Chapter Text
“Momma?”
A small girl - barely five years of age, with curly blonde hair and glasses that could hardly stay on her nose - poked her head around the curtain, toddling inside to where she could grab a hold of the end of the bed. “Momma? Can I sleep with you?”
Something shuffled from beneath the sheets, and the small child’s face lit up with joy at the face of her mother, smiling down at her.
“Oh, honey - of course you can.” She smiled softly, holding out her arms to help the small child clamber up onto her lap. “Did you have a nightmare?”
The child shook her head - nightmares never bothered her, they weren’t real - and she merely snuggled into her mother's arms. “Jus’ wanted a cuddle…” she mumbled quietly.
The mother raised her arm and began stroking the child’s hair. “What’s up? You never want cuddles unless you’re upset.”
The child sighed and pushed away, staring down at a piece of fluff on the blanket. “Well, Momma… You’re gonna be gone soon.” The child’s eyes welled up with tears, but she tried her hardest to bite back the lump in her throat. “You’re gonna be gone and I won't be able to get hugs anymore…”
“Oh… My wonderful girl - I wish I could hug you forever.” The small girl melted into the hug, latching on as hard as she could - she never wanted to forget the feeling of her mothers’ arms.
Esther could never quite remember the end of the conversation - but her mother was dead within the hour.
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“Is it true?”
Esther nodded, allowing her friend to sidle up next to her and put an arm around her shoulders. “Are you ok, Essie?”
Esther plastered on a reassuring smile and shifted away from the hug “I’ll be fine. Death happens to everyone eventually.”
“Woah…” Her friend gazed up at her with curious eyes. “That sounds super grown up!”
Esther felt herself blush a little, “Thanks! I used to read a lot with my momma... I wanna be a scientist! That’s why I need to know all sorts of big words! I’m gonna help people! Oh, but I also wanna be an astronaut… Maybe I can do both of them?”
Her friend gave a gleeful laugh. “That sounds so cool! I wanna go to space too!”
Esther smiles softly in reply, before turning back to the spot she had been staring at across the way. "I… don't know what to do. My papa hasn’t talked to me since."
Her friend gave her another hug - and they sat for a while. But Esther would never cry. She wouldn't let herself. Even if she missed her momma more than anything - no matter how much she tried to will her back into existence… it never worked.
"It’s ok, Essie! I was sad when my cat died, too…"
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Esther Merryweather wouldn’t necessarily call herself intelligent - though, she was aware that on paper - she was. She’d call herself excited, hard working, creative - driven, perhaps - but in her mind, anyone could do the same. She just… Had the willpower to actually get there.
Or maybe she would call herself a people pleaser. Her ambitions came solely from her need to be needed, and it worked that way. People praised her left right and centre; Her father was proud of her, Her teachers were ecstatic when she turned in homework early time and time again.
She almost fed off of the satisfaction she got from being who everyone thought she was. Smart. Intelligent. Talented.
But it was hard work. It was. Sure - maybe she had a head start, maybe she was destined to have the capacity for all this intelligence - but she could have easily given up.
It’s why she could never stand to be wrong.
If you asked her why she was so dead set on going into science - why biology interested her so much - why she believed so wholeheartedly in creatures that were not of this world, even when society called her crazy for it...
She’d say it was to help people.
...And it was .
But she’d be lying.