Wow, I actually really enjoyed reading this a lot. At the beginning I thought Nora was interviewing a young boy (her being an adult) and relaying the information to the actual interviewer... but as it progressed I put two and two together. I loved the parallels (even if it got sort of repetitive) and think the way you wrote this was fantastic. The flashbacks flowed well with the present and I don't think you ever switched tenses. (Of corse you made it past tense in the past, but that's not what I mean.)

I kind of think the ending "message" was a bit rushed, but overall, the characterizations were nice and I got the gist of what was happening: wasn't ;eft in the dark but I didn't entirely get what really happened, leaving just enough for me to ponder over.

Great job! :}

Yay! I get to be the first review!

This was a sweet story with a very interesting concept. I liked the technique of telling the story to a reporter so you get both past and present at the same time.

I also liked your snow globe/sand metaphor--although I wasn't sure if the sand castle was supposed to reference Nora or Carrie.

You may want to go back through and proofread this story out loud as I noticed quite a few easily-fixed mistakes. I find that I catch things when I read aloud that I missed when I proofread silently. Just one example towards the beginning: "Nora’s concerned only increased. 'I bet your parents miss you.'" Should be "concern".

Overall, I felt it was a very original piece and the addition of the daughter was great. Well done.