Describe the relationship between Ishmael and Esther.

Esther and Ishmael are friends, she is someone that he can talk to, although, he is unable to really connect with her. When Esther laughs, she reminds a girl named Abigail, someone he'd known in secondary school. He wishes Abigail and Esther were the same person, so that they would have a shared past to connect them better.