I stood toward the back of the crowd so that no one would see me. I watched my best friend, Hester Prynne, ascend the platform with little Pearl. I don’t understand why they are making her do this. Her ‘husband’ is all the way back in England. For all we know, he could have married someone else since we have been gone. As I watch, Hester looks over at a rather ugly old man. She looks stunned. I look closer and realise that it in fact is her husband!

~

Hester and I met when we were just 7 years old. I had just moved from Scotland to England with my family. I had no friends, so I was walking around town with my older brother, Nicholas. I saw a girl, about my age, walking all alone. I tugged on Nicholas’s hand and looked between him, and the girl. He nodded and I ran over to her. I introduced myself as Margaret Ann. She laughed and said, “You talk funny!” I sighed and explained that I was from Scotland. She grabbed my hand and shook it,” I am Hester Prynne.”

Hester and I played together everyday from then on. Every Saturday, Hester would sleep over at my house. In the morning we would meet her parents at church. Our fathers got along quite nicely, but our mothers would only tolerate each other. Church was boring for children, so we played with our dolls as the pastor spoke. If we got too rowdy, Nicholas would kick my knee. When I looked up, he would put his finger over his lips. He always kept us out of trouble.

One night, when I was 19, Hester snuck into my bedroom while I was sleeping. She grabbed my wrist and pulled me to an upright position. “Get up” she whispered,”I’m taking you somewhere.” I got up and put an old dress on. We climbed out my window and ran to a nearby forest. She found a clearing and we sat across from one another on the grass. “My parents,” she started,”they are forcing me to get married to an ugly old geezer.” By the end of the sentence, she was bawling. I scooted closer to her and wrapped my arms around her. “It will work out, you’ll see” I said trying to reassure her.

A few weeks later, my best friend was standing at the altar with a man at least twice her age. She cried silently throughout the ceremony, trying not to make it noticeable. After the ceremony was over, she grabbed my wrist and pulled me into the bathroom. She sobbed uncontrollably. I hated seeing her like this. I had an idea. “What if we just ran away?” I asked. “Where would we go?” she replied. “Anywhere you want. As long as it is far far away from here.” She mustered up a smile. “Thank you so much.”

Late that night, I snuck out of the house--leaving a note for my parents. I told them how much I had appreciated everything they had done for me. That I needed to help my best friend in this bad situation. I met Hester at our decided spot--an open field on the outside of town. She, just like I, had a bag full of all her important belongings. We walked silently to the docks and got on the first cargo ship we saw. We hid behind some large crates and fell asleep.

I woke up the next morning to the shouting of sailors. I looked over to where Hester had been just hours before. She was sound asleep. I laid down facing her and thought about how, in a mere 24 hours, I had drastically changed the course of my life. I had done all of this for the one person I care about the most. After thinking for a while, I drifted off to sleep again.

The rest of our days on the cargo ship went the same way. We would sleep most of the time, and when we were awake, it was never at the same time. I would stare at the horizon until I dozed off. The day finally arrived when the cargo ship docked. We waited until night time to get off so that no one would see us. That night, we started our trek to Boston. Our goal was to find a town that looked similar to the town we had just abandoned.

Boston was the perfect fit. When we arrived, Hester's eye was caught by the town’s minister. She flirted with him and they began spending more and more time together. Next thing I knew, Hester was pregnant with the minister’s baby. Somehow, someone found out about Hester’s previous husband. She was then tried for adultery. Then Pearl was born.