20 things that made me happy

[Cymbamehbeep]

Chapter 1 - The problems: Life and death

Daniel looked down from where he's standing. He was standing at the very edge at the roof of his apartment. Normally he would be slowly backing away from the edge as far as he can but it didn't matter now. One more step and he would fall to his death, but that's what he wanted.

He wanted to commit suicide.

He had no purpose in life. No one cared for him. That's what his mother told him. He was an accident, a mistake. She told him that she should have aborted him. She blamed him for all her and the worlds troubles. She tormented him with words that caused him agony. Even though she passed away a year ago, the words she left scarred him. It became so unbearable that he had to agree with her, on why he shouldn't have lived.

Daniel could hear people below him, yelling at him to get down from where he was standing, some were calling for help. Few moments later, the police arrived together with the paramedics.

"You get down from there son!" yelled one of the police officers. "We don't want anyone to get hurt!"

Yeah right! They're just telling him that so there wont be a mess on the apartment! Like those people actually care for him or even know him. Why should he listen to them?

He looked at the crowd of people below him. "You want me to get down?" he said to them. "Then fine, I will." He took a step forward and fell. The people began screaming and panicking. Daniel could hear them. He could feel the air blowing at him. He could feel the gravity pull him to the ground.

In less than ten seconds, he crashed on the hard surface of the pavement. All around his body, he could feel so much pain that he couldn't even move. The crowd gathered around him to see if he was still alive. Daniel opened his eyes weakly and gave out a soft whisper, "Mother... I guess you were right..."

Daniel felt a soft comfort around him. He felt refreshed and renewed. Am I in heaven? He saw a bright light flashing on first his right eye and later his left. He also heard a voice, "Eyes are okay." it said. Daniel, still thinking he's in heaven, asked "Are you God?"

"Am I God? Of course not!" the voice replied with a chuckle. "If I was then I would have made a lot of changes starting with you, Daniel Jefferson. I'm the doctor."

The doctor? What?! Daniel immediantely opened his eyes to see himself on a hospital bed, his right foot casted and hanging and his left arm also casted. He tried to get up but his back ached horribly that he was forced to slump back on the bed. No, no! I can't be alive! He saw the doctor standing by him and writing notes. "Am I dreaming?" he asked him.

"No, you're not dreaming. In fact you just woke up from the anesthesia." the doctor answered him.

Daniel couldn't believe it. His suicide failed. " No..."

The doctor continued talking. "It says here you broke your right leg, left arm, both ribs and your back. The surgery took some time to repair those injuries but it was successful. All you need is a few days of rest then you could be discharged from the hospital."

Daniel didn't listen. "How did I survive the fall?" he asked.

"Well Daniel, the height of the building you jumped off wasn't tall enough to cause the fall to be fatal but it did give you some serious - "

"Why am I still alive doctor?" he interrupted him. He demanded an answer.

The doctor sighed and gave an honest answer. "I think your time hasn't come yet. You don't have to throw you life away so early."

Daniel was getting frustrated with the doctor's answers. "What if I wanted to die? What if I have no purpose in life? Nobody in this damn world cares about me anyway!" The doctor went silent. Daniel suddenly realized that he yelled at the doctor, blaming him for his suicide to fail. He didn't know what else to say.

The doctor thought about it for a moment. Finally he said "I can't answer that question Daniel. I think you need to go see someone who can help you."

Getta silently read a book, Gone with the Wind, on her bed. She always enjoys reading classics. Since she has to stay in the hospital it would give her something to do instead of doing nothing.

She had been staying in the hospital for a whole week. During this time she was given treatment and doctors ran their tests. Something caused her to be very ill. But this wasn't her first time staying in the hospital for long periods of time. Getta had always been a sickly child. She never got to go outside to play with other children and up to her teen years she couldn't hang out with her friends outside of her house. That's why she has a few number of friends.

She continued reading until the doctor came inside. "Getta Stuart?" She placed a bookmark on the last page she read and putted the book away. "Yes doctor?" she replied politely.

The doctor looked at her report and back at her. He looked upset and Getta could tell that he didn't want to tell her report. So she simply asked. "Is there something wrong, doctor?"

He sighed deeply. "Getta, the results of the tests we ran on you gave us a diagnosis on your illness." Getta became more concerned. "Is it bad?"

He said very quickly to get it over immediately."You have cancer."

