A Garden Story: Part 1 of 8

Forward: My last attempt at fiction was well received so I thought I might try it again. This story will be in serial form continued over several days. You have probably read the story before. I know you have heard it. I read between the lines.

A Garden Story: Part 1

He woke up hurting. His side felt like somebody had opened him up and ripped out one of his ribs. He tried to remember, but for the life of him, he couldn’t remember anything past yesterday and he couldn’t remember anything from yesterday that would make his ribs hurt so. He was still under the tree where he had fallen asleep. He could remember studying the creatures around him and even naming some of them much to the delight of the old man who was with him. He wondered where the old man was now and where he had spent the night. He heard something stir close by. Turning to look he was astounded at the sight of another just waking up a few feet away. The other was like him, yet different. He could sense that there was kinship about them, that they shared a likeness yet were separate. He had expressed sadness to the old man last night at the teaching. He became sad when he realized that all the animals he had seen yesterday had others like them for company. He told the old man about the monkeys, how some were one way and some another but they played and rolled together and enjoyed each other’s company. When he saw the other animals each with a mate of its own he had wondered if there would ever be a mate for him. Could it be? Could this be his mate? Yes that was it, a female, quite pleasing to the senses but quite frail looking by comparison to his own stout frame. She was rising to her feet shakily staring at him agape. She reeled slightly and he moved forward to steady her but she was afraid and pulled back. Stumbling she thumped back down to the ground on her backside. He reached out his hand slowly to help her back to her feet but she was still reluctant to reach for it. He smiled and held his stand steady and after a few seconds she timidly reached and clasped it. She was steadier this time as she pulled herself to her feet. She immediately released his hand and stepped back a step to insure she was just out of reach. The feel of her hand lingered on his and he wanted the touch of her to continue but he could see that she was alarmed and defensive.
“Who are you?” he asked. “Where did you come from?” The sound of his voice seemed to calm her and she was not so afraid anymore.
“I don’t know,” she replied, then echoed, “Who are you? Where did you come from?”
“I have always been here,” he said authoritatively. He was trying to remember the name the old man had called him. He really didn’t take note of it since he could see no purpose for a name in a place where you were all alone. But just now he felt the need to have his own unique identity with its own unique label. Finally it came to him. “Adam. I am Adam. That is what the old man calls me. Have you seen him?”
“I haven’t seen anyone but you, Adam” she replied saying his name as though having it somehow commanded respect, the very reaction that he had hoped for. “I don’t think I have a name”, she added sheepishly, hoping that it would not make him like her less.
“Where did you come from?” he repeated. “You were not here yesterday.”
“Yesterday? I don’t know about yesterday. I just woke up and you were here. I don’t know about anything else.”
She doesn’t know much, but she sure is nice to look at, he thought. He looked her over from head to foot. His gaze lingered on the beautiful round pouches on her chest, in the same place where the thick chest muscles were on him. If those are muscles, he thought, she might be stronger than me in spite of her otherwise frail appearance. She was examining him as well. “What is that under your belly?” she asked. “I don’t have that.” She said, bending slightly forward to get a better viewing angle on her own crotch. “You are different.”
He bristled at being called different. He could see that there was an obvious difference in their anatomies so she really hadn’t told him anything new. Yet the idea that he was different implied that she was the standard and he was somehow substandard. This other was trickey and he needed to be careful or she might take over his garden. He retorted, “I was here first and I am the same, so you must be the one that is different. “
She had only been aware for a few minutes and was enthralled by the wonders of discovery. She had neither knowledge nor memories nor inclination toward power or ambition. For the moment, she was the perfect woman for whom submissiveness was not a choice but simply the only course of action available. She was engaged by an other who had been here much longer and so had much knowledge by comparison. He had a name and was aware of an other he called the old man. He was physically stronger than her and yet she sensed a gentleness about him. He had helped her to stand up and not harmed her in any way and she could certainly tell that he felt like he was in charge. His argument made sense to her in that he had been here longer but all she meant was that she had noticed a difference in their appearance. She wondered why he was so sensitive. “I did not mean anything except that we are not the same down there. Let’s not let this come between us”, she said apologetically.
