Esther

-

The girl was born on November 3rd, 1602. She was a plump little thing. She had round, squishy cheeks, and excitable, round green eyes. A thin peach fuzz of black hair had already broken out among her scalp. Her mother had caressed her, feeling the soft, plump cheeks. The mother inhaled her daughter's scent, savoring it. She felt as if she were holding her own limb, a piece of herself, an extension of her being. She held the baby up to her. It stirred, face crumpling, eyes watering. "Shhh, mine girl..." The mother began, cooing at her tiny daughter. "'tis alright, for I will protect thou." The mother felt herself getting choked up, despite her fierce nature. "I will always protect thou. Nay harm will come to thou under mine watch. Mine Esther..."

Esther Brown grew up with a fire in her belly that never extinguished. Whenever her mother tried to squeeze a bonnet onto Esther's head when Esther was a toddler, she shrieked and ran away. Her mother, Ruth Brown, ended up with a maroon face and her hands thrown up in the air with frustration, saying, "Well, when the town screams at thou, doth not come caterwauling to me!"

Esther relented, but only because she loathed seeing her mother in an irritated huff. Esther didn't care if the town shrieked at her. In fact, she would much rather be shouted at than wear a stuffy bonnet. However, it made her mother happy to know that Esther wouldn't be shouted at, and that's all that Esther really cared about.

Ruth loved the feeling of sunshine on her face. She felt as if it cleaned her pores, and made her skin flourish. She loved to bathe in warmth, and let the pleasant air around her consume all of her body. Esther, on the other hand, preferred the indoors. Esther, now barely out of her toddler stages, puffed out her lip and said, "Mother, we can hast just as much fun indoors as we doth outdoors!"

"Quiet, Esther," Ruth had said, "Enjoy the sun. Play in some dirt, why doth thou not?"

Esther nearly gagged, "Playing in dirt? 'Tis for disgusting men, Mother!"

Ruth turned around, eyes popping open. "Hark, Esther. Whe'r ye are a man 'r woman, thou can play in dirt if thou want." She noticed Esther's attention had been snagged onto something else. "Hark, Esther! Doth not let the fact that ye are a woman hold thou back from galloping among the horses! Ye are infinite, and just because ye are a woman shouldst not, and will not, hold thou back from experiencing thy full potential." Ruth noticed that Esther's eyes had gone wide, and was filling with water. Ruth held her daughter. "I love thou, mine Esther."

Esther sniffled, "I love thou, Mother. But, I still doth not want to play in dirt."

Ruth smiled at her Esther. Ruth suddenly felt the same, strong urge that she did when she held Esther for the first time. As if she was looking at a piece of herself. "Of course, thou doth not hast to, mine dear."

When Esther barely landed into her tenth year of life, Esther and Ruth were on one of their daily walks. Esther was zoned out into the thick cloud of horse whinnies and grunts of old men with beards. When Esther did not know the men's names, she liked to imagine names and backstories for them, and their beards, of course. The beards were Esther's favorite part. Esther's mind had trailed into a man's life. The man had a boulder as a belly, and quite the beard. She figured that the man's name was Oswaldo, and his beard was named Pig. Pig had an adventurous soul, but Oswaldo was quite the bore.

She felt a light weight stumble into her. Esther's head swiveled around and bonked against that of the person parallel to her. Esther and the other person yelped with a dull pain pounding against their skulls.

It took a few moments for Esther to come back to her senses. She realized that the person she had bumped into was a little girl around her own age. The other little girl had skin the color of a peach, with a prominent dusting of freckles along her cheekbones, stretching to meet up at the center of her nose. She saw a peak of honey colored hair under her bonnet, and a hint of buck teeth under her thin, rosy lips. The girl blinked at her. Esther was surprised to see there wasn't a hint of tears in the other girl's eyes, and Esther was automatically interested in how tough the girl was. The girl also had the bluest eyes Esther had ever seen. The col'r of her eyes wilt rival the sky! Esther thought, cocking her head at the encapsulating girl.