Awakening

I

After aeons of sleep, Adam woke up.

For an immeasurable time he had been lying naked on soft grass under a magnificent terebinth tree, dreaming his life in the Garden of Eden. In his dream, the Garden had been full of brightness, everything green and virginal - trees, shrubs, rich
Grass and wild weeds. There he existed, timeless, in this Garden of his dream, a sole human being, but not completely alone.

There were other creatures with him, young and carefree in his dream, all playing together - lion and zebra, fox and hare, eagle and sparrow; running about, skipping, kicking and biting as young creatures do in their innocence, never preying on each other, never dying or being born. All existing together in Adams's endless dream of the Garden of Eden. Until he woke up.

Something caused him to wake up, slowly, gradually. It began with a vague sense of tickling on the sole of his bare foot. The touch caused the picture of his dream to change. Suddenly, amidst the countless shades of green in the Garden, a new tint
Appeared; a large, cream-colored globule sprouted from the lap of some dark leaves of a luxuriant shrub. Adam stirred in his sleep, but his eyes had not yet opened.

In his disturbed sleep, the tickle on his foot had turned into a caress along the calf of his leg; something was crawling up his body, winding round his knee, advancing up his thigh. A pleasant, unfamiliar shiver ran up Adam's spine; the large globule in his dream turned a vivid shade of pink. He was almost awake now. He was aware of a long, smooth being slithering along his body; it touched his groin, and the blood rushed through Adam's veins, tingling at his finger tips; the globule, hovering before his closed eyes, half real half dream-like, had swollen to a bursting point, shining bright red.

Up and up along Adam's body, the creature crawled, sliding on his belly, winding round his chest, then his neck, with its head against his cheek, its tongue brushing his ear with a hiss. The globule's tip fluttered, then burst open with a splash of colors - it was the first flower Adam had ever seen. At that moment he opened his eyes.

The snake's variegated body was completely wound around Adam's, its sapphire eyes looked into the man's brown ones with a shining twinkle. Adam turned his head, and saw a strange figure standing before him; only in the translucent pond in the middle of the Garden he had seen anything similar to it. This creature was looking straight at him, as no animal had ever dared do; its eyes were sky blue with a golden sparkle in them; its skin was smooth and glowing, hairless, except for the hair that grew on its head, long and fair, covering the creature's body with a soft mantle.

The two humans then touched each other with their eyes. Eternity passed. Adam's bound body felt hotter than it had ever been in the Garden of Eden. The strange creature began to move. Slowly, slowly, it lifted its long, smooth arms, turning on its heels, the flowing hair encircling its head in a golden halo.

Adam, spellbound, could only lie and watch.

The creature was dancing in a way Adam had never seen before. It moved around itself, faster and faster, lithe and light. It bent and turned, pushed its arms up and down, sideways and allways. It skipped and stamped with its feet, throwing its legs
upwards. Adam's head turned to follow the creature's movements, his mind turning with the dance. Then he felt his bonds melting away; the snake, spellbound by the dance, had bagan moving to its rhythm. Released, Adam stretched, sat up, rose on his feet.

He followed the two dancing animals, first with his eyes, then in motion, swaying to the rhythm, as he had never done before. All three of them moved in circles, each round the other, the first animals to dance in the Garden of Eden. The serpent wound itself around the human female, emroidering her bare body with its multicolor glitter. Adam, warming to the sight, wished to be in its place.

On and on they danced. Raising her arms toward him, the serpent entwined in her hair, Eve beckoned. Closer and closer Adam came, smoothly moving into her arms. They danced like one body, entwined, faster and faster; their breath intermingled, their bodies supporting each other. Another twirl and they fell on the soft grass, where Adam had spent eons dreaming in his sleep.

All changed around the mating couple. The Garden was no longer green, flowers of all shapes and burning colors of fire sprung profusely among the fading leaves. The young creatures of the Garden of Eden found new games to play, games of no innocence but full of intent and purpose; games of love and battle, hot and fierce, in pursuit of the struggle for survival.

"I missed you, whitout even knowing of your existence," Adam murmured into Eve's ear as they lay in each other's arms, satiated with love. A new tenderness had been born in his heart.

"I have always been here," she said, her voice as soft and fresh as the grass used to be; "but you were not alive enough to notice me."

II

The air hung over the Garden, hot and humid. Adam, exhausted, fell into a deep sleep. Again, he dreamed the Garden, which was changing further. The rest of the green had disappeared from it, everything turning yellow-brown; the blossoms had shed their petals, small, hard globules sprouted everywhere on trees and shrubs. A hot, yellow sun glared from a white sky, and the flat land had rounded into a hilly country. The once cool atmosphere had filled with exciting expectation.

