The Question - A short story

 Her almond eyes were twinkling in the starlight on a cold barren land in New Jersey when a chair came in her way. Wiping her nose, she stood beside the chair sparkling colors and a small globe of Earth revolving on its seat. A voice trembling and changing exclaimed,” Welcome to the first round of ALC – Another Life Challenge. Yeah, that’s right. We’ll give you another life on this planet of your choice. But we need an answer to a question we ask and the answer will be calculated and analyzed. Accordingly, if it’s right you’ll get the reward. But if you lose you won’t get another life but satisfaction. So you ready to play?”

It sounds appealing, she thought.

She slowly walked away from the chair. She tried to jump and rolled her eyes here and there to check if it was a prank. “You can’t walk away.” The voice ended and a small area got covered with a transparent sheet. She tried to punch and cut the sheet but it burnt her hands. 

The world raged into flames and only the covered part remained. She tried begging the chair. She tried pinching hard on her skin. It was real. It’s freaking real! She thought.

‘I need to remind you that there’s only one hour left to start and finish the quiz’, the voice replied. 

She felt relief after hearing that. She waited half an hour for somebody nearby but in the fire, it wasn’t visible. Reminders of her family disturbed her and made her too sick to answer but she thought she was ready.

A few minutes after, the fire extinguisher and the voice replied, “You have passed the half quiz and you need to deal with the last remaining question. If you fail, you have to choose someone he/she who won’t have another life.”

The word ‘OK’ flashed on the ground. She immediately eyed above and there she saw her maternal uncle who was living in Canada sleeping on a small couch at a narrow hundred feet road.

Matt? Hello? Can you hear me? WAKE UP! TALK TO ME!

“It’s just an image, I took from satellite. So here’s it, your maternal uncle lies you everyday about his advertising business in Canada, in reality he hideously lives in the outskirts of Canada with an altered name. He cares so much about his poor family due to which he can’t share his problems additionally.”

The image vanished from the upper view and she saw a lookalike of her father sitting beside her shoulder, coughing and choking with his eyes closed and saliva leaking from his mouth.

“And your Iron Man, a doctor struggling hard to save people from the Covid – 19. He is not a doctor anymore. Going to die tomorrow by the virus infection. His last dream was to see your marriage but that’s not gonna happen anyway, right?

“What do you want from me?” The girl tiredly asked. She was in a small jeopardized space of solitude.

“You didn’t let me finish. I just need a correct answer to the judgment. There’s a hall of tragic where I am still working since many centuries as a flyer. I approach different people and check their bravery and their liver. The liver is just my choice. It’s optional.”

Screaming, the voice deepens. “Why, WHY DO YOU MAKE THIS HARD FOR ME? Let me ask my question, Will you?

Ok. Here it is. There is a scenario which I’ll present to you which is totally different you would have ever imagined. It’s hard, breathtaking, depressing task of choosing an answer.

You are living with your two twin brothers and your grandfather. Your grandfather goes out to buy for the house and if he doesn’t clean his hands neatly and with time, he gets infected. So you have to take care of your brothers. But they too are also very careless. 

Suddenly, they both make a plan to run away from home stealing your car keys and driving to the hospital where your grandfather’s admitted. And at the same time, you get a call from Australia about your father who also gets infected and the doctors say to come over there. 

So where would you go first? Finding brothers or flight to Australia?

“I can’t hear you because of mumps.” “You can’t trick me. I am a psychic.”

“Please give me another scenario.” the girl cries hard.

‘Cut the pinky toe of your feet.’

‘At one chance!’ The voice ordered loudly. ‘What?’ The girl shouted, feeling outrageously disgusting.

The girl felt forced into a deep sense of shock. Her breath and heartbeat grew rapidly. She couldn’t speak for a few moments. It was unbelievable for her, a kind of new experience she ever had. No tears came out still.

How’ll I cut? There’s just grass and chair, She thought.

“One question.” She whispered. The globe flashed a white ‘Yes’ slogan after a revolve. I can’t believe I’m asking this, she tiredly thought.

‘Is it okay if I burnt it?’ she asked, her body was shaking. ‘That’s satisfactory’, replied the voice.

She slowly tucked inside the covered place towards the raging fire. A space highlighted near her feet beside a highly heated and transparent wall. Slowly pushed her left foot stretching the pinky toe hardly and bending left, she held her breaths and the pinky toe got burnt in the fire. The pain had no limits. Tears didn’t stop for hours. ‘Ok!’ she exclaimed in tragedy.

‘Now, if you want to kill a family member, whom would it be?’

That answer she knew. She didn’t know any other response so she said herself. She loved her family more than any decision. So with a deep breath and energizing herself, she exclaimed herself.

The globe revolved so fast like a tennis ball was hit. It leaked and was flowing on the ground like liquid mercury. She felt electrocuted when she saw her pinky toe and hands which didn’t have any burnt patches.

The End