Fruits of Eden

A story from the famous garden.

Fruits of Eden

          It is near impossible to recount in their entirety the events that took place within the garden, nevertheless, I will try. My words are quite different now than they were then and there so that I am not able to fully relay the garden’s beauty and magnificence. The curse has long since soaked into my veins. The place that previously existed within my mind, a place where I could take in and turn about the wondrous images of the garden, has been corrupted and dimmed. My name is Adam and I have lived 737 years since the fall. In all that time, I have come to fully realize the extent of what was lost; not in the sense that I can recall much of what happened before, but in the sense that I can feel what was lost, and in this state of melancholy I find myself yearning for memory. For truly, beyond the flaming swords, lies something worth guarding, something most magnificently withheld.

          After long years of concentration, both myself and Eve, my wife, have come to many conclusions. I find it useful to record what we remember, so that many lifetimes after we have passed, the reality of what was lost in the garden may still remain potently fragrant in the lives of all our ancestors. Without further preface I bestow upon the readers of these words my most fond of recollections, based upon a gathering of inferences: Eden, the Garden where I was formed.

          The air was crisp and clean, refreshing my lungs as cool water brings relief to a parched throat. It consisted of more than substance, comprising some sort of emotion; a contagion of joy was borne upon it. I walked, for that is the closest description of the way we moved in the garden I can conceptualize, through forests of purple and blue, of yellow and red; a red more pure than the rich blood of a fattened calf upon the altar of our Lord. All around me there shone an abundance of light; each place my eyes darted they were greeted with a warmth of color. The Father’s radiance shone down upon me.

          Every once and again a bird would soar overhead, singing songs of praise unto the Creator. I’d named them all, the creatures with whom I shared the garden. I’d venture into the fields to find the sheep lying with the lions in a bed of flowers. And while peering upon each group of flowers, I’d remark to myself how beautiful they were and whisper graceful praises toward my Father. I’d lie down upon the soft grass, brushing the tips of each featherlike blade with my fingertips. On one occasion I grew curious as to just how it was that the grass stayed upon the ground, and so I took a bunch in my hand and gripped it tightly, pulling the blades upward toward the sky. With a tear they released themselves from the moist soil below and I could see just below their bodies what I now know as roots. I examined these roots, smelled them, and upon tasting them was filled with another sense of rejuvenation, this more substantial than that of taking a breath.

          It was understood in the garden that everything was shared, from the air we breathed to the paths we took through the garden. It was I, man, who was to oversee the sharing of such things, as the caretaker of my Father’s garden. And so, I went on to name each animal, giving each its own respective title serving as a way to call upon them in times when communication was needed. Whereas before they were named, they simply existed, now I could call out, “Bird,” and along would come one called bird and perch right atop my shoulder. In this way I manifested a sort of control over the creatures Abba, that is my Father, had not created in His own image.

          Although this type of bonding was splendid to me, I felt there was something missing. The garden was more than sufficient and yet I lacked something vital, companionship. I kept it to myself for quite some time but when it grew unbearable, I brought it up in one of my many discussions with Abba.

          “Look there! What have you called that one?” Abba pointed.

          “That one is Deer,” I replied

          “Deer… yes this is most pleasing as it comes off my lips… Deer,” he laughed warmly. I chuckled along with him as we went round repeating that word “Deer.” There was something to the act of speaking, something that affirmed the essence of what was being said. Abba spoke the world into existence; each and every living thing around me, all that existed had been affirmed and granted existence. In allowing me the task of naming the animals, Abba granted me a similar sort of authority over the animals as He held over the universe. Because I had spoken them, I held a certain power over them.

          After we finished laughing, I looked into His eyes and told Him what was on my heart.

          “I’m lonely Father.”

          “Ah yes, I have seen how you stare oft into the distance, thoughts racing through your mind. You imagine what it would be, to be one of two instead of one, alone. I can give you what you need. Only promise you’ll be surprised when you see her.” He winked.

