Eve: A Novel Read Online Free PDF Page B

picked up its pace.
    From inside out, this mound of dirt now bubbled up bloodred water, gushing from an unseen aquifer. Adonai sang into it and then with tears and laughter plunged His hands into the holy mess with a shout that brought Lilly to her feet. The labor was nearly finished. Then, with a piercing, wrenching scream, Adonai raised above His head a newborn baby.
    “A son is born, a son is born!” All creation erupted into jubilant sound, and Lilly rode the crest of birthday’s celebration. Sheyelled to be heard over the crowd: “Mother Eve! Did you see?” It was impossible to find her. But as Lilly turned, a whisper of truth settled on her shoulders: She had seen. Although it stirred in her an overwhelming array of longings and emotions, Eve had kept her promise. Lilly had no regrets at all about witnessing this birth.
    The crystal-clear and gentle voice of Eternal Man now sang above the cacophony: “This is My heart’s delight, the crowning of all creation. I present to you My beloved son, in whom My soul delights. They shall be named Adam!”
    They? The baby was not moving.
    Lilly’s hope faltered. Bewildered and then alarmed, Lilly desperately cried out, “The baby! The baby is not breathing!”
    •  •  •
    “S HE’S SEIZING !” J OHN’S VOICE yelled as if from a great distance. “Do something!”
    Lilly felt her body quaking, muscles firing, contracting and expanding. A flooding sensation of warm and liquid light penetrated her closed eyes. She felt entirely weightless, her spasms buffered by whatever she was floating in.
    “Shut it down!” a woman commanded.
    But the baby isn’t breathing! She screamed the thought before a blinding flash of white. Then her eyes opened to an unmoving expanse. A sky that was not a sky. Blue, flat, unglorious. She was back in her room, lying as still as the lifeless child.

Four
----

S ECRETS
    C oncernfor the baby nagged at her. Like a tongue that returns repeatedly to the emptiness of a recently lost tooth, so did her mind to what she had witnessed. But after two nights without a visitation or dream, Lilly began to doubt herself again. What she saw while floating in the thick, breathable dark must have been a reaction to administered drugs. Random images wandered in her brain: a mash-up of old Sunday school stories and television shows from her hazy past. It was the only plausible theory she could cobble together, and alternatives were too bizarre to consider seriously. But then . . . there was the baby.
    Though she could feel her strength returning, Lilly’s gaze remained fixed upward. Her chamber was almost cavelike, the curved ceiling shades of seashell and ivory with rippling hues of bone and pearl. A suggestion of periwinkle and powder blue touched the edges of her vision. It was almost like a sky, but onethat refused to shift or change. Maybe made of marble, its oddly comforting patterns accentuated by even minor variations of light.
    She watched for any movement, some bug or creature flitting on the ceiling, but the room was sterile and her only company was John and Letty. He had given her no reason to fear him, but it still felt safer to be on guard.
    Throughout the work of waiting, she listened to John’s companionable conversation, absorbing information. Neither handsome nor ugly, he had a pleasant face that lit up and became almost beautiful when he smiled or laughed. She studied that face whenever he leaned over her, looking for something hidden, something suspect, and decided he should not be fully trusted. His skin was a deeply sunbaked brown, his beard short and trimmed, his face framed by black and silver hair. His features made her think he was from the Middle East. He was old. Not old-old . . . but older. Although she resisted the thought, there was something about him she liked.
    Her own identity and history remained a mystery to both of them, enshrouded in shadows too thick and bleak to explore. Whatever the details, Lilly felt