A Thousand Reasons to Live [On Hold]

A Thousand Reasons - Chapter 3

Isaac sat up in his bedroom, Wii remote in hand.  The avatar on his screen ran haphazardly through the pixelated rubble, controlled by his movement on the joystick.  He saw a movement on the side of the screen, and quickly turned his viewing panel to get a better aim at the target.

"Isaac!  A friend of yours is here to see you!"

He started slightly as his grandmother's voice traveled from downstairs, and that gave his virtual opponent time to fire.  He swore softly as his avatar fell to the ground, and he racked his brain trying to figure out who would pay a surprise visit to him on the first day of break.  Of course!  Noah.  Isaac had completely forgotten.

"Are you coming downstairs?" his grandmother called again.

"Nah, just send him up!" Isaac shouted back, turning his eyes back to the television screen.  His avatar had been reincarnated at the opposite side of the map, so he began maneuvering it back to the center of the action.  It was only a matter of seconds before the now-familiar form of Noah pushed wide the bedroom door and slipped in.  "Hey," he said tentatively.

"Hey," Isaac replied gruffly.  Noah took the moment of silence to take in the room.  Its state would never be tolerated at his own house.  Clothes were scattered haphazardly, everywhere from the floor to the ceiling fan, and the dresser was in such a state that one of the drawers had been removed completely.  He didn't want to think about how long the bits of food laying around the room had been there, but he was pretty certain that they were the source of the slight, pungent smell lingering in the room.

All the same, he collected one last breath of fresh air and closed the bedroom door.  "Here, I brought this," he said, pulling a small memo pad out of his pocket and extending it to Isaac.

"Just a sec," Isaac said irritably.  He let out a small groan as the word Defeat! spread across his screen, but he was quick to turn and take the item from Noah's hand. "A notebook?" he questioned, flicking through the pages, "What's this for?"

"You said you could think of a thousand reasons for me to live," Noah responded calmly, "That notepad has fifty pages, twenty lines on each page.  We fill each one of them, we get our thousand."

Isaac stared at him.  "You can't be serious."

"I am," Noah took a seat on the bed next to Isaac.  "Go ahead, do you have a pencil?"

Isaac didn't, but Noah produced one from his pocket before he could get out a word of an excuse.  He sighed and flipped the front cover over, then rested the notepad on his knee.  "Okay, um..." he fought for words.  Where was a person supposed to begin with a list like this one?  "Got family?" he said finally, "That'd be reason number one."

Noah thought for a moment, then shook his head.  "I live with my aunt and uncle, but they're not that great.  I think I'd be glad to be rid of them."

"Okay, no for family," Isaac said.  He tapped the pencil's eraser on his leg as he thought.  "Okay, who are your best friends from school?"

"I don't have any," Noah said softly.

"Like hell you don't.  Everyone's got friends.  Come on, like, who do you sit with at lunch?"

Noah shrugged.  "Nobody."

Okay, another no.  Isaac was about to ask if Noah played any sports, but one look at him answered that question, so instead he asked, "Are you in any clubs?  Band? Book club? Anything?"

Again, a head shake.  "Nope."

"Any hobbies?"

"Not really."

With a groan of frustration, Isaac tossed the notepad and pencil back over to Noah.  "You know what the problem is here, don't you?" he said fiercely. "The problem is that you're bein' no help at all. At least normal people attempt to make their lives enjoyable.  What do you do?  My bet would be that you sit around home all day and mope.  Sure, of course you're not going to find any reasons to live that way, but it's your own damn fault!"

He turned abruptly and grabbed his Wii remote back up.  Noah's jaw dropped as Isaac's words stung him.  "That's-- that's--" he spluttered, "You're not being fair."

"Ain't I?" Isaac said sarcastically.  "Here, take a look at this screen.  See the little map in the corner?"

"Yeah," Noah replied slowly.

"And see the little red dots on the map?  Those dots are people.  They came to life about a minute ago when the match started.  And all they've done so far is run and duck.  Now, watch this."

After a few seconds, a virtual man in full army gear darted across the screen.  Isaac took aim with the remote and fired.  His opponent let out a yell, fell to the ground, and faded away into nothing.  Another red dot suddenly appeared on the map, taking his place.

"You see that?" Isaac said, gesturing towards the screen.  "That's how fast life goes.  It's okay in a video game.  No matter how many times you die, you can just do it over.  But not in real life.  In real life, you get one chance, and what have you done with it?  Nothing.  You're blowin' it, kid."

Noah was silent for a moment, then he quietly said, "So what are you trying to say?"

"I'm saying that the only way we'd ever be able to fill that little notebook of yours is to actually go out and do a thousand things worth doing."

He refocused his entire attention on the video game.  Noah leaned back on the bed, thinking hard.  He sat up again after a moment and said, "Well, why not?"

"Why not what?"

"Why not go out and find a thousand reasons to live?"

Isaac turned to give Noah something that resembled a grin.  "You want to?"

"Absolutely."

"Then we will.  Right after graduation, we can start.  I'm going to give you those reasons to live, even if it kills you."