Trapped in the Garden of Eden

Darker

ADAM

"Eve," I say realizing the deepness in my voice and the darker tone. Eve I think and look at her face, her eyes widened with fear, her lip a straight line, her nose is flared. Oh no, she is scared of me. An aggressive tweeting starts up behind me and look back to see the birds wrestling over a piece of leftover fruit. They are pecking too viscously it makes me think of the other animals, the animals that Eve...

"EVE!" I scream as I see her running away. I start running as fast as I can try to catch her before something else does. But it is not the animals she is running from, it is me. She thinks I'm the monster, the beast that screamed at her... "Eve," I call again and again, but she doesn't stop. She is only getting further out of my sight. "Faster Adam," I demand myself, "catch her." I'm huffing and puffing unable to breathe air into my lungs fast enough. "Eve..." I call again when I finally stop, but through deep breathes I see nothing. She is gone. "Please come back," I say, but I know she can't hear me, she doesn't want to either way.

You shouldn't have yelled at her, why did you yell at her? I move to the stream and slurp up some cool water. She screamed in your ear to wake up, that is why you are mad. I reason with myself and agree, yeah she did. She woke you up to see if the animals were alright. What about us? Are we going to be alright? Did she see the birds pecking each other's eyes out? Maybe she didn't want to leave me behind. But she did leave me behind. She ran the opposite direction deeper into Eden and who knows what has changed since before.

"God," I call out as I rise and move in the direction Eve had disappeared. "If you can hear me, please keep her safe. I'm not sure what's happening with Eden and the plants and animals in it, but she's out there. Eve is out there all alone." I look again to see if I could see her brown hair through the see of trees. "Please keep her safe," I rise up from the stream and pick up my pace, but have no idea where she might have gone. We had walked so far yesterday and now she is going to backtrack as if yesterday didn't even happen. Anger fills up inside me again and I hesitate. She ran away from me because I was angry, I relax my shoulders and unclench my fingers. "God help me with my temper; help me to be the man Eve wants me to be. The man I know I can be." I feel silly talking to the sky like Eve does, but it doesn't feel right to say it in my head when I don't know if he can hear me anymore. "Come back," I say to both God and Eve. "Please".

"Eve, I am so sorry" I call out to the trees hoping my voice will travel and she will forgive me. "Please come out, I will help you find the animals. I will never raise my voice again," I continue to scan the trees for her but Eden remains still. "Eve please come back, I am so sorry and-"my mouth hangs open as I watch a figure move slowly out of the bushes. "Eve?" I move towards her but she stands with her arms crossed at her chest. Give her your grand apology speech I force myself to move closer to face her, to relax and try and remain clam.

"Eve, I am so sorry, I didn't mean to yell at you" she looked down but I wanted her to look to me to believe that I was truly sorry "I know my actions scared you, and they scared me too." That got her attention "please don't run away from me, please help me to be better." I held out my hand hoping she would move from around the bush but she stayed in her spot. Her eyes remained fixated on me. "Pleaseeeeeeeeeee" I sing out raising both hands she gives a small smile, she tried to hide it but I saw it. "Please eve, let's get through this...Together" she moved from around the bush and I thought she was going to run again but this time she ran into my arms and enveloped me in a hug.

"Don't ever be scary like that again, alright?" she said squeezing me tighter.

"Never ever will I intentionally do anything that might hurt you again, I promise." She pulled away from the hug and smiled a big grand smile that made all the splinters and worries disappear.