I never thought I would come to understand Julia. Julia, the girl who put my sister in a coffin at the age of seven.

Julia’s house sat on the peak of a giant hill, standing out like water in a desert. Leading to the mansion was a long driveway that serpentined its way to the very top, the driveway that led to a mystery yet to be discovered. You would never know where this driveway goes to, unless you took the journey. No one in my family was planning to take the journey, but did we really have a choice? Killing my sister was no small deed, and I wasn’t just going to let her get away with it. I took the journey. I took the journey by myself.

I rode my bike to Julia’s driveway. The path was too steep to take my bike up, so I slowly struggled my way up, knowing that I would, eventually, regret every step. I almost decided to stop the hike halfway up. I mean, I actually had to stop and think about what I was doing here. I was marching up a stranger’s driveway, to a stranger’s house, and all I knew her for was killing my seven year old sister. What was I going to say? What was I going to do? I couldn’t just walk up to her door and bang on it screaming about how she killed someone. She didn’t even know who I was! Not only was she a stranger to me, I was a stranger to her...

As I made my way up the last bend of the driveway that seemed to be 10 miles long, I heard a scream. I thought nothing of it -if it was Julia I didn’t care what happened- but then I heard it again. This time I realized that it wasn’t a scream coming from Julia, it was the voice of a man. A man shouting Julia’s name. Without realizing it I was running past the last part of the driveway, facing the massive doorway that blocked me from whatever was going on inside. Realizing that I didn't know what to say, I hid under the nearest window to protect myself.

Almost immediately after I took cover, sparks of the window shattered on top of my head. Focusing on holding in a scream of sheer terror, I didn’t have the chance to look at what had broken the window, and what had happened afterwards.

“JULIAAAAAAA!!!!”

I heard the voice run past me, and then a giant thud. I craned my neck to look in the direction of the sound and found a man lying on the ground, clearly knocked out from the door closing on him.

That’s when Julia came running out.

“Hi! I’m Jul-”

“I know who you are you criminal what do you think you’re doing trying to act nice I am so angry at you and you’re standing here acting all cheery I was almost just killed by flying glass why is there flying glass coming from your house and what was all the screaming I heard coming from inside I almost had a panic attack running up your driveway even though I don’t know you and don’t you realize that I’m a stranger in your yard why are you being so nice and WHY DID YOU KILL MY SISTER?!!”

“Oh.”

“THAT’S IT?!”

“I guess you must be Alexandria.”

“No. That’s not my name. My name’s Alex.”

“Sorry, I didn’t know…”

“Were you aware as you were killing my sister…”

“No. I knew your name was Alex, I just didn’t know what to say to you. I mean, yes I knew I killed your sister...” Julia slowly began to cry -or maybe it was just sniffling- as she continued to speak, so I decided not to interrupt her to see what she had to say. “I’m so sorry about what happened I didn’t mean to hurt Isabel I had no idea who she was or that she even had a sister for that matter, and I honestly can’t believe I didn’t get arrested or that no one in your family came looking for me because when you think about what I did there’s really no excuse; killing someone is no small deed especially if you don’t have a reason for doing it at all and she was only seven and way too young to die and it’s still hard to believe but I KILLED YOUR SISTER!”

“Yeah. I know.”

“Sorry, this is awkward. Why don’t you come inside?”

I wasn’t sure if Julia had chosen to ignore the man on the ground or had simply forgotten, but whoever he was I wasn’t comfortable leaving him there. I didn’t have to say anything for Julia to get the message.  She finally stopped crying and had the energy to say a few words back. “Oh yeah, don’t worry about my dad. He’ll wake up soon, and then I’ll have to deal with that, just step over him on the way in.”

I’m not sure why I decided to trust Julia, or if I should have at all, but something told me that it was the best choice for me right now. I stepped over the mysterious man who still hadn’t moved an inch, in order to enter the home of a girl who had killed my sister and left everyone with a mystery. The initial reason for meeting with Julia was to come find her, yell at her for what she did, ask her why she did it, interrupt her out of frustration, and then leave.

Somehow, maybe because of my inner weakness coming through, I started to feel bad for Julia. It wasn’t even because of the crying that started as she described her mistake, or when her body shook trying to apologize. It was because of the man. The man lying on the ground who ran out of the house screaming. The man who threw something out of the window, causing it to break. The man who is still knocked out from the bang of the door. The man who scared Julia.

Julia led me inside and what I saw was amazing. I didn’t think it was possible, but everything I saw was made of glass. The walls were glass, the floor was glass, the ceiling was glass, and everything inside was glass as well. You could see straight through the glass house, looking at the view from the top of the hill. The truly amazing thing about the home, was that it seemed like it could break at any second.

“This house is so cool.” I said, trying to break the silence.

“Well,” Julia led me to sit on a couch in what seemed to be the living room. “It’s all fake.”

“What is?” But Julia didn’t have to tell me to figure it out. As soon as I sat down I knew; this wasn’t real glass, this was just plastic. Transparent plastic that was used to try and convince people that their house was more than it was. It worked on me.

“Everything.” Julia said, even though she knew I knew. “The house is fake, everything in it is fake, but most of all, my dad is fake.”

“Your dad?” I asked, starting to realize there was more to Julia than it seemed.

