Mary's Path

It wasn’t that far from their house, so it didn’t take long for her to stand on the edge of the open area, looking out over the market. There were unusually few stalls that were set up, but at least it filled half the market area.

The sound coming from the open space in the middle of the city was almost deafening. There were vendors shouting out their goods, customers and sellers discussing the price, women stood in small groups and talked and here and there, men was exchanging news. All the sound was mixed into a murmur that basically made it impossible to hear the individual conversations unless you were very close.

Mary’s nose caught scents as she walked towards the market, it smelled of spices, fried meat and she could smell fish. She walked slowly between the different stalls, she loved going to the market. There was so much to look at.

She stopped in front of a stall where there were vegetables stacked in heaps. Mary looked hungry at the bunches of carrots. It would be good to have a meat stew with carrots and onions, she thought.

“How much does a bunch of carrots cost, sir?” she shouted to the man standing behind the stand. He looked at her and then smiled.

“Eight vorm misses” he replied. Mary looked at the carrots again.

“It’s been a long time since they were picked sir, they look a little withered. I can’t pay more than four for them,” she replied confidently.

“Oh, if I took four for them, I wouldn’t be able to go home. My wife would kick me out if I gave the harvest away for a low price like that. For a sweet young lady like you, I could go down to seven,” he replied, looking as if he had given away the carrots.

“If you give them to me for sex, I’ll buy them” she replied.

“You’re a tough negotiator, I hear that. But okay, my wife’s going to argue with me for a week, but I can agree to six vorm” he said, plucking a bunch of carrots from the pile.

“If you give me a bunch of onions too, we say a cresi for everything” said Mary, who had spotted the big yellow knuckles with onions. The man studied her for a while and then began to chuckle.

“You drive a good bargain, miss, I’d be a poor man if all my customers were like you. But I’m going to agree to your deal because I have a feeling I’d be poorer if we started negotiating” he said cheerfully, handing out a bunch of onions along with the carrots.

Mary smiled and gave the man a cresi that she had taken out of a small pocket in her skirt.

“Thank you very much sir”, she said, and quickly curtsied before putting the vegetables in the basket and continuing along the line of stalls. She happily moved on and looked around wide-eyed.

After a while, she arrived at a stall where they sold grilled pieces of meat that together with onions were rolled into a piece of thin bread. Mary’s stomach was curing when she smelled the meat. She shouldn’t be wasting money, she thought, it wasn’t necessary. But she was so hungry.

In the end, she couldn’t resist and went up to the stall and asked for a roll. She happily placed two vorm in the hand of the woman who gave her the roll. Mary quickly looked around and then decided to walk away to a fence that was on the edge of the market.

There was already a group of women talking and she quickly climbed up and sat on the fence after she had placed her basket on the ground below her. Once up, she enjoyed the warm meat. It was cold outside, but the sun was shining and the buildings around the square and all the people crowded around her meant that the wind could not get to Mary where she was eating.

The women standing nearby were talking. After a while, Mary began to listen. It wasn’t nice to eavesdrop. But it’s been so long since she’d around people that it felt nice to listen to other people’s conversations for a while.

“The bishop is furious” said the first woman.

“No wonder,” said the other. “It’s been over a hundred years since a lady set foot in this city.”

“I don’t know what she’s going to do with her witchcraft,” said a third.

“The king thinks she can cure the sickness,” said the first woman.

“Balderdash”, said the third. “What will she do that the church can’t do?”

“I’ve heard that they can do things that no one else can, that they have knowledge that were then forgotten by the rest of the world.”

“Balderdash“ the third woman said again. “The only thing that will cure the sickness is if the people of this city become pious, start going to church as decent people, and live with a good measure of godliness in their hearts.”

“I heard that the king is tired of the bishop just promising to do something without anything happening. He is afraid that the sickness will soon reach the richer parts of the city,” said the first woman.

“Balderdash” said the third woman again, it seemed to be a favorite expression. “Who said such nonsense?” she asked.

“My husband’s cousin knows a man who works in at the court,” replied the first woman defiantly.

“I don’t believe it anyway. The king knows, as well as anyone, that the only one who can save us is the Lord” said the third woman with a sneer. It seemed to put an end to the conversation and after that they were content to gossip about different common acquaintances.

Mary soon got tired of listening and climbed down from the fence and took her basket. The meat and bread were eaten, and she felt full and satisfied.

As she made her way through the sea of people to get to a butcher, she thought about what the women had said.

Did the king really think that the Lady could cure people from the sickness? Or was the third woman right, was only God able to cure it? She felt uncertain, on the one hand she deeply wished that there was someone who could cure her parents, that someone could do something. On the other hand, she grew up putting her faith in God, they were His creation, and it was ultimately He who decided their fate.

But Mary still thought it would have been better to know that she could do something more direct than pray to God for her parents’ health.