Forbidden Fruit from the Inedible Beauty

We do not really know from whence we came; we have just always been. The Garden where we live is beyond description. I do not yet have enough words to describe its beauty. The land beneath our feet is marvelous. It is soft, yet sturdy under our feet. It takes on a different hue in different areas of the Garden. Our Garden.

The glorious, elevated protrusions seem to beckon to me, each one with its own unique form and offering. I am delighted by the mostly round items hanging from the taller gangly creations than those closer to the land. When I place them in my mouth, pure ecstasy overcomes me. Sometimes, I leap around the land in delight. Sometimes, new expressions and strange sounds spring forth from my lips. I enjoy partaking of each and savoring my body’s response.

I lay against one of the largest protrusions and allow the swaying of the gangly limbs to block the beams of the light to cool my skin. Appetizing growths that hang in midair along its extremities, are worth admiring and relishing. In the distance, I can see the area that seems to glow as the light hits it and is turned away. It may be called water if I recall it accurately. It is gathered together below the sharp-edged structure that has lovely white wisps all around it and some appear to have joined with it at the top. I am certain we are calling these mountains. All around, I see creatures who frolic and play or languish in the light as I do.

From where I sit, I can see it. The one that cannot be utilized. The one that is forbidden. Its beauty eclipses that of all the others. Its appendages are elegant and smooth. They glide out from its magnificent base and nearly take flight into the azure expanse above us. But its grandeur does not end there. The tint of its foundation resembles the mocha color of our skin and is blended with a darker hue as it stretches out beyond its widest point reaching upward toward the wispy white mists that hang above us. All along its boughs are smaller outcroppings delicately holding its jewels. As the jewels dance in the light, my longing increases. What would this body feel? How would this body react to their flavor? How high would I jump from the joy? What would my mouth utter in response?

Raising myself up, I attempt to attract my partner. I must force the air from my mouth in order to make a sound he will respond to.

“Man!” The sound rings out and causes my face to contract upward around the opening.

With much effort, I manage to produce, “Where are you, Man?”

I wait and listen. No familiar sound returns to me. I will not try again.

“I have asked you to call me A - dam.” His words have so much force that I experience a strange sensation in my head.

“Yes, I could not remember it just then.”

“Why did you sing?” He asks pulling two pears from a branch of the host I am reclining against.

“I wanted to ask again about the strange inedible beauty.”

“Not that again,” he groaned. “We must not partake of it, or we will no longer be.”

“But how did you come to know this?” I questioned as I had done so many times before. His answers never seemed to dissuade me or quiet my longings.

“I do not know. But it seems as if I have always known. Let us go to the water and swim,” he says handing me a pear and clearly trying to distract me.

I am inclined to oblige him as I too enjoy “the swim.” When we enter the water, I again marvel at how I can see right through it. My feet seem to rest on smooth objects that do not move. Soon, the other creatures take notice of us, and many join us and splash and play with A – dam. The one whose limb rises above the water entertains us all by jumping, splashing and making sharp sounds. Another similar being tries, however, is unsuccessful at repeating these movements.

“It is a shark. It cannot jump like the dolphin,” says my partner. I feel my zeal diminish and reach out my hand to comfort it. The shark swims back and forth under my hand and I become brave enough to allow it to pull me through the water.

“Come, let me show you where the water comes down to fill this area,” A – dam insists. He takes me up into the sharp-edged structure called mountain until we stop at a magnificent place where the water leaps from the land and falls down to gather again below. My heart is dancing with delight witnessing such an amazing event. Still, there is more for me to see above.

We continue to climb the mountain well above the place where the water falls down to a pristine place that has no green living there. It is pure white. And the water that I could see right through below is cloudy and hard. A – dam attempts to walk across it and lies down quickly. I think it is better to lie down first and then move across it slowly. When I reach him, his mouth is turned upward, and he is moving erratically as if he will break.”

“What is this?” I inquire.

“Ice. The water has changed its form to “frozen,” it’s from the cold.” He can see that I am confused.

“Oh. You mean why I am moving about?” I nod. “I am laughing.”

“What is laughing?”

“Expressing my joy,” said A – dam, but I did not understand. We left the frozen pond and began to walk back down the mountain as he tried to explain.

