The creator of all's Arc

Chapter 5 of 13

The creator watched from above as Adam and Eve reached the low country. They stacked mud bricks in the sun. They tied straw for a roof. When the house was done, it stood small under a thatched crown, with a plain wooden door and pots along the wall. The creator watched them make a home out of hard ground. He had put them there to learn. He waited to see what they would teach. Eve's belly grew. One morning she cried out inside the house and Adam ran in from the field. The creator listened to her labor. A son came first, red and loud. She named him Cain. Months of nursing, then another turn of the seasons, and she bore a second boy. She named him Abel. The creator watched her hold both sons on the doorstep and felt something loosen in him. Though hard on her he watched her smile with joy and he was happy. The boys grew. Adam took Cain to the edge of the tilled ground and showed him how to break the soil. He pressed seed into Cain's palm and closed the boy's fingers around it. Cain learned the weight of a hoe before he learned to run. By the time he was tall, wheat stood in rows behind the house, golden stalks bending in the wind. Adam took Abel out past the field to where the grass grew thicker. He set a small white lamb in the boy's arms. Abel carried it back and would not put it down. He learned the sheep the way Adam once learned the creatures of the garden, watching for a limp, a change in eating. His flock grew around him. The creator watched a day come when the family brought their work to one table inside the house. Adam laid down fish he had pulled from the stream. Eve set down dates she had gathered. Cain came in with a sheaf of wheat and set it beside the bread. Abel came last, carrying a cut of lamb, still fresh. Adam looked at the lamb. His face opened. "Good work," he said to Abel. "This is a fine one." Abel smiled at the ground. Cain stood by his wheat. He waited. Adam did not turn to him. Eve reached for the bread and broke it. No one spoke of the grain. The creator saw Cain's hand tighten on the stalks. He saw the boy's jaw set. He saw the small, sharp thing move behind Cain's eyes and settle there. It did not leave. The creator had wanted to see what the parents would teach. He had his answer. They had taught the boys to work. They had not taught them that a brother's praise could be shared. The lesson he had set for Adam and Eve was not finished. It had only passed down, smaller and harder, into the son who stood forgotten beside his wheat.