“Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I told you not to eat from?”
Adam knew he would have to fess up, but he did not want to take all the responsibility for his action so he attempted to direct it back to the old man. “The woman that you put here with me gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it!” Eve was approaching from the side. She had moved around to the flank as Adam approached the old man so that she could see them both clearly. She wanted to be ready to flee if necessary. Slick had moved closer to her so they stood apart from both Adam and the old man.
The old man whirled toward Eve. “What is this that you have done?” he bellowed.
She stepped back in panic and stammered, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate it.”
The old man centered his glare on Slick. “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all the animals. You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.” Slick suddenly felt the feeling draining from his arms and legs. His beautiful colors began to fade as scales formed all over his body. As the numbness overtook his limbs, he could no longer stand and fell into a heap on the ground. The ground around him became a fine dust like talcum powder. Every time he tried to take a breath the powder would fill his mouth and nostrils. The dust covered his eyes and he had to shut them tight but the dirt that was in them caused nearly unbearable pain. With his limbs numb and eyes welded shut with dirt, he could not be sure but it felt like his arms and legs had shriveled and disappeared. He knew he had to get out of there but the only way he could move was to wriggle from side to side and try to push along the ground.
The old man continued. “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers. They will strike your head and you will strike their heels.” In his agony Slick knew he must get to the water to wash his tortured eyes. He tried to get his bearings and headed as best he remembered toward the water. But the woman was in the way.
“Damn you, move!” he shouted. He was not even aware that his voice had become an inaudible hiss. In his desperation to get to the water he had to resort to the only way he had to get her to move. He reared his head back and in his blind rage began biting at her foot screaming “Move damn it, move!”
Somehow in the confusion Adam sensed that Eve was in danger. He sprang to her side like a cat reaching her just in time to pull her out of range of the striking snake. When she moved, the snake shot desperately toward the pond leaving a totally dismayed Eve watching him depart with her hand over her mouth. She had no time to grieve nor even comprehend what had happened to her handsome friend. The old man whirled toward her and both she and Adam blanched in fear. “You,” he said, his voice softening slightly but still quite stern, “I will increase your pains in childbearing. You will give birth to children with great pain. Your desire will still be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” Adam was relieved to hear that. After seeing what had happened to the serpent, he was fearful of what Eve’s punishment would be. But this, pain in child bearing, was trivial to him. Not that he wasn’t concerned that Eve would have to bear pain, but compared to being covered with scales and having your arms and legs wither away, this was nothing. He had fully expected to be required to participate in the punishment but now it looked as though he would come out of this unscathed. He was about to congratulate himself when the old man continued, “Adam, because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you.”
Adam’s heart sank as remorse and the bitterness of sorrow welled up within him like one of the steaming geysers he had seen on the other side of the garden. It burned in his stomach like acid making it hard to pull in his breath. The vision of Slick trying to breathe with the dust filling his mouth and choking him flashed across his mind like a hideous video scene. The words because you listened to your wife and cursed is the ground continued to resonate over and over. He resolved never to listen to Eve again. Oh, yes, she was pretty alright, and the gifts she possessed, well, what man would not want to stay in her favor to enjoy those, but now that he understood he would be held responsible for participating in her schemes and treacheries, he vowed to himself to always follow his own heart in matters of judgment. I would have never eaten this stupid fruit no matter how hungry I was, he thought. I should not have let her talk me into it. How would I have known that the old man was going to show up just then?
His silent recrimination was cut short as the old man continued, “Only through painful toil will you eat of it all the days of your life.” Painful toil lingered in Adam’s mind. Why must I suffer pain when it was clearly Eve’s fault, he pondered? The old man wasn’t finished, “It will produce thorns and thistles for you and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” Adam steeled himself for the ordeal that he was sure was about to take place. To dust you will return re-conjured the vision of Slick writhing in misery and Adam thought that perhaps he could feel his own legs starting to get numb. He looked at Eve and closed his eyes to fix that last image of her in his mind, fighting the urge to cry out to her in his impending agony. He waited for a few moments that seemed like a whole lifetime but nothing happened. He cautiously reopened his eyes but the old man had departed. He and Eve were alone and the look on her face told him immediately that she was in trouble. He lunged forward to catch her as her body crumpled to the ground in a full faint.
When she was once again aware of her surroundings, she was aware of motion. With her eyes still closed, it seemed to her that she was floating. She opened her eyes and was relieved to notice Adam’s determined face only inches away from her own, not looking at her but beyond her to the path ahead. She was cradled in his arms as he carried her away from that horrible site. As the memory of Slick’s agonized dash to the water flashed through her mind, she wondered how a place of such beauty could have been the setting of such horrible events. Not wanting to interact with anyone right now, she tried to remain relaxed but he sensed her return to consciousness and found a suitably comfortable spot to gently lower her to the ground. He was relieved that she had awoken but the expression that lay upon her face like a grotesque mask told him that she was far from normal. The lingering visions of her beautiful friend suddenly turning drab and ugly and ultimately transforming into a hideous snake, the thought of the old man’s disfavor, not to mention threats of pain, the adrenaline let-down after the extreme fear caused by expectations of impending violence, all combined into a mantle of despair that lay upon her like the coating of dust from Slick’s ordeal.
Adam totally understood her plight and shared it for the most part. While he was not suffering the loss of someone he cared a good deal
about, he could surely sympathize with Slick’s fate, especially at that moment when he was convinced that he was about to share it. The old man’s disfavor weighed equally heavy on his mind. He had not yet had an opportunity to analyze the effects of the curse that had been put upon him, but he knew that it implied certain and long lived misery and that translated into dread for now. All of those burdens, plus the anxiety of wondering what would happen next and what they should be doing now was exacting a heavy toll from both of them.
To Be Continued…
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