Genesis
By Stacy Svendor
I don’t remember anything before "the day." One day, I woke up and
there I was, in the most beautiful, verdant garden imaginable. The most amazing
trees, flowers, animals, and insects were all around me. I felt an immediate
peace and harmony. Then I heard the moaning.
I wondered what sort of animal could make such a noise. It sounded as though
it were dying. My curiosity was stronger than my fear, so I began walking
toward the noise. Soon, I came upon the injured beast. I must say, it was the
strangest looking beast I had ever seen. Strange, I thought. I couldn’t
seem to remember ever having seen any animals aside from those I had noticed
since waking up. This one was certainly very different from the other
animals I had passed on the way to investigate the commotion.
I looked down at the beast and then looked down at my own body. I then
realized that this beast was like me, only different. Where my own body was
softness and curves, this beast’s body was hardness and angles. I realized at
that moment, I had gotten the better of the deal.
"Why are you moaning?" I asked the beast.
"My side hurts," he whined, holding his hands against his ribs.
"Let me see," I replied, moving his hands out of the way. I looked
at his side, but noticed nothing out of the ordinary. Whatever
ordinary might be for such a beast.
"I won’t be able to work today," he moaned. "I can’t walk
around and name the beasts and the plants like this! I hurt too much."
Then, he lay back down and continued moaning.
"Does this hurt?" I asked poking my finger into his side.
He let out a choked sound that sounded suspiciously like a giggle, but
quickly cut it off with a moan louder than the others. "Yes, that hurts! I
told you my side hurts. I will have to lie here until I feel better."
Suddenly, there was another beast standing next to me. This one looked
similar to the injured beast lying on the ground, only much, much older. The
old beast grabbed my arm and spoke. "Adam, this is what I made for you. I
caused a deep sleep to fall upon you, and as you slept, I took one of your ribs
and made her."
The injured beast, "Adam" hurriedly stood and walked around me,
appraising me as if I were suddenly more interesting than I had been a moment
ago.
With a great flourish of his arms, Adam proclaimed, "This is now bone
of my bones, and flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out
of
I was hard pressed not to roll my eyes.
"So, Beast. Your name is Adam?" I asked after
the older beast had left.
"Yes, I am Adam. And, I am not a beast. I am Man," he said,
puffing his chest out.
"Oookkkaaayy," I replied. "And,
since I was made from your rib, I am now Woman, right?"
"Yes. God said that I get to name all the beasts of the garden, and I
have named you ‘Woman’. "
"And God is the old beast who was just here a moment ago?" I
asked.
"Yes. That was the Lord God Almighty, creator of Heaven and Earth. God
created the garden, the beasts, the plants, and the trees. He created me, and
from me, you. I am man, so now you are ‘Woman’," Adam declared, pointing
at me.
"I think I would rather be ‘Towanga’," I
replied.
"No, you are ‘Woman’. I have decided. God said I get to name
everything, and so ‘Woman’ you shall remain."
I decided not to argue with him. It seemed to be much more trouble than it
would be worth. Instead, I took notice of a small furry creature. It was soft
and brown with a big fluffy tail. I sat on the ground next to the creature and
picked it up. It nestled against my bosom and seemed quite content to be
petted.
"What is its name?" I asked, looking up at Adam.
"It is called squirrel," Adam stated.
"And those?" I asked, pointing to the
round nuts that the squirrel had been munching on."
"Those are acorns." Adam replied.
I settled the squirrel back down next to the acorns and stood, looking
around. I began to walk around the area asking Adam the names of the various
plants and animals we came across.
~~
"Why in the world would you name it that???" I asked
incredulously.
"I was running out of other names and that was all I could think
of," Adam replied, sheepishly. "This is a big place, with many plants
and animals. You wouldn’t believe the pressure I am under, having to name
everything I come across."
Not quite succeeding in my attempt to not roll my eyes, I inquired,
"Yes, but surely you could have come up with something better than
‘platypus’!”
"I kind of like it," Adam replied. "I think it’s
catchy."
"Yes, like a fungus," I mumbled under my breath.
"What was that?" Adam asked.
