I remember how it all started, I had gone to the market to buy fruits for my uncle and I. Life had not been easy but we always found a way to be happy together, we only had each other, my uncle had lost his family during the war and I lost my parents', we were both brought into this land as slaves, he treated me as his own child, we loved each other and we were grateful that God had given us each other, never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that everything would change that faithful day.
I was entering into the house when I noticed a strange face inside, I hid, I didn't know why I was hiding but I had a bad feeling about why he was in my house. He looked like he was from the palace, what was a guy from the palace doing in my house discussing with my uncle.
"she needs come with me"
"I know, she'll be here any moment"
My heart skipped as I heard those words', was I being arrested, what could I have possibly done I felt betrayed by my uncle for letting me go like that without putting up a fight and standing by my side, he knew I could not have done anything wrong. I gave a sigh of frustration before finally decided to enter into the house, at this point nothing mattered anymore, I would probably be executed by the next day if I was actually being arrested. The king was not merciful to offenders . Offenders like Vashtti the fallen queen, she had disregarded his orders and had her crown stripped away from her. He banished his own wife, talk less of a mere slave girl like me.
I entered into the house and looked in the eyes of my uncle in disappointment and then looked at the man from the palace.
"Dohd, what's going on", I asked at the point of tears.
"Banot, he has come to take you to the palace, the king is looking for a new wife he has ordered for all the beautiful young virgins to be taken to the palace, you are the must beautiful of them all", he said with hopeful eyes, he obviously believed in me, unfortunately I didn't believe in my self.
" I can't do it, I can't leave you alone, who will take care of you"
" I will take care of my self"
I couldn't argue with my uncle, I had to much respect for him so I did what any other girl my age would do when they were confused, I ran to the alter in my room. I found my self crying at the alter, why did I have to be so emotional? I didn't want to be queen, I also didn't want to let my uncle down, so I prayed, I prayed for direction, but then I realized that I had no choice anyway, if my name was listed among the young maidens then I had to go. I quickly changed my prayer from that of direction to that of Grace and Favor.
My uncle entered my room, I noticed but I ignored, he knelt down with me at the alter and when we were done praying he encouraged me and gave me words of advice. I packed a few things and followed the man to the palace, I held everything my uncle told me close to my heart, one thing he said though was extremely crucial, "never tell anyone where you are from".
I remember how impressed I was with structure of the palace, it was huge and beautiful, I should have kept an eye on where I was going because I ended up bumping into two girls. I apologized but they screamed at me.
"how dare you step on me", one of the girls said, her voice sounded as rude as ever, nevertheless I bent my head to apologize to her again, properly.
"bow down properly to your future queen", my mind cringed in utter disgust as she said those words, how could she be so sure that she was going to be the queen, it could be anyone as far as I was concerned. Although it would not be me, I was totally uninterested in being the queen and was only here because of the kings words, furthermore how could a servant like me possibly be queen.
" Girls!!!!!", a loud voice sounded from behind us, it was that of Shaashgaz, one of the kings eunuchs, the one in charge of concubines.
"you will procced into the kings court one by one, if the king finds favor in your sight then you will proceed to hareem where you will undergo a 12 months beautification period after that you will appear in the kings court again if he deems you fit then he will make you queen"
I can remember how i felt when entering into the kings presence, my heart thumped loud enough that it could be heard by someone standing 5 feet away from me, it was reasonable to be fearful, he was the powerful king of Persia, king Xerxes, feared by all.
I knelt before him shivering in fear. There he was sitting on his throne, his deep dark eyes bored into my soul, tearing me apart bit by bit. He was silent, what was he thinking about? Was he angry at why they would bring such a filthy thing into his court. Was I going to be executed? i stayed there trembling as my mind went wild.
"what is your name", he finally spoke in the deepest voice I had ever heard.
"Hadassah your majesty", I barely managed to save this words because my voice was trembling so much.
"are you scared...stand up"
" never would I dare to stand before your greatness your majesty"
"I said stand", his thunderous voice pushed me to my feet immediately and I shivered before him. I looked at his face, it was blank, I couldn't tell what he was thinking or how he felt, I quickly looked down and prayed that he did not see me looking at him, I could be executed for it.
"look up"
I quickly and fearfully looked up, i couldn't bare to make the king angry.
"remove your veil from your head", i quickly did as he said, immediately It fell from my head i heard his thunderous voice calling Hegai, the man in charge of harem, my heart skipped, was he being called to execute me? How angry had i made king Xerxes?
Hegai appeared and the king was silent for some minutes before he began giving him Hegai orders.
"Take the girl, give her everything she needs to settle down, assign maids to her"
I calmed down after hearing these words, I had found favor in the eyes of the king.
I followed Heggai into hareem, he was a very young lad, not more than 30 , a man of good stature, on my way there I greeted me, he stopped and looked at me, I had no idea why.
" what have you done to the king, never in his life has he stared at a young lady like he stared at you", my breathing paused, I did not know how to answer him, he continued walking and showed me the chamber I would stay in. It was huge and beautiful, decorated with beautiful curtains and tapestries, I might have thought a garden was inside because of the amount of flowers used in decorating the floors and window panes. There was a bath pool at the side of the chamber, this whole room was bigger than the house that my uncle and I stayed in. I turned to him in order to thank him for showing me to my chamber.
"thank you, my lord, I will surely take good care of it", I said as in bowed my head.
"don't be ridiculous", he said as he clapped his hand and 7 young ladies dressed in white appeared in my room, each holding a basket filled with something.
" they were formerly Vashttis' servants now they are yours they would be taking care of you and the room, you are to do nothing"
"seven is a bit too much"
"you may not oppose Hadassah, they are holding your perfumes and ointments, be sure to use them every day", he said as he walked out of the room.
Immediately he left the room the girls rushed up to me and removed my garments' they led me into the pool to have the most soothing bath ever, after that the ointments where used to massage me, I had never felt this relaxed in my life.
I slept off and decided to join the rest of the girls when I woke up in the evening, they where in the courtyard, socializing, doing what girls do, I wondered if I would be able to make friends with anyone. As I walked into their mist I heard murmurs about me, that I had bewitched the king into favoring me, that I was just a peasant who had nothing and they could not explain why the king was already treating me like his queen. I felt sad, even if I wanted to make friends at this rate no one would want to talk to me, I just sat there alone.
"hi", I heard a small voice from behind me, I decided to turn to see who it was, I saw the figure of a dark haired slender girl with thin lips and chess nut eyes, truly beautiful.
"I'm Yaffa, you?"
"I'm Esther...truly you live up to your name"
"Yaffa, beautiful? You know Hebrew?"
my heart skipped as I realized what I had said, I was not supposed to tell anyone where I was from.
" I actually don't, I just remembered a day that I went to the market to buy flowers and a Jewish trader called them Yaffa, I concluded that it meant beautiful"
" oh...for a moment there I thought you where Jewish like me, I sorta miss home, one day i'll go back to my land"
I looked at her, she was obviously pained, I wanted to console her, tell her that she was not alone in this, tell her I understood how she felt, but I could not or I would end up exposing where I was from.
"these, people really don't like you huh? They don't think you're fit to be queen"
"I don't think I could be queen either"
"anyone here is fit to be a queen, fate led us down this part, fate cannot deceive"
"fate", I said in my mind, was there such a thing as fate? Was it fate that actually lead me here? No , it was Gods plan that led me there, If there was such a thing as fate then it was God and if it was Gods will for me to become queen then so be it.
That evening I prayed, there was no alter to kneel at but God was every where and he could hear my prayers from anywhere, I prayed for his will to be done.