“Yeah. He was fake through it all. Through my birth, my childhood, and through the accident.” All I really wanted from Julia was an explanation on what happened, but now it seemed like I was getting a whole life story. But, I guess I didn’t really mind if it got me to an answer.

“My dad was never around that much,” Julia began. “So everything was a mystery with him. It still is, I guess. He didn’t come to any of my school events all through elementary school, and only came home once I was already asleep… He had already disappeared by the time I woke up, so I never saw him at home either. The first time I ever spent any real time with him was my thirteenth birthday; the accident.”

“You mean the accident? As in the one where you killed her?”

“Yes. It was the worst day of my life. My dad came home for the ‘party’, which was really just me and my mom sitting around, watching our favorite reruns of old TV shows. That’s when my dad came in. Neither of us were expecting it, especially not my mom. He staggered inside, slamming the door closed with his back when he tripped over his foot. He couldn’t walk in a straight line, or keep his back straight.”

Julia started to cry uncontrollably, taking a few minutes to collect herself in order to continue. “Sorry. I’ll try and finish.” Julia was now able to speak without crying, but was still shaking all over. I started to feel even more sorry for her, realizing that this wasn’t just a show; she was really hurt by her past, anyone would be.

“He came into this very room, where we are sitting now, having to push against the couch to keep from falling over. It was obvious he had been drinking, for who knows how long, but my mom and I were so shocked we couldn’t get any words out. He leaned in towards my ear and said something I’ll never forget; ‘Happy birthd-’. Half way through this sentence he fell. He passed out on top of me, and didn’t say another word.”

“Wow. I’m really sorry, I didn’t know. What about your mom?”

“She left.” Julia was suddenly very serious when it came to talking about her mom.

“Like, left? Forever?”

“Yeah. The day my dad came back. She couldn’t take it I guess because as soon as he passed out she started crying. She started crying, stormed upstairs, and when she came down she had a bag packed and before I knew it, she was out the door.”

“Wow. But, how did the accident happen then?”

“Well, when my mom left I had to take care of my dad. I tried to ask him where he had been all these years, but when I spoke he hit me. He hit me with a broom until I got a black eye, and then sent me up to my room. Later he called me downstairs, and I thought it was for dinner. When I came into the dining room he started yelling at me. He said ‘Julia! Come here!’. He was obviously still hung over, so I tried to be polite and do the best I could not to yell back at him. ‘Julia where are you?! I need you to go to the store’ I didn’t know how to respond to this, so I simply said ‘What?’ He said ‘What do you mean what? I need you to go to the store and get me some beer!’ I told him that the nearest store was three miles away, and that I would need to take a car to get there. He yelled at me to take the car or I would get another beating. I didn’t want to argue with him, but there was no way I could have gotten beer without an ID. I calmly explained to him the truth, and he hit me again. When he was done he told me to take the car and his ID, and be back in less than half an hour. I was so uneasy about the whole thing, but there was no way I was going to get hit again. I ran out of the house with the ID in hand, took the car, and drove down the driveway. Actually, it was more like sped down the driveway uncontrollably. I had never driven a car before, and didn’t realize how difficult it was; grownups made it look so easy. I didn’t even have time to put my foot on the brake by the time I saw your sister on her bike, and before I knew it...¨

“You hit her?”

“I hit her. I was so scared, so terrified of what would happen next, so I made the dumb decision to keep driving.”

“YOU KEPT DRIVING? WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU KEPT DRIVING?” I was angry all over again, and couldn’t even stand to talk to her. I knew that she was only 13 at the time, and had never even driven a car, but what the heck was she thinking? You can’t just hit someone and keep driving out of fright!¨

“I’m so sorry.” Julia started to cry again. “I was so scared of everything, my dad, whoever I hit, and where my mom had gone. I didn’t know what I was doing when I kept driving, because I knew that it was a bad decision as soon as I kept my foot on the gas. But I did. I was so surprised that I didn’t hear sirens, that no one came looking for me-”

“I did.” I said. “I came looking for you, and you’re not that bad.”

“What? What do you mean I’m not that bad? I killed your sister and never came back. I never did anything about it, and you think I’m okay?”

“Julia, you need to understand that I know what you did was bad. I get that you murdered a seven year-old girl, and then kept driving, but I also get that it was a mistake.”

“Did anyone ever tell you that you’re an amazing person?”

“No… Um, I know this is a weird thing to say, but can you come down the hill with me? Your driveway is kinda long.”

“Oh, sure.”

Julia and I exited the house, ready to get on my bike and ride back home. Actually, I was really glad that I brought my bike because it wasn’t even mine. It was my sister’s, the one she rode when she got hit. But what I saw at the bottom of the hill was something I never expected to see again; my sister’s bike broken to pieces at the end of the driveway. A car was parked at the side of the road, with a man standing outside it staring at the bike. He looked strangely familiar, but I couldn’t tell from where. That’s when he started to speak, or at least what I think was speaking.

“Oh, sorry man. I was just trying to get some beer from the sto-” Before he could finish the sentence he passed out, lying with his head next to the bike. His arm was reaching out with his hand practically touching the bike, as if to say “It’s finished.”

I turned to face Julia, and said the only thing I could think of “I’m glad you did it.”