An Echo in the Darkness(133)

“Why are you so quiet?” Julia said.

If you reign, Lord, why am I so defeated?

“Tell me a story, Azar.”

Hadassah let her breath out slowly, trying to rid herself of irritation. Julia was no less demanding than she had ever been. Bracing herself, Hadassah helped Julia lie down. She covered her with the blanket and limped to the other couch. She sat down carefully, pain shooting up her bad leg. She stretched it out and rubbed it as she felt Julia watching her and waiting. She tried to think of a story that would suffice.

“It came about in the days when the judges governed Israel, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the land of Moab with his wife and his two sons. . . .”

Julia leaned back and closed her eyes, listening to her companion’s rasping voice. The story sounded familiar, but she didn’t mind. She couldn’t remember the details or events and it would serve to amuse her for a while.

“The sons took for themselves Moabite women as wives; the name of one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth.”

Julia opened her eyes in dismay. “Is this the story where her husband dies and the girl goes back to Judah with her mother-in-law and meets some farmer?”

Hadassah fell silent. She clasped her hands tightly in her lap, struggling against the anger that rose within her. “Yes, my lady.”

“I’ve heard it.” Julia gave a pained sigh. “But go ahead and tell it anyway. Just make the man she meets a soldier instead of a farmer, and throw in a few battles.” When Azar said nothing, Julia turned her head and looked at her, perplexed. She was so still. With the veils hiding her face, Julia couldn’t even begin to guess her thoughts. That disturbed her. Had she offended her? “Very well,” she said, with pained tolerance. “Tell it however you want.”

Hadassah didn’t want to tell her the story at all! She shut her eyes and breathed in slowly, disturbed by the anger that rose within her. It was anything but righteous. When she opened her eyes again, she saw Julia was still looking at her.

“Are you angry with me?”

She sounded like a child who knew she had displeased her mother. Hadassah started to deny her anger and changed her mind. “Yes,” she said frankly. “I am angry.” She didn’t know where the admission might lead, but she wasn’t sorry she had spoken openly.

Julia blinked. “But why? Because I’ve heard the story before? I didn’t say I didn’t like it. It was amusing in its way. I only asked you to change a few details to make it more interesting.” She turned her face away and added in a fractious tone, “But you don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

“You may have listened to the story before, but you failed to hear it.”

Julia’s head snapped around again, her eyes glittering with sudden rebellious anger. “I heard it. I’m not stupid. I could tell you the whole story myself. The mother was Naomi, who later called herself Mara because she was bitter she lost her husband and two sons. Isn’t that correct? And the farmer’s name was Boaz. A ridiculous name, if you ask me. Bow-azz. Why not something strong like Apollo? At least then you’d know he was handsome! And Ruth was the perfect daughter-in-law, a woman of excellence. ‘Woman of excellence!’ She was a drudge who did everything her mother-in-law wanted her to do. Glean in the fields, Ruth. Sleep at his feet, Ruth. Marry Boaz no matter how old he is. Give your first child up.”

She turned her head away. “The poor girl had no mind of her own,” she said with sneering disdain.

“Ruth had a mind of her own. A strong mind and heart, and she gave both to God and was blessed for it.”

“That’s your opinion.”

“The farmer she married made her the great-grandmother of King David. Even Rome has heard of King David,” Hadassah shot back.

Julia turned her head again, her mouth curving coolly this time. “Do I detect pride in your voice, Azar? Was that contempt I heard?”

Heat flooded Hadassah’s cheeks. She looked at Julia’s smug expression and was filled with shame. She was proud. She had burned with it at Julia’s disdainful words.

“Israel may have had one King David,” Julia conceded haughtily, “but Rome has had the great Julius, Caesar Augustus, Vespasian, Titus. Didn’t that young man reduce ancient Jerusalem to a pile of rubble?”

Hadassah remembered Titus all too well. “Yes, my lady, he did.”

At her quietly spoken words, the coldness left Julia’s eyes. A frown flickered across her brow, and her mouth softened. “Were you there when it happened?”