"It will live well among us," I came back.
And soon in our travels, we came upon a tree with beautiful ripe fruit.
"What is that, Adam?" I asked.
"That is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God says we can’t
eat from it, for if we do, we shall surely die," Adam replied.
"So, it’s poison, then," I reasoned.
"I don’t think so," replied Adam, "I have seen and named many
plants and animals and know which ones are poison, and
which ones are not. I think this one is just God’s special tree. He does not
want to share it with me."
"With you?" I asked.
"With us," Adam quickly amended.
"Why even put it here, then?" I pondered aloud. "It seems
rather silly to put a big, beautiful tree with ripe, succulent fruit right in
the middle of the garden to taunt you."
"Yeah," Adam replied noncommittally.
We walked a bit farther and I noticed a small brown bird with rudimentary
wings, stout legs, a long bill, and grayish brown hairlike
plumage. "What is that?" I giggled at the stubby bird.
"Kiwi," was the reply.
Raising an eyebrow, I questioned, "Wasn’t Kiwi the name of that fruit
we had for lunch?"
"That was Kiwifruit," Adam responded.
"Getting a little redundant, are we?" I teased.
"No, the fruit reminded me of the bird, so…"
This time I was unable to keep from rolling my eyes. "Yeeessss, because they’re so similar," I mumbled
facetiously.
Obviously, I thought, Adam has very little imagination.
"So, Adam," I asked. "What do you do for fun around
here?"
"Well, so far, I have just walked around naming things. There are an
awful lot of beasts and plants to name. My first day, I didn’t make it past the
clearing."
"Well, don’t you swim? Or swing from the vines or anything? It has to
be boring just naming things all day," I continued.
"I hadn’t thought about it," he responded honestly. "Why
don’t we go do that now? Which would you rather do? Swim, or swing from
vines?"
"We could do both," I suggested. "I saw a nice pool a ways
back, with a waterfall. We could swing from the vines and land in the
water."
"Sounds fun," he agreed.
We spent the rest of that day swimming and generally having a nice time in
the pool. After several hours of cavorting in the water, we went back to our
clearing to eat fruit and go to sleep. The next morning I awoke to something
tickling my leg.
"What in the garden is that?" I screamed.
"Oh, it’s just Serpent," responded Adam "Nothing to worry
about."
"Get it away from me," I screeched as I frantically backed
into a tree.
"It isn’t going to hurt you," Adam soothed. "He talks to me
all the time."
"It’s ugly and slimy and… Did you say talks to you?" I
inquired, dubiously.
"Yeah, it was my only friend, until you came along. It was the only
other thing in the garden that talked." Adam stated.
"Well, you can keep your friend away from me." I stated.
"I don’t want it anywhere near me."
"Aw, c’mon." Adam teased. "Just give
it a little kiss."
"I’m telling you, Adam. Keep that thing away from me." (Little did
I know how often I would be saying that in the next 930 years)
It was at that moment that I learned just how bored a person can get when
they are all alone in a garden with a talking snake. Adam chased me around with
that damned serpent for half the day. For the next week, he kept putting it in
places where I would come upon it unknowingly. I became jumpy and began to
twitch whenever things got too quiet. At night, I could hear them whispering,
plotting their next prank.
One morning, as I was walking through the forest, Adam dropped the serpent
on me from a tree he had been hiding in. Needless to say, I was frightened half
out of my skin. After I finished screaming and flailing around trying to get
the dreaded creature off of me, Adam began chasing me with it again. I ran and
ran, until I came upon the forbidden tree. There is the one place, I
thought, where he won’t follow.
I was right, he didn’t follow me up the tree. He
sat below the tree with that damn snake. I begged him to go away and to take
the snake with him, but he would just laugh. I figured that Adam would tire of
his little game and go away before too long, but he and his snake buddy just
sat under the tree laughing and taunting me.
After a few hours, Adam wandered off to get something to eat. I thought my
chance had come, but alas, he left that damned snake sitting there under the
tree. When he returned, he sat back under the tree, eating his redundant fruit
raved over its flavor.
"You know," I stated, "if you would just take the snake and
go, I would be able to get down out of here and get some dinner myself."
