The Bucket list

It was a quiet neighborhood for retired and senior citizens. Yukiko had moved into it after her husband of 40 years passed and the children didn't want anything to do with her. She had a bright, pleasant face ( 'akaruii kao' everyone always said) spoke gently and politely. Apart from house chores, helping in the shop, she would sometimes help out with taking care of the kids in the neighborhood Hoikuen, (day care) during evenings until their Okāsans returned from work . She believed children needed care at tender age, later they would mould themselves.

Her husband Takashi was a tofuya san. He made the best tofu in their town. They had hoped for their son, Yuji to take over but that didn't happen, he moved to the big city and never looked back. Their daughter Yumi, married young and moved away to a different prefecture and rarely visited. Takashi had decided to sell his business and invariably provided her for this retirement home. He had always been a smart man, knew she would not be able to run shop without him . Yukiko was a reserved, shy, soft spoken woman which would not have helped with customers who were the 'put it on my tab' kind. Infact Takashi was the one who had suggested that she move into the retirement home before he died.

Yukiko had never ventured out much by herself, other than to the Hoikuen and the town library. She had enjoyed reading Haikus whenever she could . After she settled into the retirement home, she found herself with a lot of idle time and decided to give her attention to a small patch in the garden. She worked on it most of the day and for as long as her delicate frame permitted .

One morning as she was bent over a flowerbed, she saw a pair of feet slowly approach her and she looked up.

'kireii desune' ( so pretty!) said the woman who seemed very much a Gaikokujin (a foreigner) but spoke fluently in Japanese.

Yukiko rose to her feet gently and bowed Konnichiwa. They got talking and it seemed an easy conversation. The new comer's name was Angela and she was from the United States of America. She had married a Japanese and never went back. Her husband passed away recently too and she chose to come and live here now.

Angela was chatty, friendly and bold in her ideas , a complete contrast to herself, Yukiko thought as she lay on her futon that night. She felt glad that she has a companion at the retirement home. Most of the other people stayed indoors in front of the tv or playing board games in the common area. Yukiko enjoyed doing neither. Her garden patch beckoned her each morning and Angela came by to keep her company chatting. Angela told her that she was born in Kentucky as in the fried chicken and she had not understood the joke as she had never ever had any fast food . Angela found that quite amusing and suggested that one of these days they should visit the new mall that opened up close to their retirement home and eat at KFC.

Yukiko regarded the thought skeptically. She had never been to a mall either. So essentially anything Angela talked about was novel to her.

Angela had told her that even though she was born in Kentucky, she was raised in California most of her life in America as her father was a business man and he had traded with Japan. For her 19th birthday, she had come to Japan, fell in love with it's culture and the man she married . Her husband had worked for her father at the time and he was the one who had showed her around . Even though he was twice her age, she felt drawn to his gentle and polite ways. She married him against her father's wishes and remained in the foreign land. Angela struck as a strong minded and rebellious woman to Yukiko. She would never have had the courage to do something so drastic. She told that to Angela, " I do not believe I have your fearless attitude to take such a bold step"

Angela smiled at her and said, " well, you are the only one stopping you."

That night she lay in bed thinking of all the times she didn't dare try anything new . This was tru her haikus made her feel as if she was a free bird . But she never really did anything carefree or for herself. She had been her own barricade. Well, not anymore. Mentally she promised herself to visit the mall sometime , all by herself.

Next morning after breakfast instead of the garden, she went to the main office of the retirement home. She spotted the lady who usually provided her information if any new books came in. Yukiko waited patiently as the lady finished her tea by the machine in the corner. Only after the woman was back in her seat, the usual pleasantries and talk about books, she asked her how far the mall was. And also if it was best to get a taxi. The lady suggested that Yukiko take the shuttle bus right outside the retirement home which was conveniently every hour. She bowed gratefully and made way to her garden patch. 'Some day when she felt a little stronger and braver', she thought.

Days rolled into weeks and months .Their routine continued of her working in the garden and Angela telling her stories and anecdotes from her life. At times Yukiko wondered if Angela remembered her name. Angela never asked her any questions but she simply talked about things or herself. Even if at times Yukiko felt like sharing, she would not. She felt she hadn't much to offer to the conversation. She never did anything out of the ordinary. Just boring mundane stuff.

Autumn was almost coming to an end.. not much gardening was possible, so both Angela and Yukiko started to hang out near the fireplace in the common area. Angela was narrating an incident when she was in high school and how she and her friends had made a bucket list. Yukiko had yet another never heard face pulled and Angela started to explain how people made a list of things they would want to accomplish before they died.

