I am prepared for the Leaming. The Leaming is prepared for me. Just like any other year, every person in the city of New York on January 1st will arrive gracefully at the Leaming Center. In this city, you only get a job when you are 25 and you are down with the Leaming and you live with your parents until then.The difference in the year of 3054 is that Thelma and I are being Leamed along with all of the other 21 year olds in the city. Our fate, our future, and our live’s are being determined by the leaders of the city we call home. I will find out in a matter of minutes when I will be put to my death by the Leaders.
The Leaming, the day that can make you or break you. The day you find out when you will be put to your death and the day you receive The List of how to defeat your death day. The List that tells you how you can live your life to the fullest and how you can make your life the longest possible. The ultimate goal is to reach 100 years old.
I will defeat the Leaming. I will reach 100 years old. I will reach 100 years old with Thelma.
“Lemira Ammer,” My heart pounds through my chest, my mind thinking of all the possibilities that could be my future. “Your hand please.” My chin is up high asI reach towards Ms.Layla’s rotten old hand with a smirk that speaks for itself. Ms.Layla lays my hand on the scanner as the days fly around on the monitor. Which is the day of my day of death? Which is the day I will be killed? Will I make it to October 26, 3132, 100 years old?
"Lemira Ammer," she speaks in her confident voice, "your day of death is April 23, 3110." I am staring at my feet. April 23, 3110 is whizzing through my mind on repeat. I must not forget this. Moving them foot by foot back to my seat, I sit next to Josie Abberman and Bridget Atrey. We are in alphabetical order and of course I had to be second up. April 23, 3110, April 23, 3110, April 23, 3110. Doing the math, I realize that I will be 78 years old. Even though it is not 100 years old, it is still a high number! That is amazing and I couldn’t be happier!
All letters A-M have now gone. Now it is Thelma's turn. I see in her eyes the fear that lies inside her. All I want is for us to be able to take on the challenges together. “Thelma Narlom,” and without being asked Thelma gave her hand and her day of death was revealed. “February 11, 3108” The shock and happiness lies in her face, I see it now. We are going to die only 2 years apart, but we will both make it through the Leaming to 100 years old. She glances over at me and all I can think of, is that my best friend since birth, my neighbor, my birthday buddy, and my everything, will be with me forever. That is amazing, phenomenal, exciting, and perfect.
After everybody has gone we stand up and everybody applaudes, I am not quite sure why everyone applauds, this is not an amazing thing, nobody likes it, yet we clap anyway, we have to do what the leaders say. I find and greet the rest of my family, who have all made it to 100 years old, so they have nothing to worry about. I am ready to take on the challenge of getting to what Mom, Dad and Joey have already achieved. My turn. We get in the car and drive home in complete silence, they know how scary this moment is for me.
Everybody else in my family only had up to 35 years to make up, thats what Mom had to do. It only took her two years and four months as you only have up to three years to make up as much time as you can. I received my list of challenges but haven’t looked at them yet. I told Mom I was going to Thelma’s so we could talk about our plan.
“Hi Thelma!” I say in an interesting way, wondering how she is gonna be about her fate.
“Hey, let’s get right down to business.” She isn’t usually like this, she usually would procrastinate which shows me how scared she is about this.
“Alright,” We both pull out our list and I see a list of 11 items, and Thelma has a list of 12 items, due to the amount of years left to live. The only slight issue is Thelma is scared of a lot of things. They create the list so that everything above 10 is something you are scared of. However, Thelma will most likely be scared of everything on the list. So I have an extra challenge of getting Thelma to take on her fears. We go over our lists and realise that our first 10 items are the same, this is perfect so we can take on this hurdle in our lives together.