"Yes," he replied, "but where would be the fun in that?"
"It wouldn’t be fun," I allowed, "but it would be nice. And
we could go swimming again. And slide down the waterfall like last time. That
was fun."
"Not as fun as this," he stated.
"I’m hungry Adam," I complained. "Could you at least throw me
some of that fruit?"
"You have fruit up there." Adam came back. "You could eat
that."
As he talked, Adam took another morsel from his pile of fruit. "Sure
does look tasty," Adam continued. "I bet that fruit is nice and ripe
and juicy."
"You know I can’t eat any of this fruit," I said. "God said I
would die."
"Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the
garden’?" Asked the snake.
"We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the
fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall
not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’"ii I replied.
"You already touched it by climbing the tree and you aren’t
dead yet." the snake came back, "You will not surely die. For
God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened,
and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
"Yeah, like I’m going to believe you," I retorted. "It is you
who has been goading Adam into playing this silly game to begin with. If he has
an original thought in his head, I’d be surprised."
At this point, Adam looked up from his banquet, chin dripping with juice and
pulp from the fruit. "Huh?"
"I said, ‘I’m sure he’ll keep me apprised,’" I replied.
"Keep you apprised of what?" Adam asked.
"Apprised of the situation." I returned.
"What situation?" Adam pressed.
"This situation. Me, sitting
up here in the tree. In case you wanted to go swimming or something. The
snake will keep you apprised."
"Yeah," acknowledged Adam, as he got up from his post under the
tree. "I could use a swim."
As Adam wandered off, I watched and hoped that the serpent would follow. I
was not in luck, however, as the snake lay down beneath the tree and kept
watch. I waited an interminable amount of time, until I thought the snake was
asleep, and began my climb back down the tree. Before I had made it even down
to the next bough, the snake hissed, "Just where do you think you’re
going?"
I scuttled back up to my perch to contemplate my next move.
"Why won’t you let me down out of this tree?" I asked. "And
why do you keep goading Adam into teasing and torturing me this way?"
"It pleases me." The snake waved its head in a complex pattern
that I determined to be contemplation. "It amuses me to see the
interaction between you both. Besides," the snake continued, "I’m
doing you a favor."
"You call this a favor?" I screeched. "How do you
figure?"
"Well," it hissed, "eventually, you will get hungry enough to
eat the fruit. Then you will see that you will not die. Your eyes will be
opened to the true wonders of the world. You will have the knowledge of God.
You will become like God."
"Well, you eat from the tree, then." I told it.
"I have," it replied. "That is how I know how wonderful it
is. I now have the knowledge of God. I am Godlike in my own way."
As the snake went on about the "joys of deism", I chose the
fattest, juiciest fruit within reach and pelted the serpent with it. The fruit
glanced off its head and it looked up at me dazedly. "Now what did you do
that for?"
"I am trying to knock you out, so I can get out of this tree," I
explained. "I would think that would be obvious to one who has eaten from
the tree of knowledge."
"Now, now," returned the snake, "no need to get snide. Just
eat the fruit and we can all go home."
I was almost to the point of giving in and taking a bite of fruit when Adam
rushed up all excited. "Hey, Snake!" Adam shouted all out of breath.
"You have to see this!" With that, Adam swung up the snake and began
to run off, chattering away about some phenomenon or another that was occurring
on the other side of the garden.
The last thing I heard as they disappeared into the forest was the snake
screaming about foiled plans and idiots and the distinct need for thumbs.
Quickly, I scrambled down from the tree and ran into the forest to find
something to eat. Once my belly was full, I went to the waterfall and washed
the grime that had accumulated on my body from sitting in a tree for a day.
Then, clean and sated, I stretched out and went to sleep.
When I woke the next morning, the day before was a distant memory. I often
wonder now, how that could be. How I could have so completely forgotten about
how angry I was at Adam. I think now, that it was the magic of the garden. Since,
at the time, I did not possess the knowledge of good and evil, I was not able
to hold on to the necessary ill will toward Adam.
