Say Yes – 4

When you Believe, You Love.

***

The thud against the bare earth whooshed the breath out of her.

“Oh heavens!” Eve groaned, staggering off the ground and inhaling and exhaling to steady her wild beating heart. “That was some long fall. And from where?”

She peered up at the skies and was mildly surprised to find it clothed in pearly white and blue clouds with the sun peaking out of it and lighting the surrounding atmosphere.

“I’ve never seen the sky so beautiful before.” She muttered, dropping her gaze to glance around studiously. “Where the heck are we now and in what era are we in?”

And where was Adam?

She whirled around, calling out. “Adam?”

There was no response and he was nowhere in sight.

She flung her gaze upwards again. Hadn’t he landed yet? Or did something break his fall?

“Adam?”

Feeling the itch of disquiet at the utter silence, she raised her hands, folding them to wrap around her midriff—and touched her bare skin.

“What the…!” The astonished exclamation stopped there as she tossed down her hands and gaped down at herself.

She was naked! Like butt nude, no clothes over her skin naked!

“Oh heavens! What the heck is going on?”

Where had her clothes, the cloth she’d had wrapped around her, gone to?

Had it slipped off during her descent?

Or had someone taken it off her?

“Adam!”

“Here.”

Eve spun around at the gentle toned response and her jaw dropped. He… Adam was naked too. Striding towards her, his skin dark and gleaming under the bright sunlight, his torso masculine with subtly ripped muscles and his—well, penis, sturdy and lying frontal between his thighs.

“Holy heavens!” Eve was certain her eyes should be popping out of their sockets. “Adam…” What should she ask him—why the hell are you naked?

She inhaled, pressed a hand against her abdomen and then realised that she was trembling… out of desire. Desire not shame. She had a butt naked man in front of her, and herself naked before him, but she wasn’t feeling shame or the least bit self-conscious. All she felt was desire for him.

“Well, damn!”

“I brought this back for you.” Adam held out one hand.

Eve tore her eyes from his… um… and met his eyes. He was staring at her with pure love in the depths of his eyes. Something vibrated through her. Something she didn’t recognize.

“Ah…” She looked at his hand. A pear-like fruit was cupped at the centre of it. “Thank you.” She reached for it. Their fingers touched and that something vibrated again and shook her. “Ah, Adam, where are we?”

“Eden.” His full mouth curved sensuously.

The Garden of Eden. “Of course.” She should have guessed it. The rich vegetation, the unearthly beauty, the almost alive green shrubbery and exquisite flowers.

“We’re in the Garden of Eden.” She looked at him again and squashed the strange temptation to kiss his mouth. “We’ve gone back to the very beginning. What a crazy dream!” She shook her head, tried to think. “Look, Adam, I know you think we are Adam and Eve…”

“You are Eve, and I, Adam.”

“Ah, yes, those are surely our names.” Why did his voice have to sound so seductively deep and smooth? “But the thing is, we are not, um, like the first Adam and Eve. We are not the first man and woman God created. You and I, we come from a different world. We came from… um, the future and…”

Why in heaven’s name was he staring at her so tenderly and adoringly? There was such love in his eyes. Love so pure and uninhibited and endless. Such like she’d never before seen in the eyes of any man.

“Adam, we are not in love.” She must help him recollect. She must help him understand before she started to believe in… this dream too. “You don’t love me. You can’t because…”

“Do you jest?”

“Do I what?”

“You jest. I like it.” He laughed.

It was a pleasing resonate sound that fanned those embers of desire.

“No, I am not jesting. I am, in fact, very serious. Adam?” She stretched forward her hand. Then snatched it back. She wasn’t touching a naked man. No way. “Adam.” She steadied her voice and levelled her eyes on his. “This is a dream, not reality. It is my dream, so you might not get it. But we belong to another world, not this one. Well, we are a part of this world but from the… holy heavens! What is that?”

She grabbed his hands, forgetting that she didn’t want to touch him as another groaning roar cracked through the atmosphere.

“That is Aqev. I believe it is time for her birthing. I must go to her. Do you want to come and see?”

“Aqev?” Go figure. A creature no one knew. “Ah, no. You go.” She let go his hands and stepped back. Wondered briefly why he never looked beyond her face to her chest. “I will stay here and, um, try to figure out how we will get out of here.”

“Get out of here?” He laughed. “You must enchant me more with your jests when I return. I will bring you something as I come back. This I promise.”

“You already brought me something.” She raised the pear-like fruit.

“Another then.” He smiled, tenderly caressing her face. “I will return soon.” He turned and started in the direction he’d come.

“Damn, that is some nice firm butt!” She cast her eyes heavenward and sighed. “Forgive me, God. But I’m just bemused here.”

Was he here?

It was said that he moved about the Garden of Eden, wasn’t it?

But the thing was that this wasn’t the real Garden of Eden. It was a good imitation though. She’d never seen such luscious and lively greenery in all her life. The sun streaked through the trees and shimmered over them. The breeze, soft and willowy, danced over the shrubs and flowers. The grass was soft and curly and warm underneath her feet.

Such beauty and splendour.

This was what Adam—the real Adam and Eve had left behind?