Ehhhh so nandesuka ... exclaimed Yukiko quite taken by the concept. She had lived all her life as it came and by the book. She never set any targets or goals and the concept of making a list of to-dos before dying was very intriguing to her. That night , in her room, she took out her book where she had written poems over the years. No one knew about it. Not even her husband . They were hers. She picked up her pen and wrote down :

Bucket list.

I want to go to the mall.

I want to eat Kentucky Fried Chicken.

She set her pen aside and looked down at the list. Feeling happy she closed the book, put it away and slept like a baby. Tomorrow! She promised herself. Tomorrow!

Early the next day, Yukiko was ready by 8 and waited at the bus stop. The first shuttle bus to the mall arrived at 10. Yukiko felt thrilled about this . All by herself, at 81 , she felt nervous and excited at the same time, her first adventure was about to begin. The bus pulled up in front of the mall entrance and Yukiko got off and stood staring at the huge structure in front of her. She had never seen anything like it. It seemed intimidating. The only big shop she had ever seen was the departmental store in her town. This appeared to be ten times it's size. 'kaijū no yō ni'( Like a monster) she thought. It was a bit overwhelming but she shook herself. She will not back down now.

Carefully she walked inside taking in everything. She marvelled at the high ceilings and how many floors there were and how the number of shops seemed to be endless There were shoe stores, spectacle stores, clothing and what not. She wasn't interested in any of that. Her objective was to find the Kentucky Fried Chicken. She stood for some more time trying to figure out how to find it. Then she saw a sign to the far corner of the large atrium, which read information. She made her way to the information counter through the sea of people who seemed to know their way around. There were two young and pretty girls smiling eagerly. Yukiko asked both of them simultaneously not to seem impolite, where to find Kentucky Fried Chicken. One of the girls took charge and brought out a small booklet of the map of the mall and showed Yukiko how to get to the food court area situated on the 5 th floor. She could either take the elevator or the escalator to get there. And the stall number for KFC( she had stressed over that) was 26. After thanking them profusely and them wishing her to enjoy her shopping thoroughly, she went to the elevators and rode up straight to the 5th floor. She moved very slowly absorbing all the details . The decorations from the ceilings, the colorful glass here and there letting natural light through. One side of the floor had nothing but food court and the other side had a roof garden and a playground for children's entertainment. She was astonished that there could be a garden inside a building. As she walked past the food stalls , different aromas caught her nose. Some familiar and most foreign. There was Italian food, Indian, Mexican , Chinese, Korean . Each and every one of them seemed very different from the other. She came up to number 26. There was a picture of a man smiling with glasses and a bow tie. The smells of chicken, oil and batter came wafting. She went to the counter and requested the smallest of chicken. When she paid for it, she was given a small box which had a tiny blinker. The man at the counter told her to come to get her order when the box beeped. She turned around and found a table free close enough to come back. She went to it and sat there and set the small grey box on the table. As soon as she set it down, it started to vibrate and beep . Yukiko was startled. What a strange box. She took it back to the stall 26 and she was handed a small tray with a small paperbag with fried chicken sticking out and a small packet of ketchup. She took the tray back to the table and sat down. She stared at it. She looked around and found some teenagers chatting noisily and eating a similar looking chicken . She picked up her chicken and took a small bite. It was not bad. She could easily understand why Kentucky's Fried Chicken was so popular . She would go and tell Angela all about her adventure , she finally would have something to tell Angela.

After she finished eating, she put her tray back and cleaned the table of any crumbs, washed hands and made her way back towards the elevators. She noticed that everyone seemed to be using the escalators rather than the elevators. She had been on an escalator before at the departmental store with her husband. She thought she should add this to the bucket list and tick it off once she returned. Escalator by herself!

She walked to it and tried stepping onto the moving stairs. As she stood contemplating when to get into it, the bunch of noisy teenagers from the food court came up behind her and one of them got on to the escalator beside her. This made her lose balance and she tried steadying herself and before she knew it , she stumbled down the escalator.She felt her small delicate frame bouncing down as a ball with great speed.At some point she saw people's faces looking down at her. At some point there was an ambulance siren. At some point the doctors were talking in hushed tones. At some point her body felt terrible pains. When she opened eyes , she saw Angela sitting beside her and holding her hand . Angela smiled and gently squeezed her hand ,' hi, how do you feel?'

Yukiko felt dull and calm , she said with a hoarse small voice, ' I feel alright '.

What happened, why were you at the mall, Angela asked sounding surprised.

The memory came rushing back...the fall too. She realized she was in the hospital. She smiled and said, " KFC, bucket list!"