The 50 Day Bucket List

Catch a Fish

After our crazy wig dying, Chloe invited me to her lake house. One of her old friends was meeting her there and she wanted me to come along. It took a lot of convincing for my mom to finally let me go without her. She was going to make me call her every few hours until she was told there wasn't good service there.  

Chloe's mom assured her that she had tons of experience with Leukemia since Chloe had it just like me. 

"Look Chloe! I can see the lake! DO you see it?" 

I nodded, "It's so beautiful. How close is the cabin?" 

"Realloy close. It's the one just across the lake. It looks like Claire is already there." 

"It's so pretty, I've never staying in a cabin before." 

"Seriously? Cabins are the best." 

I smiled. Chloe was practically bouncing off the walls and roof of the car the whole rest of the way to the cabin. A girl was standing outside of the van parked next to the cabin. Chloe flew out of the car as soon as it shut off.  

"Claire!" she yelled running to the girl and wrapping her arms around her. The other girl looked very excited, but I don't think anyone could look as excited as Chloe. 

I slid out of the car and helped Chloe's mom unload the luggage. Claire and Chloe were talking rapidly. An older woman got out of the van and came over to Chloe's mom and shook her hand, "Thank you so much for having Claire, she is so excited to see Chloe again." She turned to me, "Hello dear, who are you?" 

"I'm Olivia. I've been showing Chloe around after she moved in." I shook her hand and smiled. 

"That is so nice of you. I am glad she has found a new friend." 

"Mom, can I have the key. I want to go claim my room." Hunter stood next to his mom looking up to her with pleading eyes. 

"You can have the keys, but you have to take the smaller non-joined room since there are three girls with us." 

"That's not fair. Why does only Chloe get to invite friends?" 

"You brought a friend last time, you two get to take turns." 

"But mom!" he pleaded.  

Before I heard the rest of the argument, Chloe called me over. 

"Claire, this is Olivia. She is from the new city. She's been showing me around."  

"Hi Olivia," Claire stuck her hand out to be shaken. I took it, smiling. "I am so glad Chloe has already found someone new to talk to." 

"Gosh, who wouldn't want to talk to me?"  

"That French lady yesterday. My goodness you scared her!" I laughed. 

"Chloe, what did you do now?" Claire asked. 

"Well, we were trying to find hair dye at this salon and this French lady told us we were crazy to dye our hair, so I showed her the wigs we were dying and she thought we still were crazy. Long story short, I took my wig off and kind of scared her." 

Claire playfully hit Chloe, "Why do you keep doing that? You need to stop scaring people by pulling your wig off!" 

I laughed, "Have you done it before?" 

She sighed, "Only twice! And it's funny." 

"I guess it was funny." 

"Girls!" called Chloe's mom, "Let's get the stuff inside and get set up and then you can spend the afternoon doing whatever." 

"Ah man, okay mom," said Chloe as we went back to the car. Claire unloaded her stuff from her mom's van. She gave her mom a hug and her mom left. 

"You got away from your mom much easier than I did mine," I laughed yanking my suitcase into the air and carrying it towards the cabin. 

"Really? I guess she just kind of lets me go." 

I laughed, "Mine wouldn't. I had to beg her for at least an hour." 

"Really? That's crazy." 

"Yeah," I pushed the door open and heaved my suitcase through the door. "Ugg...why did I pack so much?" 

"Probably all the pills," said Chloe going out the door to get more luggague.  

"I still don't have as many as you though. I lost a lot last week." 

"You lost your pills?" asked Claire shocked. "Don't you need them?" 

I shook my head, putting my suitcase down. "No, I don't need them anymore." 

"Oh, well that's good." 

"Sort of," I let the topic slip not wanting to bring my death back up. I didn't need to tell this girl that I probably wouldn't ever see after this trip.  

Claire looked at me strangely, but continued on.  

Once we got all the luggage inside, we lay out our stuff in the rooms we were sharing. "We should go fishing, I think we have three poles," said Chloe laying down on the bed. 

"Yeah, that would be a ton of fun. I've never actually caught anything before." 

"Really? I haven't ever caught much, but I have caught a few fish." 

"I've only been fishing once, but it was a ton of fun," added Claire. "I would love to go again." 

"Awesome," said Chloe sitting back up. "I'll go find the poles and tackle box." 

We all went to the main room in the cabin and immediately found the fishing poles. I grabbed the poles and Chloe grabbed the tackle box. Chloe leading the way, we stumbled through the small patch of trees to the lack and to the dock. 

"So," said Chloe opening the tackle box, "you are going to want to use this orange goo stuff rolled into a ball. It's the second best and we're out of the best stuff." She rummaged through the other containers. "And, this stuff is expired. Awesome, I guess we need to throw that out when we get back. I started untangling the three lines and hooks and attached the bobble.  

Chloe rolled the orange goo into balls. She handed me one and Claire one. I handed her and Claire poles and stuck the goo onto the hook. I found a good spot and cast my line into the green water. Claire and Chloe both followed suit.  

We sat in silence for a few minutes. 

"So," started Claire, "do you have cancer too Olivia, or are you just from the town." 

"I have cancer, you?" 

"No, my little brother did though. That's how Chloe and I met." 

"He's better?" 

She shook her head. I sighed and looked down at my shoes. At least Chloe and Claire could sympathize more for each other soon. "I'm sorry. It must be hard." 

"Yeah, but it was hard for him too." 

I nodded, "It's very hard. Especially when you are told you are going to die. It's hard to pick yourself back up and keep moving. It's really hard to even find what to do once you pick yourself up too." 

Claire murmured in agreement. "I just wish he didn't have to go so young. It made it harder to see his little face in so much pain, but then it made it easier too since I've spent more years without him than I have with him." 

"But does anyone ever want to live without you? Who's going to miss you when you die: your parents, sibling if you have them, a few friends, but whom else?" 

I heard Claire shift of the dock. "No one wants anyone to die, at least in most cases. Everyone that knew you will miss you. That's kind of the thing with death. You feel bad and miss someone even if you never really knew them." The lake was silent for a few minutes before she spoke again. "You're struggling with death aren't you? I can tell. It's a hard thing, but you can get past it." 

"Maybe, but it's not so easy when you are the one dying.