The words struck her as if she had been hit on the face. "... Cancer?" she whimpered. The doctor continued talking, since this wasn't the worst part."It's too late to give you treatment." He paused for a while and continued. "I'm sorry Getta, but in our estimation you only have one month to live."

Getta couldn't believe what she was hearing. She shook her head refusing to believe it, tears were already pouring out of her eyes. "No... no, no!!" she sobbed, "Not this early!"

The doctor tried to calm her down. "Getta, try to understand - " He was only interrupted by her continuous sobbing. He couldn't stand seeing her cry so he rushed to her and gave her a hug. Getta buried her face in his coat and cried. " I wish I could do more to help you, but... this is all I could do." he said to her softly.

"Did you tell my parents?" she asked him between her sobs.

"They already know."  

[Cymbamehbeep]

Chapter 2 - A really short session

"So what seems to be the problem Daniel?" The question seemed straight forward. Daniel didn't know where to start, he didn't want to answer the question. He didn't want to talk at all. Ms Aiden, the psychologist who asked the question, waited patiently for his answeer. Maybe she could wait as long as she can for me to talk, thought Daniel cleverly.

After a few minutes of silence, Ms Aiden spoke. She knew what Daniel was trying to do, she had lots of patients who tried to do that. "Whatever your problem is Daniel, you thought that commiting suicide would solve it, right?" Daniel was a bit suprised on how she guessed it but trying to be smart remained silent.

Ms Aiden looked at Daniel's file. "It says here that your mother passed away a year ago and you now live with your aunt. Is it your mother's death that lead you to suicide?"

Heck no! I was happy when she died. Daniel didn't respond.

She looked back at his file and made a realization. He was unsociable and did bad at school, she read. This could only mean... "Did you love your mother Daniel?"

When will she stop guessing? No! I wanted her to go to hell! No answer.

Although Daniel didn't answer, Ms Aiden could easily read his face. "I'm taking that as a no." she said while taking notes. "Were you abused Daniel? You should be feeling free and happy now that she's not here to hurt you anymore." Still no answer. Ms Aiden scooted closer to Daniel. "She used words to hurt you, didn't she?"

Daniel wanted to hit her for finally guessing it right but harsh,angry words came out of his mouth instead. "You dumb b***h!"She hated me! She told me that I shouldn't have existed and a bunch of other s**t that made me hate myself!" Daniel heard himself screaming. Great, now I yelled at the psychologist...

Ms Aiden stayed calm the whole time he yelled at her. She was used it. She scooted away from Daniel and wrote back a few notes. Very bad temper.... There was silence again. Daniel was calming himself and Ms Aiden was trying to think of a solution to his problem. Thy were both interrupted by someone coming inside.

It was a girl, who was about Daniel's age. Daniel observed her; she had dark blond hair, green eyes and wore a blue summer dress with white sandals. "Good morning Ms Aiden." she greeted. She then saw Daniel. "Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't know you had another session."

Getta Stuart, thought Ms Aiden. She had been coming here a few days earlier than Daniel and she is easier to work with. That's it! "It's okay Getta." she said to her just before she left. "This session is almost aver anyway. Please, do come inside." Getta walked slowly and sat on a chair opposite to Daniel.

She made a quick glance at Daniel. He had dark scruffy hair, blue eyes and wore a black shirt with skinny jeans and convers. He was also slouching on the chair. She turned away from him when she was done looking at his features.

Ms Aiden made few more notes and turned to Getta. "Getta, I don't think you need sessions with me anymore."

Getta was confused. "But Ms Aiden, I've been only coming here for a few days and my problem is not even solved - "

"Now now Getta, there will be a solution to your problem." reassured Ms Aiden "Getta, I would like you to meet Daniel - "

Daniel interrupted her. "Wait, this session was supposed to be between you and me - "

"Let me explain, Daniel." She went back to Getta. "Getta, this is Daniel." turning to Daniel "Daniel, this is Getta."

Getta gave a friendly hi to Daniel and extended her hand to him. Daniel didn't want to shake her hand but seeing Ms Aiden watching him, he extended his hand and let Getta shake it.

Ms Aiden continued. "Now, I'm going to pair you two and you could solve each other's problems."

"What?!" they both said, both shocked on what they just heard.

Ms Aiden didn't mind them. " I want you two to come back tomorrow at 11 am, got it?"

To meet a b***h who had no idea on what I'm going through?

To share my feelings with a stranger?

They both nodded their heads.  

