Eve dream. Chapter three. Adam – part one

Masaccio, Cacciata di Adamo ed Eva. Detail

Eve dream first episode (Lilith part one)

Previous episode (Halved part three)

 

3 Adam – part one

Now, on the bank of the river there were only the Man and the Woman. The Man, the Woman and an oppressive silence. Looking at her, Adam saw the sedges entwined around her waist.

“But what is that? A very strange basket! What is it for? Isn’t that annoying to you?“

With a broken voice, with a thread of voice accompanied by trembling and sobbing, Eve said:
“I knew evil.”
“Evil? E-vil? I don’t know that word. What is evil? And why are your cheeks wet? What happens? What happened to you?“
“It’s evil. It’s the pain. It’s the weight of remorse.”
“Eve, please, explain… What is it that you are saying? What is evil?”
“Evil is following a path other than His will.”
“You are raving. There is no such possibility. He is everything. He runs out of reality. He is that to whom the uni-verse tends.”
“There is a different path. Do you remember that tale of the rebel angel, the fallen angel, the Serpent?”

Adam stood thoughtfully. After a few moments he resumed:

“Yes, maybe… vaguely. I seem to remember something, but they are such distant stories, from another era. They are stories of the Firsts…”
“Adam…”
“Tell me, Eve, please.”
“…Adam, now I know it’s not a fable.”
“But Eve… Eve… What are you talking about?“

Now Eve was very near to him. He took a closer look at her and saw some red, wet spots on her knees, as if there her skin had broken in. Adam’s expression now reflected disbelief, awe, surprise. Worry. He asked again:

“Eve, please tell me. Explain yourself. Explain yourself better, please, I beg you. How can you say that?”
“Now I know it’s not a fairy tale. I know it. Now I know.“
“But what do you know? How can you tell I know it? Where does this knowledge come from?”
“Do you remember that tree with those red, round, large, beautiful and fragrant fruits? Do you remember the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?”
“Yes. The tree from which comes the temptation against which we have been warned by Himself.”
“I have eaten its fruit.”
“You!…”

 

(to be continued)