MARIEL

3~She Liked Him~

Esther's favorite place to play was outside, but she played in her room more often because the funny looking man couldn't see her in there. Most times, when she left school, she saw the same black car and the same big man. It did not happen every day. When it did, she noticed. He would stand or drive at least 50 feet from her until she arrived home. Most often, he would follow the bus back home. She wanted to ask him what he wanted, but her parents always told her not to talk to strangers. Esther wanted to tell her parents, but her parents were always fighting now and never had time for her. Or so it seemed. Her mom was pregnant again, and Esther was not happy about this. After being the only child for her whole life, now she was expected to welcome a brother?

'Will I still be the favorite child?' She had asked.

Her mother had laughed and touched her face. 'Esther, I will always love you the same, no matter what.'

But that hadn't been good enough for Esther. She needed to hear that she would be the favorite, but her mom would not tell her such a thing. She screamed that she hated the baby and she would go to her room and starve to death until they admitted they would always love her the most. So, Esther locked herself in her room. She kept a calendar in her room to mark the dates she would be there, and one water bottle to survive her last days. Esther checked the time. It had only been thirteen minutes. It would be a long road to starvation.

Sighing, she crawled into bed with tear stained cheeks and touched the left side of her neck. It was throbbing again. For as long as she could remember, she had experienced dull pain in the side of her neck, but only on occasion. At first, it made her cry, but she had gotten used to it. The doctor had told her that she might have strained a muscle early on and maybe it had built scar tissue, whatever that was. Her parents had told her that she needed to be more careful and slow down. 'Ladies needed to take break sometimes, and that was okay'. That comment irked her, but she didn't know why. Well fine, now she would die in her room and they could be happy with the new baby.

Esther pouted for a few minutes and then got up to look out the window. Sunshine. It would be a great day to play outside but dying-in-her-room duty called. Cars drove past the house throughout the neighborhood. Kids played outside, screaming joyfully and running around. She wondered if the funny man followed and watched them too.

She turned her eyes and noticed Mariel sprawled out on the lawn next door where the nice priest lived. He lay as if he were making a snow angel, but with grass. Lazily, he stared up at the sky and let the sun beat down onto his body. Esther wrinkled her nose at him. She didn't like him. He always talked to her in Sunday school like she was stupid, and she wasn't stupid. Besides, he was not as smart as he thought he was. She thought he was just stuck up because he was the son of the nice priest.

Suddenly, he sat up and looked at her window.

She shrunk back and jumped back on the bed, closed her eyes, then opened them again. Curious, she got back out of bed and walked towards the window again. She frowned. There he was, standing much closer to the window, staring at her. Why did everyone stare at her?

She stared back, eyebrows knit together in a frown. Mariel started walking closer, his eyes never faltering from hers. Fine. If this was a blinking game, she was determined to win. She didn't like him. He was weird and stuck up. So, she would beat him.

Mariel came closer, his face expressionless, his blue eyes wide. Gently, the wind blew his hair. Esther kept her stance at the window with her hand lightly resting on the glass. He came up to the window and stopped. They stared at each other as the trees rustled softly in the background and the other neighborhood kids ran around and screamed excitedly.

Suddenly, the boy reached for the window and placed his hand on the glass where she rested hers. He smiled a little. His eyes were welcoming. They stood like this as seconds passed, until Fr. Jerome stepped onto his porch and yelled that 'dinner was ready and why are you peeping in Esther's window, that was extremely rude'.

Mariel backed away, waved, and walked back towards his house.

Slowly, Esther took her hand away from the window.

She liked him.