“What had they been thinking of?”

“Of themselves.”

Eve twisted around her neck and wrapped around a magnificent tree trunk was a snake.

Did she just hear a snake speak?

“Yes, you did.” It spoke again and its tongue flicked like in amusement. Or was it the odd expression on its tube-like head that made her think it was amused.

“You just read my thought?” Eve stared at it.

“Read or hear?”

Her eyes widened. It’s mouth had not opened, yet she’d heard its words. “How magical!”

“Is that what you call it—magic?” Its mouth moved this time and its forked tongue was flicking.

“This is a dream, so it’s magic?”

“You think this a dream?”

“It is a dream.” A dream where she was in the Garden of Eden, conversing with the snake as Eve—the first Eve must have done.

“A dream?” It uncurled from one branch and wrapped around another. “But what is a dream by the standards of earthly beings but the exiting of the spirit from its mortal state into its spiritual and more natural state? You are, after all, spirits as well as mortal beings. Only, you prefer to hold fast to what your bodies alone can touch and prove. Creatures of limitations created solely by them.”

“That limitation started with your temptation of Eve.” Eve found herself despising it. “Is that why you are here, to tempt me?”

“Is it temptation to nudge you towards what your heart is intrigued by?” Its dark, silvery eyes seemed to be rotating in its head. “You think this is a dream and you are desperate to wake up from it.”

“If it is a dream—and I know that it is—I will wake up from it.”

“You want to leave this place. To return to the world you know.”

“Of course I do.” She took a step back from its hanging head. “I do not belong here.”

“You do not and wish to leave. Pluck, then, one of its fruits.” It rolled its length along the tree trunk. “Eat it and you will go back to the world you know within the blink of an eye.”

Eve stared at the branch it was wrapped around. A fruit, very much like an apple, dangled down one of its stems. “Adam, what about him? I cannot leave him here?”

“But what care you of him?” The hiss was a derisive sound. “You do not know him. You owe him no allegiance. You think only of yourself. That is what humans do.”

“I am thinking of him.” Eve took another step back from the tree. The temptation to pluck the fruit was gripping. “I think I led him in here. It is my dream and I must save us both.”

“But you do not believe in love.”

“What has love to do with this?”

“Love is the beginning of all things. It is the root of all things. Without it, there is no good and no valour.” It poked its tongue at her and it looked as if it smirked. “You do not believe in love. What you do not believe, you cannot draw of its powers and attributes.”

“I…” She didn’t believe in love. Not in love between a man and a woman. But… she’d seen that love in Adam’s eyes. In all her dreams, every world they’d dropped into, she’d seen that love in his eyes. “He loves me.”

“True. But do you love him?”

“I…”

“Where there is no love, there cannot be sacrifice or salvation.” It nudged down the stem with its head. “Eat and save yourself. It is what you want and you know it.”

“I do not want to it! And I will save us both.” She spun around, ignored the malevolent hiss and started running across the widespread green field.

She saw him coming towards her and called out. “Adam!”

He saw her and at once, his eyes lit up. “Eve. You were coming to join me after all.” He took her hand when they drew close to each other. “See what I made for you.”

Eve looked at the image he placed inside her palm. It was an artwork, made of clay, of the Garden of Eden. “It is so beautiful.” She murmured.

“Less beautiful than you.” His hand touched her face.

“Adam.” She raised her eyes and held his. “We have to leave this place. We don’t belong here. We don’t even belong together. I entered your taxi and then I said…”

“You do not jest. Your eyes are solemn.” A shadow crossed his face. “Why do you talk of leaving and not belonging together? You were made for me, and I, for you.”

“No, I wasn’t. We are not made for each other.” She gripped tightly his hand. “We are only here by chance. You do not love me and I do not love you.”

“I love you. My heart, my body, my soul loves you.” His eyes were sad. And for reasons she couldn’t understand, that broke her heart. “I loved you from the moment you became and I shall love you for eternity.”

“But you don’t know me, Adam.”

“My heart knows you. In here,” he touched his hand underneath his breastbone, “I know you. I know you like I know myself and I love you like I love myself. You and I are one.”

“But…”

“Love is simple. It is easy. It is believing.” He took her hand and then placed it against his chest. “Hear those beats? They are for you. They are steady and certain and eternal. I love you.” He cupped one side of her face and caressed it. “And you love me.”

“I, uh…” Eve shook her head, struggled to grip on her senses.

“Fear not. Believe. Let your heart say yes.” He lowered his head and their foreheads touched. “I love you. My woman.”

“Yes.” He was sending vibrations from her forehead right through to her toes. “You love me truly and I am your woman.”

“Bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.” He raised his head, tilted it to one side, and his eyes bright with love and directly on hers, he kissed her.

Something, stronger, wilder, more potent, vibrated through her, rocked her and sent a moan through her mouth entwined with his. Then the earth beneath their feet rippled, it quaked, shuddered and then opened—again.

“No!” Eve snapped upright, reached forward… but her hand touched nothing.

“You’re finally awake. Was coming in to rouse you myself.”

“Mum?”

She stared around and discovered she was in her bedroom—at home.