The only difference was that I was no longer afraid of the snake. I recall a
vague feeling of unease around it, but other than that, nothing. Which meant I could no longer be chased up a tree with it.
Oh, Adam tried. He would wave the thing around and chant out ridiculous things.
I would just roll my eyes and turn away.
I no longer tried to keep from rolling my eyes at his antics. When he would
drop the snake onto my shoulders from a tree, I would heave the slimy beast
toward the nearest rock. One time, he tried tossing it in front of me as I
walked. I stepped on it.
"ENOUGH!" Screamed the snake to Adam.
"Your infantile pranks are not working anymore and I am starting to
bruise." With that, the snake slithered away mumbling about having to
change strategies."
Over the next few days, things went back to normal. Adam went out and named
things, while I would walk the garden. In the evenings, we would swim, or talk,
or play with the animals. Then the serpent returned. The serpent took to
accompanying Adam on his naming rounds. It would settle around Adam’s shoulders
with its head next to Adam’s ear and whisper to him all day long.
One day, I came back from wandering the garden to see Adam in front of the
large stone we used as a table. Upon it, there were slices of the various
fruits of the garden, all in a jumble. Yes, I know now that I should have been
suspicious, but at the time, I didn’t know what suspicion was. So, I thanked
Adam nicely and began to eat, all the while wondering at why Adam was giggling
so hard.
Moments later, I looked around with new eyes. "You stupid oaf," I
exclaimed. "You fed me the forbidden fruit, didn’t you?"
Adam was laughing too hard to notice. "You were right, Snake,"
Adam choked. "We tricked her."
I stomped off into the forest, more angry than I had ever been. If I had
stayed there at that moment, the first murder would not have occurred between
my sons, years later. It would have occurred right then and there.
While I was walking about, I began to notice that I was naked. Why I
suddenly now cared, I did not understand, but for the first time in my life, I
felt ashamed. I found some fig leaves and sewed them together with a thorn and
some thin but strong vine that I had found and made something to cover my
nakedness. Feeling much more comfortable and a bit calmer by the time I had
finished, I returned to the clearing.
As I walked up to the table, I found Adam cowering nearby. He was trying to
cover himself with a rather large bundle of leaves but they kept dropping in
clumps. Each time he would reach down to pick up more, others would fall.
"What’s wrong with you?" I snapped.
"I ate the fruit," he replied.
"Snake talked you into it, huh?" I surmised.
"Yes. He pointed out that you weren’t dead and he told me how you were
going to be smarter than me, since you ate the fruit and I didn’t."
"Yeah, like that’s a change," I muttered.
"What?" Adam asked, looking up from gathering his pile of leaves.
"I said, ‘you should change.’" I replied.
"Here. Put this on," I continued, tossing over the fig leaves I
had sewn together for him. I had figured that he was going to end up eating the
fruit sooner or later, if I had to stuff it down his throat. I had also sat
there chuckling to myself, the entire time I was sewing, thinking about what he
was going to have to cover with the leaves. It amazed me at how I had not
noticed until after I had eaten the fruit, just how ridiculous he looked with
that thing dangling between his legs. I would imagine it would get rather
awkward running around and having it snag on things and such. I felt reaffirmed
in my conviction that I had gotten the better deal when God made our bodies.
Before long, we heard God walking in the garden. He was never one to be very
quiet and usually mumbled or sang to himself while walking. Knowing that we had
eaten from the tree and were naked, we ran to hide.
Suddenly the voice of God rang out. "Where are you?"
Adam cleared his throat and responded, "I heard Your
voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself."iv
God looked at Adam with sorrow. "Who told you that you were naked? Have
you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?"iv
Adam gulped, then pointed at me, "The woman
whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate."iv
Startled, I looked at Adam incredulously.
Suddenly, God looked at me and asked, "What is this you have done?"iv
Mouth working, I turned to Adam only to see him looking at me imploringly. I
let out a sigh and responded, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."iv
At that moment the snake tried to make a break for it. God commanded that it
stop and then said to it, "Because you have done this, you are cursed more
than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field;
on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.
And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her
Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel."iv
Barely audible, I heard Adam say, "huh?"
