Chapter 10

(19 months left) (January)

New year's eve was amazing, mostly because Lissa completed number 40: see a new year's eve fireworks display, that night. 31 December 2020.

During the course of 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 43 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 serenity of the area, makes it the perfect place to forget about all the troubles they faced.

So they completed number 41: find my own secret place,

number 43: carve my name into a tree,

and number 49: take a picture in front of a waterfall. The pictures turned out beautifully, and the next day, they went back again — to plant flowers.

•

Jace arrived the next morning, with two packets filled with marigold seeds. Lissa specifically chose these seeds because it's Steph's birthday flowers, so that Steph could be apart 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 actually unintentional. It was just something her brain wanted to say.

She nodded and he continued with his work. Covering the seeds with soil, and patting it down gently with the hand-spade, Lissa watered the seeds, and left the watering can next to the tree, and got up to leave.

Number 47: plant flowers; done.

Don't ask her why she planted flowers in January, that...just couldn't wait.

•

When they reached her house, it was still fairly early, if she remembers correctly, it was like late afternoon, so they decided to do number 42: tie a message to balloons and let it go. So, while Lissa was in her room, writing the message, Jace went to the store to buy a bunch of balloons.

•

He arrived 10 minutes later, with an assortment of colourful balloons.

“Have you written the message?”

“Yeah.”

“What'd you write?”

Lissa handed him the page and he read it aloud, “Life is short, live it to the fullest!” he looked at her, confused.

Jace always has a confused look on his face, he wore it like it's his favourite t-shirt,

“I wrote that, so that if someone else finds the letter it might inspire them to write a bucket list as well, although their reasons might be something else, other than death. Who knows?” she explained with a shrug and a smile.

Jace took a picture of Lissa holding the balloons, then another of her watching the balloons float away into the atmosphere. She didn't really know she was posing for the latter, she was just admiring the balloons in the sky.

•

The first week of the 19th month period flew by, and the weekend was terrific.

Jace took her horseback riding, so number 44: ride a horse, was completed,

as well as number 46: have a picnic on a roof (another favour),

and 48: watch the sunset, so all that was left — of the specific numbers she chose out — was numbers 45 and 50.

•

Wednesday rolled around and Lissa was getting ready, trudging through her room. She couldn't even walk too fast anymore, because then the dizziness hits her like a tidal wave, and then she can't do anything for a week after that, and a week was precious time wasted, if it was not used to complete the List.

She had another check up on Monday and the tumour was starting to grow at a much more alarming rate than previously anticipated. The doctor told her to take it easy, but she needed to complete the List. It was a good thing as well that Jace couldn't have made it to the appointment — because he had an all-day class — otherwise he would've forced her to stop overexerting herself like this, but she couldn't just sit around and let the cancer consume her — or her brain at least.

Wednesday, they completed number 45, and instead of doing it outside, Jace found this wooden type of box to keep in her room after it dried, little does he know, it's a gift for him.

Everything is a gift for him.

Lissa placed her hands on the cement, Jace took the picture, and she left the box on her windowsill to dry. Finished was number 45: leave her hand-prints in cement.

•

When Friday showed it's face, they decided to complete number 50. Lissa hadn't seen Steph in a few months, because she was so busy completing the List. So she decided number 50 was going to be done with Steph by her side, as well as Jace. Even if was just watching movies. She missed her best friend...

They left Lissa's house at about six that night, and headed down to Steph's house. They walked, since Steph's place was just a block away. Lissa hasn't received a text from Steph in a while. The last one Lissa got from Steph, was when she was busy with number 30, and that was about a month or two ago.

And all it said was, I love you, Mel. Lissa didn't take notice of it at that moment, but now she wishes she had...

Lissa knocked on the door, but no-one answered. Usually Steph was alone at home since her parents are always on business trips, so it's very uncommon for someone to not answer the door.

They waited for about 5 minutes and Jace even suggested they leave, since there was clearly no-one at home, but Lissa was persistent. Something didn't feel right. She tried the door and was surprised to find it unlocked, she switched on the lights and called out Steph's name, but heard no reply. The house was deathly quiet. The wind gently blowing against the windows, causing it to slightly rattle, was the only sounds Lissa heard.

Jace thought the house was cold...too cold. A slight draft blew over his skin, as they walked through the house. He was focusing on Lissa the entire walk. He could sense that she was not okay. She knows something's wrong.

Lissa briskly headed up to Steph's room, calling out her name every five seconds, with Jace trailing closely behind her, when Lissa opened Steph's bedroom door, she felt her heart leap out of her chest, and not in a good way...