Ms. Maurier had always lived in the same
neighborhood. She had been born almost seventy years ago in the local hospital
and now she lived in one of the many high rises that had been built after the
war. The idea was that people should live closer to the core of the cities,
thus limiting how much a city could actually grow. Many of the sight that were
around when she was a young girl, were nowhere to be seen anymore. The building
in which she had lived with her husband had been recently demolished.
With the money she had received from the city,
Ms. Maurier was able to pay for her new home and some other things that she had
always wanted to have but had not being able to buy because of her husband. She
had loved him dearly but he could be a bit of a bore at times. He didn’t like
loud music or a lot of noise in the movies. He just liked peace and quiet. She
had no idea if it was because he had worked as a security inspector in a local
warehouse, but now she was able to enjoy life a bit more.
Of course, she felt guilty for the first few
months. Then, she realized her husband would have loved her to be happy after
he died, so she went to one of the largest stores in the area and bought all
the latest appliances in video and sound. A group of very nice men and women
came one morning to set it all up for her. She talked with them and made some
fresh scones with tea for them, when they were done. Once they left, she
started reading the instructions and enjoying her new space.
In seconds, she had every single movie, TV
series and documentary ever produced at hand. She started watching that same
day and she laughed profusely once she realized the time for lunch had been
quite a while ago. She decided to change things further by asking for something
on her new devices. A pizza was her choice and it arrived just in time to watch
the last episode of a soap opera she had followed years ago but had not seen
the ending too because of their TV breaking down.
She enjoyed her meal, even though she had
never really liked pizza, and she went to bed rather late with a smile on her
face. She thought of her Richard, her husband, when entering the bed. She never
really understood why he was so uptight and dry in so many ways. He was a
proper gentleman and had always been the best husband she could have ever
wanted. He was good provider and a kind soul. But he was boring, every single
day of his life. Always doing the exact same thing, at the exact same time. He
was like a clock, always hitting the same marks.
When she woke up the next day, Ms. Maurier
decided it was time to broaden her world a little bit longer. Although her new
experiences with appliances had gone great, she wanted to explore the world
outside of her neighborhood. She walked
to the train station and waited for one going towards the beach, which was
located far into the city’s suburbs. She smiled every second, waiting for the
machine to arrive.
It pulled over smoothly and Ms. Maurier
stepped in carefully. She had always seen the trains filled up to the roof in
TV and on the news, so she wanted to be prepared for the chaos. But what she
found was a beautiful place, all clean and sparkly of how white it was. It had
big windows that curved and gave a great view of what was outside. Even the
voice announcing the stations sounded kind and much like a long forgotten
friend. She sat down and enjoyed the ride, looking around, like a little girl.
Most people were working. That was the reason
she found for the train and the stations being so empty. She stepped outside on
the last stop of the line and when she crossed into the boardwalk, a potent
beam of light received her. It was the sun that was just poking his potent mass
from behind a large cloud. It had been a strange moment but she had liked the
fact that the weather seemed to be welcoming her into that new world she was
visiting. It was scary so the light made it less so.
The boardwalk was also very clean and from
there the ocean could be see in its entire splendor. The waves were soft and
small, no real wind blowing over the sand. Not many people were enjoying the
weather, except from a woman and her children a few couples that seemed to be
more interested in kissing their partners than in watching the majestic thing
that was the sea. It’s color had never been seen by that older woman who was
about to cry for it was much more than she had imagined.
She immediately ran towards the sea and didn’t
really care if she looked insane or not. She couldn’t care less about that. Ms.
Maurier had never seen the ocean and it was an experience that had just changed
her perception of life. It was too much to process but, even so, she wanted to
enjoy every single second of her encounter with nature. She hadn’t put on a
swimsuit or anything. She hadn’t even grabbed anything besides her purse and an
umbrella. But she realized she didn’t need anything. She removed her coat and
scarf and started enjoying the place she was in. It was perfect and she
realized she would have loved someone to share that moment with.
Richard had never wanted to go to the beach or
anywhere else for the matter. They didn’t have a honeymoon because they knew a
baby was coming home soon and they just wanted to provide the best for the
little one. She had loved the baby so much, since her doctor had told her about
him, that she didn’t even cared about not being able to travel or move a lot
for months. She wanted to be a mother, to be the one to take care of that new
life and just have a happy family with her husband.
Things
went on as such for several months until Ms. Maurier fainted in the kitchen one
morning, while making her husband his favorite dish for breakfast. He took her
to the hospital right away, the same she had been born in. She was in a room
for hours and hours, no one talking to him or telling him even two words.
Finally, a doctor approached her and explained that his wife experienced a
miscarriage. That morning, their baby had died right in their home.
She thought of them while looking at the ocean
and she thought that maybe, just maybe, Richard had always been rather cold
because of the abortion. It’s not like he had been the life of the party before
that but he did have traits of someone else in him, a rebellious and
interesting soul that had things to say, even if they weren’t many. That person,
who she had fallen in love with, disappeared right after she went back home
from the hospital and he was never seen again.
Cleaning a tear from her cheek, she thought
that it was possible that her husband had lost his feelings for her after that
event. She knew she had changed and it was fair to say she had changed too. She
felt empty and a failure. Ms. Maurier never told anyone, doctors or family,
about a couple of suicide attempts she had committed the year after she had lost
her child. She had to endure it all by herself and now she was looking at the
sea, trying to stop the tears from coming down her face.
A young vendor appeared nearby and she bought a
freshly squeezed lemonade from him. It had the right amount of sweetness and it
was just enough to pull her spirits up. It brought a smile to her face again.
She only stayed there for a bit longer.
Back home, she went to bed early, with no
dinner on her stomach. She just wanted to rest and not think for a few more
hours. But her life decided to haunt her that evening. She couldn’t handle it.
So she stepped out of bed, turned on the TV and put on a comedy movie. That was
Ms. Maurier.