Then, God turned to me and said, "I will greatly multiply your sorrow and
your conception; in pain you shall bring forth children; your desire shall be
for your husband, and he shall rule over you."
Hey! What’s this about conception? I wondered. And desire? Rule
over me? I think not.
Finally, God turned toward Adam and spoke. "Because you have heeded the
voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you,
saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil
you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it
shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the
sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out
of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return."v
Seems rather harsh, I decided.
Then God continued talking. "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand
and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever, v we
shall banish him from the Garden of Eden.
"Who’s he talking to?" I whispered, poking Adam in the ribs.
"Don’t know," he replied, shrugging.
As we walked out of the garden, with God behind us, driving us onward, I
chanced to look back. There were Cherubim toward the east and a flaming sword
that turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
As we came to the edge of the garden, Adam began calling me Eve, saying that
was my new name, since I would be the mother of all living. "I told you
before, Adam," I griped. "I want to be called Towanga."
"I rule over you, Eve. God said so. And you shall desire me, too."
Adam proclaimed, puffing out his chest.
"Don’t push your luck," I replied.
~~
Not long after we left the garden, Adam started bothering me. He seemed to
be inordinately proud of that ridiculous appendage between his legs and wanted
to use it on me. Since there seemed to be nowhere else to go to get away from
him, and he was the only one around to talk to, I finally gave in. There are
only so many excuses one can come up with before they begin sounding silly even
to your own ears.
Not long after that, I noticed that the regular bleeding that had come upon
me monthly since leaving the garden had quit occurring. I had thought the curse
over until I realized that I was pregnant. I don’t know why I hadn’t expected
it. It made sense. It was not like I hadn’t seen the same thing happen to the
beasts around me. It seemed that I was much more uncomfortable in pregnancy
than the beasts, though.
The day came when I began labor. Oh, the pain. It hadn’t looked so bad when
the beasts gave birth. Adam took that moment to remind me of God’s wrath upon
me. I remembered that fateful day. Those words rang in my head, "in pain
you shall bring forth children."
"Damn it, Adam," I screamed. "I am going to kill you when
this is over. I took the blame for your stupidity and now I have to deal with this?
You are a dead man!"
Finally, my son Cain was born. Adam grabbed the infant before he had even
had a chance to suckle, raised him above his head, and proclaimed, "I have
acquired a man from the LORD!"
"You have acquired a man from ME!" I said, glaring at him
witheringly. "Now give him back to me before you drop him."
Before long, Adam began pestering me again with his favorite toy. "Cain
needs a brother," Adam declared.
If I had known the future, I would have taken off at that moment and walked
to Nod. Of course, I did not even know about Nod at that point, but I certainly
would have gone somewhere far away from Adam. But, I didn’t know, so I
submitted to Adam once more, only to find myself pregnant again soon after.
I had remembered that childbirth was painful, but apparently I had forgotten
just how painful. "Never again, Adam," I screamed. "No more of
this, I can assure you of that!"
So, then I had a second son, Abel. He was just as beautiful as his brother
was. As they grew and played, I realized that they were every bit worth the
pain I had gone through in having them. I was not, however, willing to go
through that again.
"Get away from me with that thing, or I’ll cut it off," I
threatened to Adam one day, when he was becoming annoying with his appendage.
"But, I rule over you," he whined. "You are supposed to
desire me."
"I do," I responded. "I desire you to go away with that thing.
Every time we do that, I get pregnant. I get fat, my back hurts, my ankles
swell, and it hurts like hell when the baby comes out. Until you can come up a
way for you to have the babies, you are not getting near me."
As the boys grew, it seemed that although, Cain was the elder and larger of
the two, he was also the more sensitive. Frequent arguments would break out.
Abel seemed to find amusement in bullying Cain, first physically and then in
more insidious ways.
Cain was definitely my son. He much preferred being in my company, whereas
Abel preferred his father. Where Cain was kind and gentle, Abel was mean, and
rough.
Years went by and the boys grew. Cain became a tiller of the land, while
Abel became a keeper of sheep. Quite often, Abel would allow his sheep to tread
upon the tender shoots just sprouting from Cain’s fields. I could see Cain’s
anger and hatred toward his brother grow.
