The CONquest of Nellie Bly

Two Weeks Later

I picked up James, the two-year-old boy I was babysitting and started bouncing him softly. "Okay, mister. It's time for bed." I said. He looked up at me, confused.

"But... cars." He pointed to his Hot Wheels that we had just been racing around the living room for hours. I shook my head and carried him up the stairs past his five-month-old sister's room. After reading him a few books (about cars), I tucked him in and returned downstairs to watch some reruns of "Saturday Night Live."

Twenty minutes had gone by and everything had been pretty quiet, but the baby, Zoey, had woken up and was crying hysterically. I quietly made my way up the stairs and pushed her door open, trying not to wake James back up.

Zoey was rolling around in her crib, shrieking. I picked her up and she stopped, pulling my hair with her microscopic hands. After a few minutes of holding her, I set her back in the crib. She immediately resumed crying and I held her some more.

To add to the list of things to worry about, Conor called me.

"Hello?" I answered frantically.

"Nellie Lucille Bly!" He squealed. "Guess what?"

"Uh, Conor David Halloran, could we discuss this at another time?" I tucked the phone between my ear and my shoulder, stroking Zoey's back.

"Is that a baby? Are you giving birth? Did you know you were knocked up, or are you gonna be on that show on TLC? At least I think it's TLC. What channel has the show about people not knowing the simple signs of being preggo?"

"I don't know, Conor. I have to go. I'm babysitting."

"Uh, James and Zoey, right? Cool. Be right there."

"No! Don't..."

He hung up before I could finish my sentence. I groaned and set Zoey back down, leaving the room to go get her bottle. Conor burst through the door five minutes later as I was walking back up the stairs.

"Do you have a minute? I had this really great idea!" He exclaimed, running up to me.

"Not now. I'm trying to put a screaming baby to bed." I replied. He followed me in and I grabbed Zoey again. "Hold this." I handed him the bottle and he gasped.

"This is way too cold, Nellie. You're gonna freeze her." He said.

"How would you know?"

"Well, I had a little sister and I helped take care of her, thank you." He smiled.

"You were like, two."

"I still know what I'm doing. Watch and learn." He walked into the bathroom and turned the hot water on, running the bottle underneath for a few seconds. I raised an eyebrow as he took the baby from me. "Hi, honey. You're hungry, aren't you?" He cooed, sitting down in a big armchair with her. She stopped crying and stared at him.

I sat next to him on the floor, pouting as he fed Zoey her bottle. She gulped it and Conor smiled down at her. He slipped his hand out from under her head and smoothed my hair. I looked up at him and he flashed me a quick smile.

That kid sucked the entire thing down in like, a minute. Conor set her back down in bed when she was done and ticked her stomach softly. She kicked around, giggling.

"Told you." Conor looked back at me, smiling. I threw my arms around him.

"You saved me!" I gasped. "Dude, I would have been up all night."

He hugged me tightly and buried his face in my hair.

A couple seconds later, he spoke. "It's going to be much easier when we're doing this in ten years." He said softly. I looked up at him.

"What?"

"You know, when we have a kid."

"No. That won't happen." I said quickly. "Uh, SNL's on, wanna go watch it?"

He nodded. "Which one is it?"

"Best of Will Ferrell." I replied. We excitedly skipped downstairs and sat on the couch, watching Will Ferrell play a cowbell in perhaps the most famous SNL skit ever. I nudged him and pointed to the screen. "Look at Jimmy Fallon in the background. Isn't he the cutest?"

"Yeah, I guess he's kinda hot."

"I would so tap that."

"I know you would."

We watched the show for a little while before he nudged me. "We haven't seen each other in a really long time."

"Yeah, like a week." I replied, observing the awkward actions of Jimmy Fallon, my soon-to-be lover.

"Oh, you wanna hear my idea?" He asked.

"Yes!" I turned to him.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. I took it from him and read it. It said, "Things to do before I die" with a couple things listed under it, in Molly's handwriting. I looked up at him, bewildered.

"What is it?"

"Molly's bucket list." He smiled. "We found it while we were cleaning out her room."

I stared at it for a second. "So what exactly is the plan? What does her bucket list have to do with anything?"

He leaned in as if he was going to tell me a big secret. "We're gonna go do everything on it."

"What? It says things like, 'live in New York, run into someone famous at a restaraunt, meet up with distant family, trace lineage back to Ireland....'" I read off some of the things. "Conor, are you high? We can't accomplish this."

"Just a little bit, but it's a good idea, huh?"

"I wanna do this, Conor, believe me, but it's impossible to do in one summer."

"Well, we'll give it a year. I already talked to my parents."

I sighed. "Okay, spend the night at my house and you can explain your reasoning."