The Bucket List

1 - DANG IT, KEVIN, NO!

6 years later....

"So what you're saying is... he's dying?"

"He doesn't have much longer. I'm sorry."

Rainn swallowed the lump in her throat as she held onto her dear little friend as if his life depended on it. Her voice cracked as she asked, "There's nothing you can do?"

The doctor sighed, doing his best to be sympathetic, all while trying to hide his annoyance. "I'm afraid not. He's quite depressed and severely.... obese. Best you can do now is make him comfortable."

"Okay... thank you." She was going to do her best to prolong his days, and even if they weren't many, she was going make the last days of his life the best possible. She'd help him exercise, get him on a diet, find out what makes him happy....

Oh, we're talking about her morbidly obese hamster, by the way.

Rainn Williams was now a sixth grade teacher at a little hole in the wall school. She used the said morbidly obese hamster as a class pet. She gently picked the fat hamster up and gave him a small kiss before putting him in his carrier. He tried to bite her, and she swore he growled, but she didn't mind. "It's okay, Kevin. We'll be home soon."

She placed the carrier in her lap and wheeled herself out of the room. It was a difficult task- maneuvering her wheelchair and trying not to move Kevin around too much, but she figured he's been through worse trauma by being manhandled by her students.

She paid her ridiculously expensive vet bill and wheeled herself down the street to the school playground. She was thankful it was empty for now. She had about twenty minutes until class started. It was the week before the last week of school for everyone, summer just around the corner.

That meant Kevin's training and exercising would start now. The playground was a nice place for this. It was sunny out and the sunshine was sure to lift his spirits.
And, he was too fat to run away! He just waddled, really. Sometimes he'd waddle a few feet and flop over on his side, seemingly dead. She always had to poke him to check.

She placed him on the ground and called him towards her, but of course the miserable thing moved away from her. So instead of calling him, she more so chased him to get him moving.

After a minute of trying to get him to move, he took a sharp right turn and really started trucking along. "There you go, Kevin! I knew you had it in you."

Then, seemingly suicidal, Kevin headed straight towards an oncoming bike.

"DANG IT, KEVIN, NO!"

Unfortunately, she was too late.

He was squished. Roadkill... it was- as Kim K might say in these situations- tragic.

The owner of the bike came to a screeching halt. He whistled lowly and winced. "That's unfortunate."

"Un-for-tun-ate!?" She emphasized each syllable, gobsmacked. She stared down at her dead hamster, nearly severed in half. "That's literal murder! You just murdered my hamster!"

"I dunno, he seemed pretty suicidal to me."

"Excuse me?" She snapped and whipped her wheelchair around to face him so fast, she nearly got whiplash. "I can't believe-"

"Wait, Dwight?"

Dwight?

Oh, no.... there was only one person who called her that. Her eyes finally met his, and man, he's changed over the years.

His face used to be more rounded, but it was now chiseled out to prominent cheekbones and a well-defined chin and jaw. He had thick, loose curls for hair that were dark brown, his cartilage pierced, and his fingers were littered with chunky rings. Beneath his perfectly arched brows, his dark brown eyes were as direct as expected. Muscles rippled across every part of his toned body, his big arms and hands were more ink than skin.