White Daisies

Chapter 14

"Dear, could you come into the kitchen to help me finish dinner?" my mother asks me. I nod, and my father leads Jacob into the living room to listen to the radio.

As I'm chopping cabbage, I think about what Jacob said to me. It's evident that he's thinking about our future. What did that mean for me though? Did he expect me to marry him and become a housewife? I'm so young. I'm not sure if that's what I want yet.

I feel like I'm the only one who doesn't know what they want. Frances and Eva both had plans. Frances knew that she wanted to open her own store. Eva had applied to universities to study English and had plans to become a writer or maybe even a journalist.

I was happy where I was though. I loved going to school to see my friends and living at home with my family. I loved being Jacob's girlfriend. I enjoyed going to violin practice every week. These were the only things that I was sure of after the incident with the rabbi. I didn't want them to change.

Bitterness fills me and makes me chop the cabbage into smaller pieces than necessary. My mother seems to notice my frustration and comes over to relieve me of kitchen duty. I walk into the living room where Jacob and my father are discussing school and politics. A Christmas tree with colored lights shines brightly in the corner, strings of silver tinsel hanging from each branch. The fireplace crackles as soft Christmas music emits from the radio sitting next to it. Four candles surrounded by holly and pinecones burn on the mantle. Paper stars hang from the ceiling and red garland lines the tops of the walls. I sit down on the couch next to Jacob, where he takes my hand and flashes a smile to me before turning his attention back to my father sitting across from him in the loveseat.

"Those damn Nazis," my father grumbles.

Jacob snorts. "You could say that again."

My father throws his hands up into the air. "I was stopped and searched just outside of my office the other day. On university campus!"

"Did you see the prank that someone pulled?" Jacob snickers.

"No! What happened?"

"A Gestapo officer stopped me to check my camera bag, but I noticed that everyone passing us was laughing. When he turned around, I saw that he had a sign on his back that read "Attention! I am searching you to compensate for my small..."

My father cuts him off by howling in laughter. "Hah! Those damn Nazis deserve everything they get! I heard the other day that the Danish police arrested a group of teenagers for painting a British flag on the windshields of some Nazi trucks."

"What a stupid thing to do! They should have known they were going to get caught," Jacob chuckles.

I shift uncomfortably. "Maybe that just wanted to voice their opinions."

Jacob's eyes shift to me in surprise. "Yes, or they could stop acting like children. Don't get me wrong; I hate the Nazis. But I think that if we continue to comply, they won't crack down on us. Acts of resistance are just going to make them mad. They're not going to accomplish anything."

I hear my mother call for my father from the kitchen. My father stands up from his loveseat and leaves the room. Maybe he senses the annoyance bubbling inside of me because he walks out fairly quickly.

I take a deep breath and struggle to keep my temper in check. "But the Allies are losing the war. It's basically just Britain now that France has been occupied. Besides, they don't belong here. Why should we act like they do?"

Jacob looks taken back by my statement. He stares at me for a moment before furrowing his brows. "Ana, I'm not saying they do belong here. But everyone needs to be careful and not doing anything stupid. Graffitiing a Nazi's vehicle is not going to drive them out of the country. At the end of the day, this war is bigger than any of us."