Infinity

1: Family Reunion

Chapter 1

When I was about three years old my mother and father packed up everything we owned and we flew over the ocean. We lived in Bimini for a few short years where my father was a marine biologist, studying with a well-respected oncologist on how oil from the liver of sharks could cure cancer. Shortly after results were deemed inconclusive, we became citizens of the United States and moved to California where my father continued to study the marine life off of the coast. He traveled to other parts of the world to continue his studies, leaving my mother and me alone for weeks, sometimes months, at a time. Mom went out and made friends and I spent most of my time alone in the house. They homeschooled me, so I didn't have the opportunity to go out and make friends.

My father was born in Wales and all of his family had passed away before he and my mother even met. He was a good bit older than my mother, and his parents had been old and frail by the time he had received his PhD. My mother's family lived in England. I had a grandma, an aunt, and a cousin that I hadn't seen in years. They never called us nor had my mother ever called them, which is why I was confused as to why we stood on their doorstep exactly three months after my father passed away. His boat had capsized somewhere near Bermuda. His body was never recovered. For some reason my mother warranted this tragedy as an excuse to return home.

We stood on the front porch of a house that resembled a brownstone. A chestnut tree loomed over the house, encasing everything in the shadow of its gnarled and bare branches. Other than where the tree was rooted, there wasn't much of a yard. Everything was silent and still under the snow and I wished someone would answer the door before my fingers froze off. I wasn't used to this level of cold. We had only lived in warm climates most of my life. "Did you even tell Grandma or Aunt Amy that we were coming?" I murmured.

"Do you think I would just cross the ocean and show up at my sister's doorstep without telling anyone?" My mother narrowed her green eyes at me. Though I didn't say so, I did believe she would do something like that. She was an impulsive and selfish woman. I loved my mother but that was just the way she was. She knocked on the door again. This time someone answered. It was a boy of about twelve with messy chestnut hair and brown eyes. We stood at the same height. "Ah! Charlie!" My mother pulled the boy into a tight hug. "I was beginning to think no one was home." Charlie hadn't even been born yet when we left. I could only imagine how awkward it made him feel to have a woman that he had never met before clutching him to her chest.

"Uh... Hi, Aunt Lillian." He awkwardly mumbled. "Sorry we didn't hear you. We were all in the kitchen and I'm sure you know how loud Maisie is when she cooks." He let us into the house. We stood in the foyer and he took our coats to hang up on the hooks in the wall. "You can leave your boots right under the coats." He motioned to an old beat up rug that sat on the floor. It was slightly damp and muddy from the other snowy boots that had been stored there.

I slipped out of my snow clad boots. It didn't really snow in California this time of year, or hardly ever for that matter. I didn't think of how different England would be. I balled my scarf and gloves into my hat and gingerly followed Charlie into the kitchen where I would be meeting my aunt and grandmother for what felt like the first time. I barely had time to process my surroundings before I had something pink and fuzzy in my face.

"Oh look at you, my sweet girl! Look at how much you've grown!" My grandmother crooned into my hair. She unclutched me from her pink sweater clad chest to get a better look at me. "You would think with all that traveling and money your father made, your parents would have brought you out to see us at least once."

"I'm sorry, Grandma." I said, not sure what else to say.

"No, don't call me that. It's too formal and makes me feel old. Please, just Maisie. It sounds way more cheerful, don't you think?" Maisie looked back at who I assumed was my aunt Amy.