds, because it was Steph's birthday flowers. That way, Steph could be a part of her garden too.

Lissa grabbed her jacket, closed the door, and headed to Jace's car.

“I see you brought the tools,” she said looking at his backseat filled with garden tools.

“Yeah, can't garden without gardening tools,” Lissa smiled, and the rest of the ride was silent – but a comfortable silence.

They put up a sign outside so that they'd know where the entrance was. Jace decided to name it, Lissa's Legacy – so that he'd always remember her.

Very cute.

They made tiny holes in the ground in front of the name-carved willow tree and planted the seeds.

“Jace?”

“Mmh?”

“Promise me, you'll look after these flowers once I'm gone,”

“Lissa...” he put the garden hoe down, and faced her,

“I promise, Lissa, I'll take care of everything you leave behind. Promise,” the atmosphere turned very morose, but it was unintentional. It was just something her brain wanted to say.

She had no filter recently, and everything she blurted out or said willingly, either had something to do with death, the afterlife or concerning the List.