Bible Quest

Chapter Five: The Next Morning “Evelyn, Evelyn, wake up! You’re going to be late for the day!” I open my eyes. It is dark, very dark. So dark I can’t see my hands in front of my face. Why didn’t mom turn on my bedside lamp like she normally does? “Mom,” I groan, “Why are you waking me up so early? It is still dark outside. School probably won't start for a couple of hours, let me sleep.” “Oh, no! You must be delirious with fever! Evelyn, if you want to keep your post, you need to get out of bed now! I will try to help with your afternoon chores so you can rest, but Queen Esther will be expecting us to have her gown and bath ready when she awakes.” I let the stranger’s words slowly seep in. WAIT!!! I shoot straight up in my bed. WHAT?!?!?! QUEEN WHO?!?!?!? I bolt out of bed and look around. The girl who woke me was now staring at me with wide eyes while holding a lit candle. “Who are you? Where am I? And, why did you say Queen Esther?” I ask her. She giggles at me, “Evelyn, sometimes I don’t understand your sense of humor. I’m Hannah, silly. You know that. You and I work in the palace for Queen Esther. We are her junior chambermaids, remember?” She says, emphasizing each word. “Your fever must’ve made you very confused if you are forgetting our prestigious job. Come, we must hurry so we aren’t late. Queen Esther is forgiving, but we mustn’t take advantage of her generosity.” Tired and puzzled, I quickly dress in what I assume are my clothes; they are quite different from my usual jeans and sweatshirts at home. Then, I follow Hannah down the dark, quiet hallway. As we are winding our way through the passageways, I keep repeating to myself, “This is a dream. This is a dream” Determined to wake myself from this bizarre dream, I pinch myself as hard as I can. The pain causes me to cry out. Well - this is definitely not a dream! Hannah turns to shush me, and reminds me, “We must be so quiet no one will hear us or even know we are in a room”. I reply, “I know, but I pinched my arm and now it hurts.” Hannah laughs again, “Oh, Evelyn, I don’t understand why you do that every day. You really must stop that or people will think you are clumsy.” With a sore arm, I know I can’t be dreaming. Somehow, I’m in the Bible story of Esther! The morning is finally breaking and I already feel like I’ve done more work in the past two hours than I have in my entire life. In fact, I probably have. If I ever get back home, I’ll no longer complain to my mom about vacuuming; it’s a lot easier than scrubbing these stone floors on my hands and knees. Hannah laughs and sings as she is doing her chores; I have no idea how she can be so cheerful. Quickly, she looks up and exclaims, “Oh no, we are behind! We must fetch and boil the water for Queen Esther’s bath before she awakes. Come, quickly, Evelyn, we must hurry.” I’m not sure why she is so frantic, it won’t take long to turn on the water and fill up the tub, even if it is a large Jacuzzi — only ten minutes or so. Instead, she leads me to a room with large clay jugs. Hastily, she picks up two and hands me one. “Come, we must go to the well to draw the water.” My jaw drops, “I’m sorry, what? You want us to get the water from where?!” Hannah just laughs and rolls her eyes then motions for me to follow her. I wrap both hands around my container and try to pick it up and carry it, but the jug is so heavy I almost drop it at least five times on the way down to the well, but fortunately, I don’t. I am pretty proud of myself until I realize what Hannah expects me to do next. Oh…no, no, no, no, no. She doesn’t actually expect me to carry this huge,heavy jar all the way back to the palace filled with water, does she?!?!? My arms are already shaking from carrying it down to the well; there’s no way I can make it back. Not to mention the fact that it is far from the palace. Why would they build the well so far from the king and queen? Hannah helps me as I tie the rope around the neck of the vase and slowly lower it down the deep well. I’m glad she’s there to help me because lowering it wasn’t so bad, but pulling it up is definitely a two person job. We retrieve the water and begin the journey back toward the palace. Water is sloshing out of my jug and I’m having trouble keeping my balance. Hannah, on the other hand, is having no problems carrying double the weight as she settles one container on each shoulder. It is amazing such a small girl can handle such a heavy load. Back at the palace, I follow Hannah as we drop off the jars in the kitchen and head back to fetch more containers. It is then that I realize - we have to do this again! I don’t want to know the answer, so I decide not to ask Hannah how many trips we will be making to the well. Instead, I focus on figuring out how I’m really here, in Persia, in Queen Esther’s time.