“Is it time for cremation?” Esther interrupted what Jasper was going to say, asking with a reluctant gaze as she held Tinkerbell’s cold hand.
Jasper asked in shock, “Aren’t you waiting for the paternity test result? I believe that Bradley will send Tinkerbell off if he learns that she’s his daughter.”
“Him?” Esther scoffed and said frostily, “He better not come taint my daughter’s path to the afterlife.”
Jasper tried again. “Esther, if you’re reluctant, we can…”
Esther shook her head. “Let her rest in peace so she can be reincarnated soon. I hope Tinkerbell doesn’t meet a mother like me or a father like Bradley in her next life. I hope she comes to this world under the anticipation of her parents and gets a happy family.”
Jasper could not help turning away and saying, his voice choking up, “Things will be as you wish.”
Esther did not have real friends or family here.
Tinkerbell’s funeral, grand and luxurious, ended only after half a day.
Esther watched Tinkerbell, who was on the cart, and crouched down to hug her longingly, giving her one last hug with all she had.
‘Tinkerbell, sorry.
‘It’s Mommy’s fault for losing you.
‘Don’t run into a careless mother like me in your next life.
‘My dear Tinkerbell, farewell.‘
Esther let go of Tinkerbell softly and pressed a kiss on her forehead with so much longing before she slowly stepped aside.
The funeral parlor’s staff gently pushed Tinkerbell into the furnace, and raging flames engulfed the small casket in the blink of an eye.
Esther sent Tinkerbell off with reddened eyes and unshed tears.
After the cremation, Jasper took Esther to the cemetery. With his help, she buried Tinkerbell next to her mother, Faye Quill’s tomb.
It was just that Esther did not want to erect a tombstone for her. She shoveled a pit and planted a four–year–old apple tree. She put the tree into the pit and scattered Tinkerbell’s ashes before patting the soil with both hands.
She then watered the tree and hung a customized stainless steel plate that read: “Tinkerbell, a four–year–old girl “, and her birthday. Behind the plate, it read: “She came to this world for a look and wasn’t happy with her parents, so she left.”
The wind blew gently, and the apple tree leaves swayed, like Tinkerbell bidding farewell to Esther.
After burying Tinkerbell, Esther paid respect to her mother and Thomas, not saying a word throughout the process. She thought there was no need to say anything, for she would meet them soon.
By then, she would slowly recount her grievances, indignation, and pain.
Jasper kept an eye on Esther constantly, worried that she was only putting up a strong front and would be gone
once she fell through.
“Esther, why don’t I send you to the hospital? You just had surgery. It’s easy to have sequelae without proper rest.”
“Sure. We’ll go to the hospital where I had the surgery.” Esther agreed easily.
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
Jasper sent her to the hospital quietly. She stayed in the same hospital ward and cooperated with the doctor’s checkups and nurses‘ medicating her like a good patient.
