The creator of all's Arc

Chapter 2 of 13

When the garden was ready, the creator brought the two humans into it. He shaped Adam first from the soil of the floating island, then Eve from Adam's side, so that neither would be alone. He set them down among the animals and stepped back to watch. They were like children. Adam walked the island each morning, checking on the creatures. He knelt beside a small white lamb and ran a hand down its back to feel for burrs. He watched a cow chew and counted her breaths. When a big cat swiped at him, he only stepped away and tried again the next day. "Her hoof is soft," Adam said to Eve one morning, holding the lamb's leg. "She needs drier ground." "I'll move her," Eve said. She carried the lamb to a patch of stone under the trees and set her down. The creator watched them from above the clouds. He had told them one thing. At the center of the island stood a tree crowned in gold, its branches full of light. They were not to touch it. He had said this plainly, and they had nodded, and for a long while they kept away. He watched Adam sleep near the cow at night. He watched Eve braid grass into cords. He felt something loosen in him. Perhaps this would hold. Perhaps free will, given to gentle hands, would stay gentle. Then one afternoon Eve stopped walking. She was crossing the clearing with a handful of leaves for the lamb's bed. The golden tree stood ahead of her. She had passed it a hundred times. This time she looked up at it, and her hand opened, and the leaves fell. The creator leaned closer. Eve did not step toward the tree. She only looked. Her mouth parted. Her eyes moved across the bright branches the way a hungry animal's eyes move across a field. It lasted a breath, no longer. Then she closed her hand and picked up the leaves and walked on. The creator held very still. He had seen it. Not a sin. Not yet. Only the shape of one, passing through her like a shadow crossing water. She had wanted. She had wanted, and she had chosen against it, and she had kept walking. He should have felt relieved. She had obeyed. Instead a cold thing settled in him. He understood now that the wanting would come again. It would come tomorrow, and the day after, and each time it would be a little louder. He had made her free. He had made the tree bright. Little did they know that tree would be a gift when they were ready and its shade already was. For now they were not ready. He watched Eve reach the lamb and kneel and lay the leaves down. Adam came and sat beside her. They did not look back at the tree. The creator did. He watched it shine in the light as the sun cressed it.