The Matinbury Estate

Chapter 1: Seconds

September 22nd 1995

"Julia Matinbury!" Isa shouted at me from her wheelchair. I jumped to attention from my digging spot in the sandy bank. Typically, people of her age and status would shout this in a condescending way but Isa was not that kind of grandma. She shouted my name with a kind levity that made me jump up from my digging spot but didn't make me feel ashamed.

"Sorry, Isa!" I responded. I would call her by her first name and she was fine with that. I was simply digging for shells in the warm sand but I realised that wasn't why I was here today. I brushed the sand that had stuck to my fingers on to my jeans and rushed over to where she sat. I sat on a large boulder next to where she would sit her wheelchair to look at the ocean.

"Stop digging and come and talk with your grandma for a time," Isa said. "I feel like I don't get to talk with you as much as I used to."

"I'm sorry, Isa," I said. "I can't help myself sometimes. I like the sand in my fingers. And it feels good to find those swirly shells. You know the ones you can hear the ocean in?"

"I can understand that," Isa said. She closed her eyes and breathed in the salty ocean air. This was the family estate on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. The Matinbury family had lived here for over forty years. Which isn't long, but isn't short. Isa is a vaccine scientist and she was given money to work here on anti-viruses for world diseases. Even after her car accident, many years ago, she has remained strongly dedicated to her research and overall, a nice person. "When I was your age, I used to play in some woods behind my home back in Colorado."

"Do you miss those woods?"

"In a way," Isa said. "But as life moves on, we discover new things to find beauty in. Like the ocean, here in front of us. There is nothing like it." Isa lifted her hand and pointed off in the distance. "That horizon is endless, little Julia. As we get closer to it, it will just move farther away until it hits Japan, Polynesia, and other islands that some may never have even discovered yet."

"I like the ocean," I said after a long silence. There was something profound about what Isa had said that I couldn't understand at the time. A horizon that runs from us as we chase it is an interesting idea. I couldn't understand it, just like I couldn't understand the sadness that suddenly appeared in Isa's voice.

We sat there for a long time. We had done this together for many years. Ever since my Mother and Father died when I was young and I moved into the Matinbury Estate with Grandma Isa. I suppose that profoundness was something attractive to both of us. The ocean was almost symbolic of the lives we have lead. Deep with meaning but most of it hidden beneath the surface.

"Julia, I have something to tell you." I turned and looked into Isa's eyes. They were shining with tears and I understood that what she was about to say would be more profound than the ocean. "Sometimes... People... Even the people you trust the most make terrible mistakes, Julia. I have made mistakes in my time Julia. Mistakes that I... refuse to fix. I wanted to tell you that-- "

"Tea anyone?"

Grandma Isa went silent and I turned to see Aunt Kassidy. Kassidy lived on the estate with us. She was kind enough but I always felt that she didn't like me much. I could hear a strange sternness in her voice today that I had never heard before. I accepted the tea and sipped it uncomfortably. I looked back towards the hole in the sand I had made. I found myself wanting to go back and hide in it. Isa also accepted the tea and Kassidy smiled. Perhaps things were alright after all.

"Thank you, Kassidy," Isa said.

"Are you ready to head back up to the house, mother?" Kassidy said this sweetly but I could sense that something was very wrong.