I tried talking to Abel and asked him to quit allowing his sheep to destroy
all of Cain’s hard work, but Abel would just sneer and say that as a woman, I
would surely not know the ways of tending sheep. I was meant to be a wife and
mother, not a shepherd. He stated that I should just go back to tending to the
home and my husband, which, he smirked, that I seemed to not be able to do very
well as it was and keep my nose out of his business.
It was then that I realized that the boy was spending altogether too much
time with Adam. I knew that no good would come from it. I already knew that
Adam could be mean and spiteful. He had, after all, gotten us kicked out of the
garden all those years ago.
I did not realize the hatred that was inherent in one son and that grew like
a cancer in the other, until it was too late.
~~
Early, in the boys’ lives Adam had taken to giving offerings to God, in
hopes of getting back into the garden. He had come to realize that it had not
been so terrible walking around naming plants and animals all day and not
having to work for food or shelter.
Adam taught his sons to also give offerings to God. The day came where Cain
took the best of his crops to give as an offering. Unfortunately, the best was
only marginally better than the rest of his crop, which had been trodden by
Abel’s sheep. Cain tenderly laid the bruised and broken fruits and vegetables
out for God to take.
Abel’s offering was the firstborn of his flock. God wandered over later that
day and looked at Cain’s offering with disdain. Then, he walked over to Abel’s
offering. He praised Abel for his offering. Then he turned to Cain and said,
"Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you
do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the
door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it."
That evening Adam yelled at Cain, "Why can’t you be more like your
brother? If you don’t take better care of your crops, we’ll never get back into
the garden."
Cain was terribly upset. The next day, Abel, again, was directing his flock
through Cain’s field. This time, Cain confronted him. I am not entirely certain
of what occurred, as I was busy fending off Adam and the dreaded appendage at
the time. I did run out, though, when I heard God’s booming voice yelling at my
child.
God, apparently still hanging around after offering day, walked up to Cain
and asked, "Where is Abel, your brother?"vii
Cain, forever tired of that question, as Adam asked it of him almost daily,
came back with his pat answer. "I do not know. Am I my brother's
keeper?" vii
God looked around and asked, "What have you done? The voice of your
brother's blood cries out to Me from the ground. So
now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your
brother's blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it shall
no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on
the earth." vii
Cain was hesitant to defend himself, since he knew that his act of rage had
been wrong. He did feel that the punishment was a bit harsh, though, so stated,
"My punishment is greater than I can bear! Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground;
I shall be hidden from Your face; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the
earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill
God pondered that for a moment, then decreed, "Therefore, whoever kills
Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold." vii And then God put a mark upon Cain.
Cain came home after that, to gather his meager belongings. I noticed the
glowing letters on his side that said, "Don’t Kill Me, I’m cursed."
I mourned the loss of two sons that day and cried as I watched Cain walk
toward the east in the direction of Nod.
I cannot say how much I longed to follow him, but Adam would not let me go.
He declared, once again, that he ruled over me and if I left without his
permission, God would smite me where I stood. He also reminded me that that I
was to be the mother of all living. Since Cain was gone and
Abel dead, I needed to have more children.
I tried telling him that I was obviously not the mother of all living, since
there were others living in Nod. Not that I had seen any, but the boys and Adam
had mentioned meeting others. I tried complaining that I was getting too old to
be having babies, as Adam and I had just celebrated our 130th
birthdays. Adam would not take no for an answer. I swear, if looks could kill,
I would have been banished with Cain that very day. But my stare seemed not to
be lethal enough, and so it came to pass that nine months later, I bore another
son and named him Seth. To tell the truth, with the boys gone, I had begun to
miss having someone intelligent to talk to.
Adam seemed almost as pleased with himself as when Cain was first born. He
lifted Seth into the air and declared, "For God has appointed another seed
for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed."
The days and years went by and Seth grew. One day, another woman came upon
our lands. I was immediately intrigued. I had never seen another woman before.
The only other people I had ever seen were my husband and sons. I had never
even had a daughter and had begun to wonder if I was expected to populate the
earth all by myself.
