The Last Question

How I Live Now, Daisy
Briar Rose, Rebecca
Setting, England

It was a warm summer day in England, about 85 degrees and not a single cloud in the sky. Daisy was at her current house along with her cousins Edmund, Piper, and Isaac. Osbert, her oldest cousin was at a friend's house for the day and wouldn’t be home until late. She was helping Edmond in the garden, picking all sorts of fruits and vegetables to store for the winter. Daisy heard a faint ringing noise coming from the house phone ,so she placed her basket of tomatoes on the ground and jogged into the house to answer it.
“Hello?” her voice projected into the phone.
“Hi, it’s me, Becca, is this Daisy?
“Yah!” Daisy’s voice yelled with excitement.
Becca was Daisy’s cousin. The two girls didn’t get to see each other often, one reason being that Becca’s Gemma just passed away and Daisy had been in England.
“ I am doing an article for the newspaper that I work for, and I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions about what you went through with the war?” asked Becca.
“I’d love to!” Daisy replied.
They made arrangements to have Becca take a plane and fly over to England in less than two weeks. She would get a taxi cab to bring her to Daisy’s house do they could do the interview.
One week came and went and before Daisy new it Becca would be there in a few hours. Daisy cleaned up the kitchen, or tried to. Since the war the house was a mess with smashed glass, ripped furniture, and writing on the walls.
Knock. Knock. A very light sound came from the front door. Daisy went and answered it to find it to be Becca standing with her pen and notepad ready to do the interview.
Daisy led Becca to the backyard past the garden where now all three cousins were working.
“Becca, you remember Edmund, Piper, and Isaac, don’t you?”
Piper ran over and greeted Becca with a huge hug. Edmund and Isaac gave a small shy wave. Although Edmund and Isaac and even Piper had been out in the sun all day, they were still so plane and their bones looked so fragile. Becca thought the reminded her of her Gemma, so sick looking.
Daisy brought Becca over to a small round white table which looked almost 100 years old. Even though there were four chairs two of the chairs had missing legs, making there just enough room for Becca and Daisy. After they were both seated Becca put on her small reading glasses and began the interview.
“So, my first question would be what started the war?” asked Becca.
“I would have to say the bomb that was set off and exploded a few cities over form ours,” answered Daisy.
“How did you hear that war was about to begin?”
“My oldest cousin Oslo watched the news everyday morning till night. It was all over the news."
Becca continued with her questions for about and hour. Daisy had so much to say. It was really the first time she has ever spoken of the war since it happened. Sometimes Daisy would get all choked up and have to stop and grab a tissue. At the end of the interview Becca asked her one last question.
“Did you ever doubt that you would be alive today, right now?”
“Well, I always had my doubts. I sometimes thought what if we never get back to the house, what would happen to us. I was scared that we would die. I didn’t know how to survive very well in the woods. But I stayed strong for Piper, because she was so young. I guess after struggling for many long nights and days I just knew what I had to do, keep going. So that’s what I did, Piper and I. There were doubts yes but I was able to dig deep and find my way back home.”