（日本語は後に続く）Early this morning, I had a strange dream about a little girl in a city at war.
When I woke up, I felt compelled to write a story about it, so I did. I will edit it and translate it into Japanese at a later date, and share it again in parts (bilingually), but here it is in English for now.
今朝、早々と戦時中の町の女の子の夢をみて，起きてからそのことの物語を書きたいと思い、書いてみました。また後日に編集して、日本語に直して、パートごとに（二か国語で）シェアしますが、まずは英語です。
The Last Tulip
By Laura Shimamoto
Part 1
Maggie lived on the second floor of an old apartment building with her mother in an old part of town in a faraway land. Once in a while they would hear a bomb in the distance and once in a while one was close enough that their windows would rattle.
Although their apartment wasn’t beautiful, they had a flower box with many colorful tulips, including a short white one which would bloom soon.
One morning, after Maggie and her mother had watered the pretty tulips in the flower box,
Maggie’s mother said, “school has closed for a few days, but I have to go to work now. I made a sandwich for you to have for your lunch. Be a good girl and wait for me to come back.” She kissed Maggie’s forehead, ruffled Maggie’s curly brown hair and went off for work.
After Maggie had had her sandwich for lunch, she felt bored.
She remembered that her mother sometimes took soup to an elderly neighbor as a good deed. “I know, I’ll be a good girl and take something to Mrs. Neighbor.” She remembered where the neighbor lived because of going with her mother, but didn’t remember her name. “There isn’t any soup, but I will take her a tulip!”
Maggie chose a pretty purple tulip and clipped it to take her. “Mrs. Neighbor,” looked so happy. She invited Maggie in and gave her a cup of sweet tea. That was fun!
That evening Maggie’s mother didn’t come home. There wasn’t any supper. Maggie was glad that she had had the sweet tea.
Part 2
The next morning, Maggie’s mother still hadn’t come back. Maggie was hungry for something to eat for breakfast. She looked in a cupboard and found a box of cookies. She wondered where her mother was and when she would be back. She decided to have a cookie a day until then.
Later that morning, Maggie was watering the tulips in the flower box when she looked down to see her friend Thomas walking along the cobblestone street. She decided to give Thomas a pretty red tulip as a gift. She clipped it carefully and ran down to greet him.
“Thomas! Where are you going? I have a present for you.” Thomas smiled a big smile. “Thank you! I know we don’t have school, but I felt like going just to hang around for a while. I heard my parents talking about how Miss Janice died from a bomb in her neighborhood. If we can go in the school, let’s put the tulip on her desk.”
The two children got to the school, creaked the door open and went into their old classroom. Thomas put the tulip on Miss Janice’s desk. The red tulip looked pretty against the dark wood. Somehow the children felt much better. Maggie smiled and looked at Thomas. “We
did something good.” Yes, said Thomas. “Remember the box of candies Miss Janice kept in her drawer for us? Let’s have one each for being good.” They walked back home with strawberry flavored candy in their mouths feeling glad about their little adventure.
Part 3
That night, Maggie’s mother still didn’t return. She slept in her mother’s bed instead of her own because the blanket still had the comforting fragrance of the rose water her mother always used. Cuddling up in the blanket helped her feel less frightened when she heard bombs in the distance.
The next morning, Maggie had a cookie again and watered the tulips. She saw an old man wearing baggy clothes walking slowly along the cobblestone street. Maggie thought to herself, “He looks sad. I will give him a yellow tulip to cheer him up.” She clipped the yellow tulip and ran down to give it to him. The old man looked very surprised and happy. “How nice of you! Here is a coin to show my gratitude.” Maggie thanked him and skipped to the corner grocery store.
She showed the grocery store lady her coin. “Is there anything I can buy with this?” The grocery store lady adjusted her apron while looking around at the almost barren shelves. “Not really, but it will buy part of a bottle of milk. Let’s share it.” The grocery store lady removed the bottle from the now empty refrigerator and pulled the plug from the outlet on the wall. “Now that there is nothing more in the refrigerator, I can turn it off and save electricity. This helps me.” The grocery store lady turned a shopping basket over for Maggie to use as a chair and poured some milk into a cup for her. The grocery store lady drank some milk for herself directly from the bottle. “Actually, I might close up shop tonight. The store is practically empty and so are the streets, so it doesn’t make much sense to stay open.” Maggie looked up from her seat on the shopping basket. “Don’t worry,” Maggie said. I will bring you a pretty pink tulip tomorrow.” The grocery store lady looked confused, “How is that supposed to help?” “Well,” Maggie smiled, “it is pretty so you will feel better when you look at it!” The grocery store lady laughed good naturedly. “O.K. I guess I can stay open for one more day, then”.
Part4
And so, it went until there was only one tulip left, the white one which had opened up and had already started to lose petals. And there was one last cookie in the cookie box. Maggie had the cookie and was watering the last tulip when she saw Thomas and his family below on the cobblestone street. Thomas’s father carried several bags. His mother was holding hands with his little sister and was carrying his baby brother on her back. They were waiting at the bus stop and Maggie could tell that they were leaving to go far away. She carefully clipped the white tulip and ran down to give it to them as a good-bye present. “Where are you going, Thomas?” “Somewhere safer,” replied Thomas.” Thomas tugged on his mother’s free hand. “Mom, can we take Maggie with us? Her mom hasn’t come back from work.” Thomas’s mother looked surprised and worried. “Really? But we can’t easily take her. We have enough of our own troubles.” Maggie looked up at his mother and noticed that her forehead lines were much deeper than she had remembered. “I can’t join you. I am supposed to wait for my mother to come back.” Thomas’s father looked concerned but nodded in agreement with his wife. “Then, I am sure it is best for you to stay and wait for your mother.”
Part5
Maggie had been spending more time looking out the window wrapped in her mother’s blanket. The electricity and finally the water had been turned off. The day after having given away the last tulip, Maggie started to doze off in the chair next to the window wrapped in the blanket while gazing absently at the empty flower box. As she dozed, she smelled a stronger fragrance of rose water. She felt puzzled and looked around to find that she was surrounded by a lovely park full of hundreds of colorful tulips. In the distance she could see her mother with Miss Janice. They were smiling and talking about something. They noticed Maggie and gestured for her to join them. Maggie was so glad to see them and so amazed to see hundreds of pretty tulips. The white tulip wasn’t the last tulip after all.