I had been concerned when Cain and Abel were still around, since they were
going to need wives. Even if I did have daughters, surely the boys would not
have been able to marry them, for I had seen what happened when one Abel’s
sheep would mate with a sheep too close in relation.
So, anyway, the woman wandered onto our lands and immediately Seth married
her and had his own son, Enosh.
Seth’s wife and I became great friends, but I found myself having odd feelings
around her. I looked forward to seeing her each day and talking with her. I
really enjoyed the times when we would go down to the river and bathe. I found
myself surreptitiously watching her body, the way the
water sluiced off her curves was mesmerizing. I was totally captivated by her.
Years went by and I had many other sons and daughters. Seth’s birth had not
been quite as painful as that of the other boys’ and it tended to get easier
with each child. I never got over the loss of Cain, though. I constantly
wondered where he was and what he was doing. I missed him terribly. I wanted to
search him out, just to see for myself that he was alive and well. I sincerely
hoped that he would finally succeed without his brother around to sabotage his
efforts.
Around 800 years after Seth was born, Adam died. The very next day, I packed
my belongings, said goodbye to the kids, grandkids, great-grandkids, along on
down to the Nth great grandchild. I had
long ago lost count as to how many greats there were and the math was getting
beyond me.
And so, just short of my 931st birthday, I shouldered my pack and
took off in the direction of Nod. I hoped that it would be not too difficult to
find him. I did not worry overly much that he would be dead, since he bore the
mark, but I did allow that there was chance that he could have fallen off a
cliff, or taken ill, or died some other way.
After traveling for many weeks and asking any passersby if they knew where
Cain might be, I found him. Cain had built a city and had named it after his
son, Enoch. I began again to wonder about Adam’s lack of creativity in naming
things and whether or not that was a genetic trait. I dismissed that thought,
though, when I remembered that by Seth and Cain had never met, so could not
have known that the names of their sons were so similar.
As much as I enjoyed my reunion with my son, Cain, before long, I began to
feel stifled. With so many men in the family who seemed to believe that a woman
should be subservient, I found that I was barely even allowed to have my own
thoughts. Adam had taught his sons well, the words God spoke upon banishing us
from the garden.
Not long after arriving, I left the city of
I joined their group and learned to hunt and fight. I even found a mate
within the group who taught me joys I had never imagined. If I had had any
idea, I would have searched out a group of women such as these the moment I
took my first step out of that garden. In fact, I would have run to that tree,
eaten the damned apple, and gotten banished alone. I wouldn’t have had had to
deal with Adam "ruling" over me 929 years, that’s for sure.
I had found my home and it was there that I would spend the rest of my days.
~~
Epilogue
The funeral pyre burned brightly in the night, driving away shadows and
bringing warmth to the women gathered around it. One stood apart from the rest
and said: "Great Mother, we send our sister to dwell in your forests. Mother, mate, warrior and lover. Matriarch
to our people, and mother of all living. Take her gently into your arms.
Take this woman who has been so much to so many. Take
her into your bosom and keep her at your side, for she was a wise woman and
kind friend, and will make a good advisor to you."
"We have the written story of the leader of our tribe. We will always
remember the true story of the world. We will never forget and never let others
make us believe their version of the way things were. Impart this truth to your
daughters and your daughter’s daughters. Pass it down through history and never
let it be forgotten, for we know the way of men. We know how their devious
minds work and how they will attempt to pass blame onto us. They will try to make
themselves the unwitting victim. We must never let this happen."
"Join with me, ladies. Raise your voices and announce our dear friend’s
arrival into the next world. Let it be your promise to keep her story alive, as
she has written it."
The women gazed into the blazing pyre for a moment, tears shining in their
eyes at the passing of their loved one. Then, as one, they lifted their chins.
A thousand voices shouted her name.
"TOWANGA!"
i Genesis 2:23
ii Genesis 3:1-3
iii Genesis 3:4-5
iv Genesis 3:9-15
v Genesis 3:16-22
vi Genesis 4:1
vii Genesis 4:6-15
viii Genesis 4:25