FOUR: The Despised Clan pt 1

After they finally came to an agreement, Esther and Mordecai continued on with their evening as if they'd never spoken of it at all.

Before a final date for Esther's departure was settled on, Mordecai would need to exchange a few more letters of correspondence with her mother's family. Esther consoled herself by reasoning that it could well be a year before she actually had to leave her home in Shushan.

And with this, she put all worries regarding the arrangement out of her mind and carried on with her life as usual.

In the morning, she woke up just as the sun was peeking over the horizon. She cleared away the crumbs left by Mordecai when he hastily tore a chunk of bread to eat on his way to the palace.

Afterward, she retrieved the fresh dough she'd made the night before and slid two new loaves of bread into the oven.

When the mouthwatering scent of freshly baked bread filled the small clay house, she set the loaves out to cool and wrapped her shawl around her before heading to the market.

"Hmm, what should I make for supper tonight?" she later pondered as she stooped over a crate of vegetables.

Out of the entire crate, she selected two carrots and three potatoes and placed them in her basket.

"Wouldn't you like a few more than that, Miss?" the stall keeper questioned, eyeing the large basket hanging from her arm. "You'll only get a half pot of stew out of those!"

Esther blushed a little.

"These are enough, Sir," she replied, bashfully handing over a single coin.

She knew how silly it was for her to purchase only the ingredients for one day's worth of food. Everyone else usually bought enough for the week, so they could avoid the trip back and forth from the market.

But as a girl in the prime of her life, bursting with curiosity and wonder, she couldn't just sit home all day cooking and cleaning. Besides, there was hardly enough of that to keep her busy.

Lately, she'd taken to visiting the marketplace every day. For the better part of the afternoon, she'd stroll down the bustling streets, observing strange people and the occasional odd goods. On lucky days, she'd even cross paths with a street crier and learn about going ons in the Empire.

Usually, she'd already heard the news from her Uncle, who overheard many things while guarding the palace gates, but occasionally (as with the case of deposed Queen Vashti), she got to hear something exciting for the first time.

As she continued her stroll through the market, the large basket at her side remaining rather empty, she ran across an acquaintance.

"Esther! Esther, Dear!" an elderly woman called from down the street.

"Hello there!" Esther smiled as she approached the woman.

The woman lived alone in a house not far from Esther's.

"I was wondering if you could come help me clean my drapes this afternoon," the woman inquired. "That is, if you don't already have your hands full."

"I'd love to help," Esther replied, extending her elbow for the woman to balance herself with.

"Oh thank you, Dear," the woman gave her a grin. "And I haven't seen my neighbor leave her house for a while now. Why don't we make her some supper while we're at it?"

"That sounds like a great idea," Esther agreed, escorting the chattering lady out of the market toward their neighborhood.

Throughout the empire, most Believers lived together in family clans. They took care of each other and their livestock, each person having their own duty.

But when it came to cities like Shushan, Believers, or the Despised Clan as they were called, were mainly those who had left their family units for one reason or another. That being the case, there were few families among the Despised Clan in Shushan. In fact, Esther was the youngest member of their clan, save a few children.

Many older clan members depended on people like Esther to help them with tasks they couldn't do themselves. The Despised Clan was sort of like its own patched together family in that way--everyone checking on each other and helping where they were able.

Esther had watched Mordecai spend all his free time making home repairs for others in the neighborhood and giving away all of his spare bread to those who didn't have enough food.

She assumed the rest of her life would be spent the same way.

It would be a lie to say she'd never allowed her mind to wander into imaginings of a more exciting future. She'd sometimes think about a life of excitement and about the things that lay beyond the walls her Clan hid inside of. Occasionally, her thoughts would wander so far as to leave her feeling unsatisfied.

The feeling that she was meant to do something more.

Something bigger.

Something more important.

Something that was waiting for her on the other side of the wall.

But, after a while, she'd always float back down to reality and shake her head to clear all those silly ideas.

Cleaning drapes, baking loaves of bread, and the wrinkled hands that so lovingly gripped her own.

These things were enough. A life spent in love and caring for those around her, people who cared for her in return without having any reason other than that they wanted to, that was a happy life.

Mordecai had been wrong.

Esther was happy.

And she would continue to be happy living this way among these people for the rest of her life.

.. But, perhaps just for a month, she could live out her silly imaginations of the grandeur that lay outside the Despised Clan's community.

For just a month, she would run fast and let her hair loose in the wind. Maybe she'd even find young soft hands gripping hers--friends skipping through the grass alongside her and healthy children giggling as they pulled her along.

Just for a month..

Perhaps, she was a little excited to visit her mother's clan, after all.