A shriek pierced the suspended air of Adam's dream and he opened his eyes. A large brown owl was circling over his head in the dull sky of a heavy evening, its large, brown eyes beckoning at the wakening man. Adam rose to his feet; his body and mind heavy and confused.

On a large, white, luminous rock a large, white, luminous figure was sitting. It looked oddly familiar, not unlike the glorious creature with which he had so recently danced and mated.

But how different! The translucent skin had turned dull white; the bright, fair hair looked darker now, tied in a knot on top of her head. She was sitting heavily, her light, lithe figure swollen out of all proportions, looking oddly like one of those yellowish-brown hills around the Garden.

"Eve, Eve, what have you done to yourself?" cried Adam, his voice full of agony, surprise and alarm.

Eve smiled at her mate, serene and content, as if smiling to herself; there was a mysteriously eternal atmosphere about her as she sat there, patiently waiting, expecting something quite unknown. The blue of her eyes had deepened, as they engulfed Adam in their calm, drawing him into their depth, into his own soul. He tried to resist, to keep to his own. He had not thought there could be any power in what used to be so beautiful. But he was overcome, toppled to the ground and lay there for an
unaccountable time on his side, his back bent, his face buried in his updrawn knees, full of expectation.

III

A croak stirred Adam from his mindlessness into the most horrifying experience he had ever had in his life: total darkness.

It was the first night in the Garden of Eden, blackness Adam could never have dreamed. The sky was a harsh, shiny, black sheet full of sharp flashing specks, and a black shape hovered among them on silent wings, emitting a harsh croak into the stinging darkness. Trees, heavy and suffocating, stood around, moving their branches in a menacing motion; among them, myriads of red, burning, spots of eyes flashed, threatening in their enigmatic existence. The unfamiliar sounds of the night filled Adam's heart with an unfamiliar sense of terror, and only the earth itself, velvety, soft and warm, constituted a sole comforting entity in a New World of horrors.

The raven flew on, over the rounded hills. There, beyond its black form, a faint light appeared, diffusing slowly over the sky. Pale silver splashed the black Garden with enchantment. Adam's heart slowed its beating almost to a standstill. A red arch appeared behind the hill; slowly, it grew into a full disk hanging in midair, a great, orange face. With a heart full of wonder, Adam looked at this new apparition. As it climbed higher in the sky, its color paling gradually, it bewitched the entire world. In this unearthly light Adam stood, tall and graceful in his manly form, enthralled by a scene he was not able to fathom.

A croak pierced his enchantment, piercing his heart. Under the raven's black silhouette as it was flying against the rising Moon, Adam discerned a big, black lump looming in the silvery light. On a large dark rock a figure was reclining. Her skin looked gray in the moonlight, her hair was loose and disheveled, gleaming with moisture. Her legs were spread apart; her knees bent upright, her belly protruding against the sky. She was not calm now but agitated, emitting strange noises groans and moans. Then a scream pierced the night; Eve's body swayed from side to side. Astonished, Adam looked at her, fascinated.

Another scream, long and sharp, cut through the air, and Adam saw something protruding between Eve's thighs. She sat up. With her groping hands she caught at the emerging body. Silence fell; the moans had stopped, as if all energy was directed toward the new event.

"It's coming, it's coming," Adam encouraged it silently, subconsciously. All his feelings of anticipation were centered on this one point, his body shaking in excitement.

At last it emerged, soiled, drenched in a dark fluid. Adam was horrified at the sight, but Eve paid no attention to him. With her soiled, tender hands, she took the new being, raising it against the glowing sky. It cried then, its first breathing cry, and a shudder passed through Adam's body. Holding her child against her body, Eve lay back on the rock, exhausted. A sense of lonely terror enveloped Adam, as he faced the new unity of the woman with her child.

Everything had been changing so much, so fast! The Garden, as he had dreamed it, was gone; the evergreen was no more. All the young animals, his dream playmates for so long, had vanished forever; now his woman, that magnificent creature he had danced with, he had mated with, had taken a new playmate to her bosom!
Full of feeling of dejection, Adam cried in his agony, falling to his knees in front of Mother and Child.

"Take me too, to your bosom! What am I without you but a lonely dreamer among wild beasts! Let me unite with you, my Eve, with the rock you are sitting on, with the newborn in your arms! Don't leave me outside your circle of love!"

The moon shone, the earth breathed with relief, as the woman stretched one arm toward the man; but one arm only – the other keeping hold on her son.

END