          Her, I thought, what could this mean?  I hesitated, then spoke “Yes, Lord, I promise to be surprised.” I smiled at Him and we both laughed as he took me around the shoulders and pointed to a squirrel, asking what I had called it.

          It was some nights later that I had a dream. I was in the garden, just as it had been before I’d closed my eyes for sleep, but there was something different. Yes, it was the sky! Many colors were swirling together like some sort of whirlpool, the center of this mystifying aurora hovering not a few feet above my body. As odd as it was, I felt compelled to remain still. And that’s what I did; I lay as still as if I was sleeping, and I was.

          The colors seemed to grow brighter and more vibrant as they closed in about my body and soon, I found myself suspended just above the soft spot of grass I’d made my bed. I breathed in and my body was filled with light and warmth. This wasn’t air, it was life; my entire body glowed with each inhalation, growing with intensity as my breaths grew shorter and faster. It was as though I were a gargantuan firefly caught dangling in an invisible spider’s web. But this spider wasn’t here to suck the life out of me, but rather to fill me with more of it.

          I could see forming from within the colorful swirling spectrum what looked like a hand, each finger bending gracefully toward my chest. Then with a quick push it was inside my soft skin, wriggling through to the bone and latching on. With a crack, a rib was torn from my body, but I felt no pain. The vortex above receded and I was placed gently upon the ground.

          When I awoke, I started in surprise. Feeling my chest, I noticed a new cavity that hadn’t been felt before. And, beyond this new discovery, there was yet something more startling before me. There was another of my kind lying on the ground not too far from where I had been asleep! “Her?”, I wondered. It must be her! She had hair much longer than mine and her skin shone golden brown like honey in sunlight. I walked a bit closer and bent down just before her. Brushing the hair from her closed eyes, I observed the gentle rise and fall of her body as she took in, for what must have been the first time, the magnificent life-giving air. I reached out my hand and placed it upon the sleek indentation of her stomach. She was warm, and soft.

          A few seconds passed and then with a start she awakened and stood to her feet. Her eyes darted from me, to the sky, to the ground, and then back to me.

“Wh-Whe-Where is this?” she asked.

          “It is here,” I said, “It is now.”

          “Who are you?” she inquired, her face contorting in a strange way. I wondered if I looked the same when I asked questions of Abba.

          “I am man.” I smiled. “You must be her!

          “Her?” She asked, “Who is “her?”

          I chuckled, “I think you are Woman; I shall call you Eve, the first of all women, formed of man.” I indicated myself.

          “I was formed of you?”

          “If my dream and this cavity in my chest mean anything at all. Come, there is much to see!”

          I lead Eve all around the garden that first day, showing her what I’d named and what I’d not named. My loneliness quickly dwindled, and I found myself enjoying her company more and ever so much more. We laughed together, danced together, and enjoyed the bliss of the garden as one. It was as if I’d just been created again and was experiencing all the wonders around me for the first time, only through the eyes of Eve. We were one her and I, the same.

          After some days of playing together and showing her around, we were visited by Abba. He looked more solemn now than ever before, but in a way that was still warm and amicable.

          “Hello, my daughter Eve,” He’d said, and Eve, just as I’d done the first time I saw Him, ran toward Him, and embraced Him.

          “Abba!” she exclaimed; for truly, just upon seeing His face, you knew in your heart who He was. His presence overwhelmed you with joy and peace.

          “You like her well my son?”

          “I was surprised,” I smiled.

          He laughed for a bit, but then His face turned back to that look of somberness, and I knew I should listen to what He would say next.

          “Come my children, I have something to show you.”

          “What is it Abba?” I asked.
          “Yes what is it?” Eve repeated.
          “Patience, patience, it is just ahead now. Follow me.”