He realized that perhaps his voice had carried the wrong tone. Speaking to others seemed to be a skill that would require some mastery. He continued, in a gentler way, “I don’t have these”, he said stepping forward to cup one of the curious mounds in each big hand. This time she did not pull back but moved slightly forward and began tracing the lines of his bulging pectorals with her gentle fingertips. He could tell instantly that these supple mounds were not muscles and the touch of them was even more glorious than the touch of her hand. He knew that she would not try to overpower him physically, but he felt an overpowering allurement emanating from her as she did from him. In their closeness their lips brushed then locked. Neither understood the desire flooding over them but in the grip of a sudden craving for fulfillment they each became aware of the other’s need and of their own need to respond to it.
They sank slowly together to the plush grass. As instinct overpowered reason, each demanded and responded and so together learned of the carnal pleasures that occur when a man and a woman become one. They were both spent, gasping, whispering, fondling, giggling joyfully when the old man approached. “Well, I see you two have met and seem to be getting on nicely”, he commented loudly from a further than comfortable speaking distance. This was to give them a warning of his approach so as not to startle them and cause a flight reaction. Yet that was the woman’s first thought as she saw the splendid figure of the old man approaching. “Do not be afraid,” Adam said quietly directly into her ear. “This is the old man. He is my friend.” To the old man, who was closer now, he said, “This other has come. We have done what I have seen the monkeys do.”
“Ah yes, the monkeys,” the old man sighed. “You should not take too much from the monkeys, Adam. You should do the things you want to do and let the monkeys do what they do.”
“Yes, I know,” said Adam. “But I wanted to and the other wanted to as well.”
“Why don’t you let the other bathe and cool off in the stream?” the old man asked. “Come, walk with me. I want to show you some special trees over this way.”
Reluctantly Adam let go of the other’s hand and headed off with the old man. He kept looking back with every other step as long as she was in sight and each time she would smile broadly while lifting a hand from her side to wiggle the fingers in a small, inconspicuous wave.
As they walked, the old man said, “What do you call the other? What do you call her kind? You have named all the other animals. Don’t you think you should give her kind a name?”
“I will call her wonderful man because she is like me but she is wonderful.” He knew from yesterday that the old man expected him to come up with names so he would do so quickly without too much thought because too much thought made it too hard to decide and he did not want to think about her name, only her beauty and the pleasures that they shared and would share again if he had anything to say about it.
“Wonderful man”, the old man repeated. “That seems a like a lot to say. Maybe you could shorten it some so it would be easier.”
Adam mouthed the words over and over, trying different combinations of sounds. “Wonderful man, wonder man, won man, wo man, yes, that’s it. Woman. I will call her kind woman.”
The old man saw this as good. He had tried to decide if she should be strong to protect herself and her children if necessary or if she should be gentle and so alluring to the man that he would regard her as a most cherished asset and so protect and defend her even at the risk of his own life. He had decided on the latter and so far it appeared as though that choice was correct. “And what about her? How do you feel about her? What if the monkeys wanted to take her away from you?”
“I would kill the monkeys,” Adam replied. The old man was surprised that he understood the concept of death, let alone causing the death of another creature. Perhaps he had been given more than intended.
“And what if the great king of the beasts, the lion wanted her for his dinner?”
“I would kill the lion,” Adam replied.
“But the lion is big and strong. He has sharp teeth and claws. He might kill you.”
“Then I would give up my life to save her. I do not want to live without her now that I know her. She is my woman, my life, my w…ife. She is my wife! And no one can take her from me.”
The old man was a little startled by his willfulness, but knew now that the woman would be treated well and protected. “Since she seems to be everything to you, you could call her Eve. That would be short for everything. That could be her name.”
“Yes,” Adam agreed. “Eve. That is a good name. A pretty name, like her. I shall call her Eve. I shall be with her forever.”

The old man knew that this was good.

To be continued...