Eve: A Novel Read Online Free PDF Page A

makes you look as radiant as a princess!”
    While he probably meant to be encouraging, the remark ignited a reaction that threatened to overwhelm her. What he said or how he said it tripped her headlong into dread.
    It started with a slow rising panic, like a sea swell, and was heightened by her inability to move. She concentrated on breathing slowly and deeply. The adrenaline rush of fear gradually subsided. Carefully, she let go the inner grip and inhaled and exhaled through clenched teeth.
    As she lay staring upward at the ceiling, tears blurred her vision.
    Again the man gently and carefully wiped her eyes and cheeks. Though he meant to be kind, she couldn’t stand his touch. And she couldn’t pull away. A tremble overtook her body.
    “My dear girl.” He sighed. “I do wish you could remember your name.”
    It seemed these tears were her only language now, incoherent liquid words.
    “I’ll be back soon.” He gently patted her arm and left the room.
    She dismissed the glimmer of a wish that he might understand. Now she fought against a rising rage. Its grip began to slowly crush her chest. Grateful that he had gone, she closed her eyes.
    A hand took hers. A mother’s fingers. Warm and soft. Sensation rushed back into extremities and chased away her fury.
    “Lilly!” Eve’s voice was a breeze whispering low in her ear. “Come back now. Come and see!”
    The joy in her tone, the security of her hand, overpowered Lilly’s resistance. She looked up, expecting Eve’s face, and gasped. Only an arm’s length away stood the towering barrier full of lightning flashes and thundering waterfalls. But as she took a step and lifted her hand to touch it, a whisper deep inside her heart said, “Unworthy.”
    Pulling away, she turned and gazed instead at the horizon, where a fiery sun was slowly sinking. Like a flower girl at a wedding march, the night threw shadows as announcements of a Beloved’s approach.
    Quietly she asked, “Mother Eve, what is this wall behind me?”
    “We are outside Eden’s boundary.”
    “Eden, like the Garden of Eden? ” The name surprised a memory that had long lain dormant. “My mom used to walk me down to this corner church when I was little and leave me there to learn stories. I thought Eden got drowned in a flood.”
    Eve laughed, clear and clean as a mountain spring, but Lilly felt embarrassed. The woman drew the girl in close to her side.
    “Lilly, you are not at risk with me. My amusement is because you said something funny. I will never laugh to shame you.”
    She didn’t know how to respond. Finally, when she did, it was a confession. “I feel stupid when I don’t know something I should.”
    Again Eve laughed, but this time Lilly didn’t flush. “My dear, how will you ever learn unless you first don’t know?”
    “I don’t know.” Then Lilly giggled herself. “Hah, I get it.”
    Eve pointed. Up, down, side to side, near and far. “Eden has six boundaries, if you include the ground. Eden is a cube. You understand a cube, Lilly?”
    “Yes,” she muttered. “I did go to school. But listen. I don’t mean to be rude, but it’s just a fairy tale. All of this. Even you. I’m going crazy, remember?”
    “Lilly, you do know that God created everything that exists?”
    “Only in these dreams,” she began. “In my real life, when I’m not hallucinating, I don’t believe any of this. What I believe is that everything came from nothing.”
    “Idid not ask what you believe. I asked you what you know.”
    “What’s the difference?”
    “Interesting! Seems these hallucinations might persuade you of things you don’t already believe. Experience is a force not easily discounted.” Lilly didn’t miss the irony of the challenge.
    “It’s safer to discount everything,” she said. “Especially if it seems undeniably real.”
    Eve fell silent for a time, then turned her attention back to the garden. “Eden is the grand delight, the deepest and the truest. There