SIX: The Despised Clan pt 3

"Excuse me!"

Before Esther could open her mouth to rebuke the taunters, Mordecai had grabbed her arm as he hailed a nearby merchant.

"It's best to ignore these kinds of situations," he hissed in her ear as he dragged her away.

Begrudgingly, Esther allowed herself to be pulled along.

She already knew that it was best not to pay those people any heed.

She knew it.

But why did she still have such a hard time letting it go?

"It's always shocking at first," her uncle soothed her, draping a simple fur shawl across her shoulders. "I thank the God of Abraham that you will never have to get used to such vile words."

With a nod of approval at the piece he'd chosen, the man turned to the merchant to barter.

Esther stood silently fuming while Mordecai purchased the shawl. Afterward, he continued leading her along, stopping to grab boots, thick dresses, and wooden pins for her hair.

As they moved around the marketplace, more insults were hurled toward them. Each one stung Esther as much as the first had.

How could a person possibly get used to it?

She suddenly thought of her uncle.

He'd left her father's family clan when he was a young man due to a dispute with the elders. He had traveled to Shushan City alone and spent much time drifting about the city before finally settling down within the Despised Clan.

How painful must it have been for him to hear the harsh whispers and bitter jeering behind his back? The words he'd used to soothe her earlier, were they the same he wished had been used to soothe himself back then?

Esther didn't realize it at the time, but her unhappy experience in that marketplace was the first of many incidents to leave a small ding on her otherwise immaculate image of the glittering Royal City.

Many months later, she would look back and realize the City was no longer shining at all in her mind, but had become a dull and miserable place filled with the cries of the poor and oppressed.

For the time being, however, she let out a deep sigh as she tried her best to follow Mordecai's advice and ignore the taunting surrounding them as they shopped.

"Esther, why don't you wait here for me while I get us something delicious to eat?" Mordecai stopped, placing his collection of bundles on an empty table.

The two of them had stepped away from the main street, into a small plaza that was filled with empty vendor spots. Apparently, these areas of the market were only utilized during festivals, when foot traffic was much greater and merchants could still hope to make a decent profit despite the poor location.

Mordecai had pointed out that the empty plazas made for the perfect place to stop and rest. There were no people to fire sharp words at them and plenty of space to sit down.

As she looked around at the lack of other shoppers in need of a rest, however, Esther realized that she and her uncle were probably the only people who used these plazas in such a way. Everyone else in the market came and went leisurely; they didn't spend the entire afternoon fervently shopping.

"What is a special trip for us is simply a normal day for them," Esther mused, seating herself next to the packages.

Mordecai returned several minutes later, carrying juicy meat skewers that forever ruined the taste of the humble stew Esther had grown used to eating. Her uncle later laughed when he heard her explanation of why the delectable skewers had caused her to frown so much.

"They are quite delicious, aren't they?" he chuckled. "But your soup is not to be frowned upon. After all, it is always the highlight of my day."

The man had meant the words as a compliment to his niece, but they only seemed to haunt her as the date for the visit to her mother's clan drew ever nearer.

One evening, a week after their shopping excursion, Esther stood humming to herself and peeling vegetables when her uncle's words again caused a pang in her heart.

"Who will make soup and bread for my Esteemed Uncle when I am gone?" the girl groaned, hacking a chunk of flesh from the potato in her hands with a particularly rough knife stroke.

"How could I have ever thought so selfishly of a life away from the man who raised me?"

With her chipper humming turned to bleak sighs, Esther finished preparing the usual evening stew. After setting the table, she decided to sit down and review her travel documents while she waited for Mordecai.

Her uncle had been very thorough in preparing for his niece's departure. He'd already found a caravan that would take her out of the city and near the countryside, where a few members of her mother's family would be waiting to bring her the rest of the way.

Aside from the documents she needed for the checkpoint at the city gate, Mordecai had also prepared citizenship papers, her current household and status, and an application to officially add her name to her mother's clan's registry.

"It's as if he's completely forgotten the month-long trial period we agreed on," Esther bit her lip, pushing the papers away.

As she did so, her eyes were drawn to the neatly packaged shoes, dresses and warm clothes they'd picked out at the marketplace.

Summer had only begun in Persia. Even the countryside would be balmy for several more months.

It was clear that her uncle was planning far beyond the initial one-month stay.

But had he come to the conclusion that Esther would decide to move there of her own accord, or did he plan on forcing her to leave no matter what she decided?

She didn't have long to ponder before Mordecai burst through the door.

"Esteemed Uncle?" Esther jumped to her feet, startled at the man's abrupt arrival.

She began to approach him with her usual smile, when something stopped her.

"I-is everything alright?" she stammered, frozen midstep.

Without meeting her eyes, Mordecai held out his hand.

"Give me those travel papers, Esther," he instructed.

Hesitantly, Esther obeyed and carefully placed the stack of parchment in her uncle's hand.

She gulped as the man curled his fingers too tightly, wrinkling the precious papers.

"Esteemed Uncle, has something happened?"