My list reads:
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Climb the empire state building (by stair) - TWO YEARS
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Bike 20 miles - TWO YEARS
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Skydive - TWO YEARS
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Go cliff diving in winter - TWO YEARS
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Work 24 hours of community service - TWO YEARS
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Audition to be on broadway - TWO YEARS
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Hit a ball at Yankee Stadium - TWO YEARS
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Play and win a game of soccer (with a team) - TWO YEARS
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Learn how to speak a paragraph of your choice in any language. - TWO YEARS
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Climb to the lantern on the Statue of Liberty- TWO YEARS
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Go bungee jumping - TWO YEARS
Thelma’s list reads
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Climb the empire state building (by stair) - TWO YEARS
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Bike 20 miles - TWO YEARS
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Skydive - TWO YEARS
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Go cliff diving in winter - TWO YEARS
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Work 24 hours of community service - TWO YEARS
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Audition to be on broadway - TWO YEARS
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Hit a ball at Yankee Stadium - TWO YEARS
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Play and win a game of soccer (with a team) - TWO YEARS
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Learn how to speak a paragraph of your choice in any language. - TWO YEARS
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Climb to the lantern on the Statue of Liberty - TWO YEARS
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Hold a spider - TWO YEARS
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Fly in an airplane for two hours each way - TWO YEARS
As these are all easy for me, Thelma isn’t so sure. “Okay, let’s start tomorrow. What do you want to start with?” Even though Thelma is a procrastinator, this is something she will want to get done fast, so she will probably start with a hard one.
“Let’s start with cliff diving, I guess” I can hear the fear trembling through her body and in her voice. She is not looking forward to this, at all.
The next day arrives, the sun is shining and it is a nice day. Shockingly, there is hardly any snow on the ground so we can cliff dive without ice. We drive to Lake George in Bolton Landing, NY. It is obviously going to be cold, but we have to get over it, literally for our life. Obviously Thelma is scared to death and that is all I hear about during the whole car ride. Finally we get there after a two hour drive. Climbing the cliff was hard enough, jumping is going to be even harder.
“Breathe, Thelma, breathe, you can do this, all we have to do is jump and then it is over. Ready, 1...2...3” We jump. It went by so fast, and before I knew it I was in freezing water paddling towards shore. Only one problem, where is Thelma? I look around, she is no where to be seen. I look up, and there she is. She didn’t jump. I scream, “THELMA, GO!”
“I’m scared.” She screams with a quivering voice. All I can do is push her. She probably expects it but I will do it anyway. I climb back up, wrapped in my towel shivering. Go around the other side so she doesn’t see me. She most likely will be angry but it is for longer lives. I tip toe up behind her and... PUSH! She shrieks the whole way down, I am sure she will hate me forever. I go and meet her down there and surprisingly she says, “Thank you!” and gives me a big hug. Well, she clearly really cares about this. She isn’t mad at me for pushing her off a cliff. I never thought I would say that. Now we get to sky diving. Which, oddly, I am terrified of doing. But, Thelma brought up the idea, my guess is just because she wants to get the hard challenges over with.
We arrive at the airport, they get us in the harness and take us in the plane. Which is funny because Thelma is scared of planes and that is one of her challenges, but she says she is only scared of big planes, okay, I believe that. When we get up there they go they go through all of their instructions. We both think we understand so they tell us to go the door. I offer to go first. In my mind all I can think about is ‘Just breathe, and I will be fine, 1, 2 and 3, GO!’ I jump and Thelma shouts “Bye Lemira! See you down there!”
“BBYYYEEEE!” I scream as loud as I can. This is fun, I’m just floating through the air. But it is scary because I am going really fast. Thoughts of what could happen are blazing through my mind. I think it’s time to open my parachute and... PULL. The parachute opens up to amazing rainbow colors and suddenly I can take a deep breath because I am going slow now, I reached the ground safely, whew!
I see Thelma approaching the ground way too quickly. Her parachute isn’t open, what is going on. She is screaming and that is the last I hear from her. “Hello, 911... yes, I need help quick, my best friend just went skydiving and her parachute didn’t open please come quick....my location, I am near Fogarty and Mineral Springs Rd... Thank you” Tears, slowly running down my cheek, her chest isn’t moving. I think, I think she might be...dead. That is when I lose it and I start bawling. Why? Why does this have to happen to me. It is only the day after the Leaming. I already miss her. She was like a sister to me.