We reached the beautiful green short swaying plants that always tickled my feet as I walked across them. A – dam took hold of my hand and pulled me down onto the earth and began to place his lips upon mine. We remained there for quite some time enjoying each other.

“Did you enjoy that as I did?” A – dam asked placing a marigold flower he had just picked in my hair.

“Yes,” I replied, not knowing how it would be possible for me to know of his enjoyment.

“A – dam, how is it that you say it is as if you have always known that we must not partake of the inedible beauty, and I have only just learned of it?”

“Wo – man, you did not have enough pleasure from our union? You still long for the fruit of the tree?” He cried in despair.

“I just want to touch it.” I said feeling quite bold. “That won’t destroy me, will it?”

“I don’t know,” he sighs.

“You do not know?” In my mind, that meant he did not surely know anything else either. I jumped up and ran past a bull lounging among the flowers, some lions chasing each other and a giraffe to get to the tree as fast as this body could cover the land. My breath was escaping me very quickly and, for a moment, I thought maybe I was “ceasing to be” already. What did I have to lose, I thought, as I approached the tree?

Suddenly, a colossal being appeared between myself and the inedible beauty. It was clothed in white and had an amazing appendage that was glistening in the light. It was long and flat and emitted a delightful green light from the precious jewels which adorned its edges. I presume that this being desires to prevent me from partaking of the beauty’s crop, but its presence did not evoke any repellant in my nature.

“This is a forbidden source Wo – man. You must not partake of it.” Decreed the angelic being.

“How will you prevent me from doing so?” I inquired.

“I cannot.”

My eyes opened wide, and I moved closer to the forbidden entity. I lifted my hand to caress the exterior when A – dam caught hold of my arm.

“Please, do not do this. You will cease to be, and I will be left here alone. Are not all the other parts of this garden pleasing to you?”

“Yes, they are indeed pleasing to gaze upon and to consume.”

“Then, why must you disobey and dine upon this fruit, as well?”

“I want to experience it for myself,” was the only way I could explain it to him.

He released my hand, and I placed my hand upon the trunk of the tree and immediately felt its glorious sustenance throughout every fiber of my being. I smiled at A - dam from ear to ear, but I could see he did not share my enthusiasm.

Slowly, I raised my arm above my head and grasped the fruit in my hand. It was soft and firm and had a white substance that leaked onto my hand. I gave it a firm jerk and broke it off cleanly. As I raised it to my mouth every cell in my body began to dance with excitement. A – dam was watching in horror.

I opened my mouth and gently placed the end onto my tongue. As it came in contact with my tongue, a tingly sensation shot through my mouth. I bit down on it and delighted in the soft pillowy texture that brought instant joy. I relished its existence on my tongue, swallowed decisively and then waited.

“You see, I will not surely die,” I declared as I took another bite. Uncontrollably, I gobbled down one piece after another, barely giving myself a chance to breath. My body was teeming with exhilaration and energy.

“Come A – dam, eat with me,” I urged. But he refused to join me. I could not understand his reluctance. Nothing bad was happening to me.

I filled my stomach to capacity. It was protruding from my body and felt rigid. A – dam suggested that I lie down on the earth and rest. Without feeling that I was agreeing to it, my body reclined anyway. I stared up at the azure expanse smiling as I felt my eyes glazing over and beginning to close.

A - dam knelt next to me and placed his hand on my rib cage. All of a sudden, I dissolved right into the dirt and one rib remained in his hand. He sat down on a rock and shook his head back and forth until God showed up.

“These women you keep giving me are stubborn. No matter what I say, they eat from the chocolate cake tree, anyway. I tried telling them about you. I tried not telling them about you. I tried telling them about a monster serpent that would eat them if they ate it. Nothing works!”

“That one lasted a long time, though,” God said.

“Do you have another plan?” asked A – dam.

“Yes, I have a present for you.” He stretches out his hand and a mysterious box wrapped in brown paper appears.

“Open it,” says God.

A – dam is hesitant. He has never seen anything like this before.

“Just pull off the paper like this,” God says helping him.

“It is very unusual.” A – dam says staring at the box. “Thank you.”

“No, you must open the box.”

“Ok. How do I do it?”

“Pull the top. Yes, that is it.”

A – dam peers into the box. He recognizes the round shape inside the box.

“Is it a large fruit?” he asks.

“No. It’s a ball!”