          And so, we followed quickly behind Him moving closer and closer to the center of the garden. This was one of my favorite spots, covered in trees with ash white bark. They were only found here in the center. Whereas the trees dotting other parts of the garden were that of many colors, the pale nature of these trees gave them a feeling of being more holy or pure; they were set apart from the others. Their leaves shone a crimson red and seemed to pulsate as they danced on the cool and gentle wind. We continued in silence until we came upon a clearing.

There in the center stood a massive tree, the trunk of which spanned what must have been fifty arms lengths, if not more. It stretched magnificently high into the sky so it’s shadow could be seen for quite a distance. What was odd in its formation was not its grandiose size, but more the way its branches curled down from far overhead and made like several little arms hanging just above the ground. And on each branch, held in what looked like little wooden fingers, there were little orbs of magenta and turquoise, of scarlet and violet; they were little fruits! I immediately rushed forward to grab one, having eaten other fruits of the various trees throughout the garden.

“No.” Abba placed His hand on my chest and stopped me in place. The word resounded with me. I had not heard it before, but I somehow knew what it meant.

“This tree here, with the red bark.” He pointed at the large tree, voice thundering. “This is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. See how it throbs and pulses!”

The tree had amazed me at that moment there in the garden but now, upon years of reflection, I realize that it much resembled a beating heart, its red body pulsating bright and red. And all along its bark there ran a fluid much like blood which pooled at its base. It was beautiful in its own horrific way.

Abba thundered again, “Eat from it and you will certainly die.”

“Die?” I said the word a couple of times.

“It is a word you shall not come to understand, lest you break my command.”

Eve looked at me, then back to Abba. “We’ll never eat of the tree Father, as long as we live.” She grabbed my hand and pulled me along, skipping through the white trees with red leaves. It was in that moment that I realized she didn’t understand how fearful she should have been of that word “die”. I don’t even know if I knew. I couldn’t have known. Abba smiled knowingly as we went on like this.

Some days passed, if days be what they were; time was a little fuzzy in the garden. A day could be like a thousand years, and likewise a thousand years could feel like a day. Sometime after we had been introduced to the tree in the center, I found myself alone at one of the many ponds where the fish swam in circles. There were trees nearby whose limbs hung just over the pond so as to create a mirrored forest. I enjoyed this image very much and so I spent much time here. Deer often came to the edge of the water to quench their thirst. There was one there then, it had white fur, and as Eve approached, it darted away.

“Hello man,” she smiled.

“Hello woman. How was your stroll?”

“It was most peaceful, and how was your observing?”

“Very well, I have called that one there, turtle.” I pointed to the creature in the water.

“This is most suitable. Come now, shall we gather fruit?”

“But of course.”

We walked the same path we usually traveled, the one which led around the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There were several trees along the way which contained many ripened fruits. I went my way and she went hers and when we came together again, we would surprise one another with the new fruits we’d discovered.

This time however I found I’d lost her. “Woman!” I called out over and again, but she was nowhere to be found. After searching for some time, I found myself in front of the massive tree in the center of the garden. And there, up ahead, she was speaking with what appeared to be a serpent, as I’d come to call them. I approached her from behind and when I met her, she started.

“I’ve been looking for you, Eve.” I said.

Eyes not lifting from the object in her hand she said to me. “Man, you must try this fruit, look it is perfectly fine, the serpent has told me so.” She held out a ripened red sphere, with one bite-sized piece of it missing. The serpent smiled sheepishly behind her.

Seeing how she had touched and eaten the fruit and looked no different for doing so, I took it in my hands and looked it over. It felt no different than any other fruit I had found thus far, and it was quite enticing. I could smell a sweet aroma that reminded me of Abba and the way he smelled as he walked in the garden. Without further hesitation, I took and ate of it. I could feel the juice flowing through my veins; it was like nothing I’d ever tasted before. My eyes shot open wide and I saw that there in front of me stood Eve, a woman, fully naked just as I myself was naked. She screamed in embarrassment and we both ran our separate ways, gathering fig leaves along the way to make coverings for our nakedness. When we had finished covering ourselves, we came together once more.