[Cymbamehbeep]

Chapter 3: Making the list

Getta walked slowly towards the door of Ms Aiden's office. She hesitated to come in but she opened the door anyway.

When she opened the door, she saw Daniel sleeping on a chair with a magazine oh his face. Getta ignored Daniel's presence and looked around the room searching for Ms Aiden. "Ms Aiden?" she called.

"She's not here…" mumbled Daniel, loud enough for Getta to hear.

Getta walked over to Daniel and slowly lifted the magazine off his face. "Do you know where she is?" she asked softly. Daniel's eyes were still shut but he only shrugged.

" How long were you hear?" she asked while sitting next to him

" I don't know, an hour ago."

She saw a piece of paper on the table with the word 'instructions' big and bold as the title of the paper. She picked it up and read it aloud.

"Instructions, number one: write a list of things that you want to do in your life, something that you would want to do before you die. Make sure you and Daniel share ideas when making the list." She paused. She knew what this was all about. A bucket list…

She continued. "Number two: As soon as you're done writing it down, DO those things together. And number three: Keep the list a secret from everyone else.

Daniel, who was listening the whole time, got up from his chair and grabbed the instructions from her. "What the hell is this?" He read it to himself and threw it on the table. " I don't want to do this crap, I'm leaving." He grabbed his stuff and was about to reach for the door until Getta stopped him.

"You can't leave. This could be one step to solving your problem."

"Oh well I didn't ask for a psychologist to help me. My aunt dragged me here." He turned the doorknob but Getta grabbed his hand.

"She sent you here so you could be happy again."

"I already have a solution." It's suicide. And why are you even here? You look happy." He opened the door and walked away.

I'm about to die from cancer, that's why! That is what she wanted to say but instead she said, "Solving it by yourself won't do anything."

Daniel stopped walking. Even if I tell her she won't understand. But there was something about Getta that made him want to come back.

He came back to the office. "Okay, I won't leave." Getta smiled now that Daniel changed his mind. He sat next to her and reread the instructions. "I don't get how and why we're supposed to do this."

Getta scooted closer to Daniel to look at the instructions. She looked at the blank paper that was supposed to be the list.

"Do you have any ideas?" asked Daniel.

Getta kept thinking and thinking. Something you would want to do before you die… Finally an idea came out of her head and she jotted it down on the paper.

Daniel looked over. "What are you writing? You got something?" But Getta didn't pay attention. She continued writing down her ideas. Daniel got annoyed on how she was ignoring him so he grabbed the paper from her.

"Hey!" Getta tried to get it back but Daniel shoved her away.

"Shut up! Just let me read what you wrote." He read the paper out loud. " See sunrise, walk in the rain, sleep under the stars, what the hell is this? Spend time with family and friends, build memories, falling in love-"

Getta took the paper away from him. "I'm writing the list, things that I've always-"

He interrupted her, already knowing what she's going to say, "- wanted to do in life, yeah I get it. The things you wrote are just so cheesy, I mean falling in love? You should do something… wilder, more adventurous like um a road trip."

Getta did not get it. "A road trip?"

"Yeah, a road trip. I don't know, I've always wanted to drive a car and have a road trip. You know what, why don't you add that to the list." Getta wrote it down immediately.

"How about seeing a concert? Dang, I've always wanted to go to a live concert. Or how about eating something you have never eaten before but it tastes so good that you just wanna keep eating and eating and eating-"

Getta continued to write down Daniel's ideas as if she was a secretary. Suddenly she came up with her own ideas. "How about something challenging like running a marathon or climbing a mountain?"

Daniel didn't pay attention to her since he was busy thinking. "Yeah yeah you go ahead and write those down. Hey, how about a food fight? It looks fun."

Getta wrote it down and got more ideas. "Something fun? Why not going to a beach or an amusement park or a party?" She wrote it down with enthusiasm.

Daniel thought deeply. Hmm, something fun.. "You know what would be fun for me? Seeing a girl naked and losing my virginity."

Getta stopped writing and looked at Daniel, shocked and disturbed on what he just said. He was daydreaming about it, she could tell because of his lustful smile.

Heh heh, it's not like he's going to do it to me. " Umm okay, we could add those."

(what the list looks like)

see sunrise
walk in the rain
sleep under the stars
spend time with family and friends
build memories
fall in love
go on a road trip
see a concert
have a feast
run a marathon
climb a mountain
get into a food fight
go to a party
go to an amusement park
go to a beach
see a girl nude
lose virginity