Infinity in the Palm of Her Hand: A Novel of Adam and Eve Read Online Free PDF Page B

to rise up like a disproportionate finger and unequivocally point to Eve’s belly. She, her body tense, gave in to her desire to lick Adam all over. Soon, on the floor of the grotto, they were a sphere of legs and arms and hands and mouths among moans and muffled laugher, pursuing, stroking, exploring each other, slowly, marveling at what their bodies suddenly unfolded, the hidden moistness and unexpected erections, the magnetic effect of their mouths, lips, and tongues joining together like secret passages through which the sea of one exploded on the shore of the other. However much they touched, they could not sate their desire for more. They were sweating profusely, burning in their ardor, when Adam was struck by an uncontainable impulse to release the torrent rising from his center into Eve’s body, and she, at last gifted with knowledge, knewthat she must open an inner path for him, that it was toward there the surprising extremity that had suddenly appeared between Adam’s legs was pointing. Finally, one inside the other, they experienced the rapture of once again being a single body. They knew that as long as they stayed that way, they would never again know loneliness. Even if words were to desert them and silence fill their minds, they would be able to lie together and say things to each other without speaking. They thought that this was undoubtedly the knowledge the Serpent had told them they would possess when they ate of the fruit of the Tree. Rocking together, arms around each other, they returned to nothingness, and their bodies, unbounded, were created anew to mark the beginning of the world and of History.

CHAPTER 6
    F OR THE SECOND TIME IN HIS LIFE, ADAM SLEPT. IN his sleep he saw an immense sphere bristling with spikes. The spikes were straight, upright trees. From each tree emerged the waist, torso, and head of a half-formed man or a half-formed woman. Each of these half-tree, half-human beings had clinging to its outstretched arms other men and other women, who formed the tops of that vast humanoid forest. One by one they were breaking off. They cracked and split and fell to the ground, expelling long laments. Adam flew above the throng of staring faces impotently contemplating him; their voices rang out in his heart, disconcerted by the terror of an end they could not comprehend. Adam flew on. He could not stop that circling flight; he could not stop the crashing of the dying trees.
    He awoke trembling. He sat up beside Eve. He woke her. Outside he heard the vengeful, antagonistic roar of the wind. The Earth was convulsing. He thought that it must be the faint throbbing with which it sometimes declared itself alive, but he was troubled by the hostile energy with which they werebeing shaken; it was as if the Earth were attempting to rid itself of them. Eve looked at him with alarm. The cave where only recently they had lain in such happy reveling was being pummeled by a gigantic fist. Pieces of crystals and rosy quartz were breaking loose, shattering into bits when they fell. They were assaulted by hostile rocks and dust. The world of cataclysms and strayed comets whose noise had from time to time filtered into their evenings suddenly erupted beneath their feet. Adam, Adam! Could it be because we ate the fruit? I too saw our descendants, he yelled; they will live but because of our guilt they will die. One by one they will be broken off and they will fall, he moaned. He tried to get to his feet, to walk, but he was unable to find his balance. He fell again and again. Pieces of rocks kept raining down; the walls of the cave were bursting open. A dark cloud of dust enveloped them, forcing them to close their eyes. Eve buried her head in her arms. Like Adam, she tried to walk, and also like him, she fell with each attempt. Now they would die, she thought. Everything the Serpent had foretold would come to pass. Crawling, Adam succeeded in moving forward a short distance. He told her to do the same