Carnival Ride of Life

Part Five: Phone Call Savior

My rusted car rumbles and jolts to a stop in a parking stall in front of my family's apartment. "This is it," I tell Tyler, who sits in the passenger seat, before I push open the creaky door of my car to step outside. I walk up onto the sidewalk and to the apartment door before I glance back at Tyler who is slowly emerging from the car. I tilt my head to silently tell him to hurry up and walk into the apartment my mom moved to after my hospitalization. "Mom!" my voice carries as I walk into the apartment leaving the door open for Tyler to enter through. "Gertrude! Geryd!" I hear their shrieks from down the hall to my right, so I turn and face the attack.

"Ray! Ray!" my twin siblings yell while galloping on their play horses. I bend down and pick them both up when they reach me. Their similar blonde hair tickles my cheeks as I swing them around until I get dizzy. When I look up, I see my mom leaning with her hip against the doorway to the living room. Her hair is showing the gray roots and her eyes are beginning to develop crow's feet at their corners.

"Hey there, baby," Mom says, entering the room and enveloping me in a hug. "Want to introduce me to your friend?"

I turn around and smile at Tyler before introducing him to my mom. "Mom, this is Tyler. He works at the carnival and helped me finish my list."

"Tyler, why don't you come in," Mom says motioning towards the maroon couches lining the walls of the living room. He closes the door and barely sits down before the phone starts to ring.

"I got it," I tell the room full of people walking over to the phone on the wall. "Hello?"

"Hello," the caller says, "It's Dr. Robertson, Rachel's doctor. May I ask who I'm speaking to?"

"It's Rachel. Why are you calling?"

"We never got to fully talk about your test results this morning," Dr. Robertson answers me before continuing,"and I believe you may have gotten the wrong impressions."

"Dr. Rob-"

"No, let me talk now. Your test results showed that your counts and white blood cell counts were all good. Rachel, you're not dying. You're going into remission."

"What?" My knees weaken. I turn to lower myself to the ground against the wall. Tyler and my mom's faces both show concern, but I can't get the words out to them that Dr. Robertson is saying to me.

"You'll have to come in for some follow-up..." His voice falls into the background as tears fall onto my face. My mom comes and takes the phone from me. I start to laugh as she turns away and talks to Dr. Robertson. I hear her cries of joy as he tells her the good news. Tyler gets up from the couch and sits down next to me on the floor.

"Wanna talk about it?" he asks me, staring at me from my right.

"I'm not dying," I tell him. "I'm not dying!" I feel his arms wrap around me and pull me to him. We sit on the floor for what seems like forever, me crying and laughing with joy, and him smiling and laughing right along with me.

After a few moments of silence Tyler asks me, "So what are you going to do now?"

"What do you mean," I reply.

"What are you going to do with the rest of your life?"

"Well... I guess I'm going to live. I never was able to think about that before, you know cancer and all," I tell him. I stand up, and go to around the corner into the kitchen, searching through drawers for a paper and a pen. I hear footsteps creak behind me. My search comes up successful. I turn around to see my family and Tyler looking at me. "I'm going to make a new bucket list."

I walk into the living room, sit down on the couch, and begin to write.

Go to Disneyland.Go to college.Get married.