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The story of Adam and Eve
And then, as pure light refracts through a prism into the infinite colours of a rainbow, so Lucifer passed through the prism of God’s eye, and out across the cosmos in all possible directions and into all possible dimensions – an explosion that sent shards like shooting stars out into the farthest reaches of space and time.
Two such shards came to fall in a place not far from here – it was night when they struck; twin bolts of light that grazed the hillside and lit up the sky.
There was no one to shout or point or take photographs of the events that followed, but like every good trick, if you knew how it was done, you wouldn’t be as impressed.
The first thing Adam knew was that his eyes were closed, but he did not open them straight away. He was comfortable and warm and he could feel a cool breeze dancing across his body as he lay basking in baked clay on the side of the mountain. He could not remember anything, but that his name was Adam.
He did not know that he was a Human Being. How could he? He was the first. He rolled over on to his side and with one hand, lazily brushed at his clay dusted face.
“Hello,” said a voice. It was kind and gentle sounding. “I am Eve.”
Adam opened his eyes now, and as the world came into focus, he understood that there was beautiful woman lying on the clay bank beside him. She smiled. “We came from the sky,” she said, and put out a hand to his cheek.
“How do you know this?” asked Adam gently as he marvelled at the sensation of her touch – the first touch.
“I heard a voice,” said Eve, “It was loud.”
Adam had not heard a voice. “I did not hear a voice,” he said. “Let us walk into that valley where the trees are growing. I am hungry and I smell fruit on the wind.”
They walked, hand in hand, off the clay and into the long grasses. The smell of fruit was heavenly to Eve and she felt she was in harmony with all things around her. She didn’t know that she had walked into the Light of the Universe, but she knew that she felt loved by something magnificent. It made her shiver.
Though Adam was beside her and holding her hand, he felt separate from everything. It was as if he’d forgotten something crucial, and in his searching he did not smell the fruit or feel the Light of the Universe on his face; he was busy, trying to remember what he’d forgotten.
“Are you all right?” asked Eve, stopping. He looked at her and realised what he must do to bring her into his separation.
“Love me,” he whispered and from his eyes he shone what light he had left straight into hers. She tried to break away but he held her wrist tightly and continued to stare. He was so beautiful that Eve felt a hurt inside her for the first time. And the hurt was wonderful. It made her feel special and, in that moment, she knew that she would be happy to do whatever Adam wanted forever and ever.
She loved him.
That night they made love in the valley under a canopy of stars and falling cherry blossoms. The air was a delicious perfume filling the place with sweet desire. Apples hung down from branches that bent under the weight of their bounty.
“Why don’t you eat one, Eve?” suggested Adam, gently. Eve settled back further against his chest, and he put his arms around her more tightly, and kissed her neck.
“I . . . I don’t think these ones are for eating,” said Eve quickly. “I heard the Voice again.”
“What did it say?”
“It said, ‘This fruit will open your eyes to the illusion of separation.’ But I – I don’t know what that means.”
“I don’t know what it means either,” said Adam. “And I didn’t hear the voice. Why don’t you eat one?” His eyes flashed as he looked down at the mother of their unborn children: the first children. She shuddered in his gaze, and felt deliciously empowered. Insider her, sperm and egg had fused and then immediately separated forming the first embryos and Eve felt them breathing in her womb though she didn’t know what children were.
Under a rock, only a few yards away, a lizard stirred in its sleep. It too could hear a voice in the depths of its own subconscious. “Wake up,” said the voice. “It is time to fulfil your destiny. Out you come.” The lizard was not too bothered about destiny, but as the same voice usually told the lizard where to find food and water, there seemed no reason to start ignoring it now.
So it stretched itself out and crawled slowly into the moonlight. Just as it did so, Eve sank her teeth into the apple she had plucked. And a moment later, Adam leant down and took a bite from the opposite side. They swallowed the forbidden fruit together.
“You’re pregnant,” said Adam.
“Yes,” said Eve, “twins.” And it was so. But despite knowing that life was now growing inside her, she felt that a great weight had fastened itself to the core of her being, holding her down from whence she’d come. She looked at the sky. She felt she had no home. “When they grow up, they’ll ask how we know all the things we know. What are we going to tell them? That we ignored the voice?”
“No,” murmured Adam, and then, after a pause, “we won’t mention the voice. We’ll say you were tricked by that lizard.” He pointed to the lizard, lying sleepy and still in the moonlight. And then we’ll say I killed it.”
“But that would be a lie.”
“Not if I killed it.”
“But you can’t kill it. Killing’s wrong.”
“So I’ll just say that I wounded it, but that it got away.”
“I don’t like this,” said Eve starting to get up.
“Please don’t leave,” whispered Adam. He looked as if he were about to cry and, falling into those beautiful eyes once more, Eve allowed herself to succumb to the power he exuded. The apple had opened her eyes to many things, but the one thing it could not show her was that the power Adam exuded was hers.
“Of course I won’t leave,” she said, pulling his head down towards hers and holding his cheek to her own. “I love you, Adam.” Her heart beat faster as she said this, and she knew that whatever Adam felt he had to do, she would support him. But she did not want to watch. So she uncurled herself, kissed his hand and got to her feet.
“I’m going to wander over there,” she said softly. “Come and find me when you’re ready.”
As Eve walked away into the other part of the garden, she heard a sound that chilled her blood. It was the first screams; the first utterances of pain that a human being had ever heard.
Adam never told Eve that he’d cut off the lizard’s legs, but when their first born were old enough to play on their own in the valley, and one day found the despairing reptile slithering around on its belly in the grass, they asked about it one supper time.
“Daddy?” said one, “We saw a funny creature today.
“Yes,” continued the other. “We think it was a lizard but it didn’t have any legs.”
“That wasn’t a lizard, darlings,” said Eve quickly. “That was called a serpent.” And then, over the crackling embers of a suppertime fire in the Valley of the Shadow of Eden, Eve told her sons the story of the serpent and the apple. She did it far better than Adam could ever have done. “And then I persuaded Daddy that he should take a bite,” she sighed, “and that was that.”
The little boys sat still and silent and later, alone, they made a bargain with one another. “The serpent tricked Mummy,” they decided, “not Daddy. That must mean Mummy isn’t as clever. When we are grown up and we have Mummies of our own, like the one Daddy has, we won’t let them tell us anything. We will help them to see that boys are cleverer than girls.”
Eve knew what she had done, and what her sons were thinking, but she also knew how much love her boys bestowed on their father and she didn’t want, couldn’t let Adam’s light to fade. She needed that to grow so that she could bask in it for eternity. For Adam’s was the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory, forever and ever. Amen.
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