“What have we done?” I asked.

“We now know what is evil and what is good; we were exposed!” She replied.

In the distance I could hear the Father walking in the cool air, as He often did. He called out “Adam! Adam, where are you?”

I grabbed Eve’s hand and pulled her into some brush that had grown nearby. “Quick, we mustn’t let him know we’ve taken of the fruit! He mustn’t know we’ve disobeyed.”

It was near impossible to hide from the Father and soon enough He found where we lay cowering.

“Why have you hidden yourselves?” He asked.

“I heard you approaching, and I hid because I was naked and afraid.”

“Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree from which I forbade you to eat?” There was a sense of urgency in his voice.

“The woman you put here with me�"sh-she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

“What have you done?”

Eve spoke out, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Turning round in anger, Abba found the snake and cursed it to crawl about the ground. All at once its arms and legs fell clean off and its body hit the ground with a thud.

“Never again shall you be a friend of man! You will strike his heel, but he will crush your head!”

The serpent hissed loudly and slithered away.

Then Abba turned to Eve and cursed her to have pain upon bearing children.

“You will envy the position of your husband as the caretaker of the earth and the Namer of created beings!” he bellowed. Tears streaked down Eve’s face as she fell to her knees in anguish.

 Then he turned to me. His eyes met mine and I cringed, tears streaming down my face.

“Cursed is the ground because of you! It will produce thorns and thistles for you until you return to it! Dust you are and to dust you shall return!”

He turned His face from us, and I heard him call out, “Deer!” Deer, I thought back to the time we’d laughed at that name before. What did he want with the deer? Moments later, I saw the deer innocently approach. Abba stroked its smooth slender neck and looked back at us sorrowfully. With a loud and piercing cry, He took the the neck of the deer in his hands and twisted it with a loud crack. The deer collapsed to the ground no longer moving at all. Dead. This is what it was to die! Eve and I covered our faces in terror.

Abba began pulling skin from the deer and approaching us, he removed our fig garments. He then covered us in garments made of the deer’s skin and the then the Lord left us. I looked at Eve and she at me and I could see the tears streaming down her face. Looking down at the skins I could feel the warmth they provided against the now freezing air. I held her close to my chest to give her comfort. She was mine and I was hers, this is how it was to be.

Suddenly, a loud crashing erupted from just beyond the row of white trees in front of us. A flame of epic proportion rose high into the air piercing the quickly darkening sky. As it swung back down, I could hear a loud and piercing shrieking, the likes of which I’d never heard before. I threw my hands to my ears and fell to the ground along with Eve. With another crash, a head with many faces appeared from among the trees, those of which immediately surrounding this most hideous of creatures burst into flame. It had the face of a man, a calf, a lion, and an eagle. It had six appendages resembling arms and legs which were like the trunks of the great trees of the garden, and it smelled of burning flesh. It approached us rapidly flying forward on six wings. Not a moment more it was joined by another just as great, just as magnificently awful. And before them both a sword of flame cleared their way, turning this way and that as if searching for us in the now darkened garden.

And so, we ran, Eve and I, her hand in mine until at last, our feet bloodied, we reached the end of the garden. Our feet were greeted by coarse bits of sand, hot and dry, and from the sand there sprouted rapidly many thorns and thistles, so to move forward was to embrace pain, a feeling we’d not yet experienced. But to return would be to die, to cease to be, as I now understood it. So, we pressed onward, until we came upon a place where we could rest. A cave. We collapsed, legs and feet bloodied, and fell into a deep sleep from which we would awaken unto a vastly different and desolate existence.

.   .   .   .   .

This is my account of those events which took place all that time ago. Since then we have learned to measure the days, to harvest the land, and to live on in fear of the Lord, our Father who gave us but one simple command which we could not keep, and thus Eden was lost.

Author's Note

Let me know what your general impressions/critiques are. Thanks!