esme oakley is ava’s daughter ! she’s six years old by the time it : chapter two is taking place .
she sees IT around now and again , whether deliberately lured by something like a butterfly , chasing her ball down the street as it rolls toward a storm drain , or catching IT’s eye from where IT lurks in the sewers and tilting her little head at it in bemusement . occasionally she tries to engage IT , curiosity piqued , but ava tends to call her over or take her hand , sweep her away incidentally before the encounter can go beyond an exchange of basic niceties .
esme tells her mom about what she sees , and it always gives ava pause , because she knows something’s not quite right .
---------he’s probably some escaped lunatic , lost , stuck wandering around in piss and shit city ! we should call the cops so they can go fish the poor guy out and haul him back to that jupiter hill place . he’s probably eating rats and drinking the gray water and going crazier down there .
it’s a conversation she must have had almost thirty goddamn summers ago , yet every word of it’s inexplicably , intricately ingrained into her mind in this moment . she remembers the itchy , too - big sweater she was wearing , and the way a light summer breeze caressed her choppy blonde locks , and every haughty inflection of her coarse little voice . she had meant juniper hill . that boy , her friend , caleb --- all dark curls and doubtful expression in the face of the strange tale , used to correct her every time .
it’s juniper hill , ava ---
potato , potat-oh , cale .
and then georgie frowned , rather affronted by all this doubt --- nuh - uh , he’d protested . he’s my friend . not a crazy guy . his eyes change color , and he has all these sharky teeth ! kinda like the joker , but also the killer croc . and besides , he doesn’t just live there anyway . we hang out at the neibolt too ---
don’t talk to strangers , esme , she manages .
i know , i know ! but ... he’s not a stranger . he’s just a bit strange . he knew my name . and he knows you , mommy . he told me so .
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