C. L. Moore - Fruit Of Knowledge

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Fruit of Knowledge

It was the first Sabbath. Down the open glades of Eden a breeze stirred

softly. Nothing else in sight moved except a small winged head that fluttered,

yawning, across the glade and vanished among leaves that drew back to receive

it. The air quivered behind it like a wake left in water of incomparable

clarity. From far away and far above a faint drift of singing echoed,

"Hosannah . . - hosannah . . - hosannah-" The seraphim were singing about the

Throne.

A pool at the edge of the glade gave back light and color like a great, dim

jewel. It gave back reflections, too. The woman who bent over it had just

discovered that. She was leaning above the water until her cloudy dark hair

almost dipped into the surface. There was a curious shadow all about her, like

a thin garment which did not quite conceal how lovely she was, and though no

breeze stirred just now, that shadow garment moved uneasily upon her and her

hair lifted a little as if upon a breeze that did not blow.

She was so quiet that a passing cherub-head paused above the water to look,

too, hanging like a hummingbird motionless over its own reflection in the

pool.

"Pretty!" approved the cherub in a small, piping voice. "New here, aren't

you?"

The woman looked up with a slow smile, putting back the veil of her hair.

"Yes, I am," she answered softly. Her voice did not sound quite sure of

itself. She had never spoken aloud before until this moment.

"You'll like the Garden," said the cherub in a slightly patronizing tone,

giving his rainbow wings a shake. "Anything I can do for you? I'm not busy

just now. Be glad to show you around."

"Thank you," smiled the woman, her voice sounding a little more confident.

"I'll find my way."

The cherub shrugged his colored wings. "Just as you say. By the way, I suppose

they warned you about the Tree?"

The woman glanced up at him rather quickly, her shadowy eyes narrowing.

"The Tree? Is there danger?"

"Oh, no. You mustn't touch it, that's all. It's the one in the middle of the

Garden, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil-you can't miss it. I saw

the Man looking at it yesterday for quite a while. That reminds me, have you

met the Man?"

The woman bent her head so that the hair swung forward to veil her face. From

behind it, in a voice that sounded as if she might be smiling, she said:

"He's waiting for me now."

"Oh?" said the cherub, impressed. "Well, you'll find him over by the orange

grove east of the Tree. He's resting. It's the Day of Rest, you know." The

cherub tilted an intimate eyebrow heavenward and added: "He's resting, too.

Hear the singing? He made the Man only yesterday, right out of this very earth

you're standing on. We were all watching. It was wonderful- Afterward, He

called the man Adam, and then Adam named the animals- By the way, what's your

name?"

The woman smiled down at her own veiled reflection in the water. After a

moment- "Lilith," she said.

The cherub stared, his eyes widening into two blue circles of surprise. He was

speechless for an instant. Then he purs~d his pink mouth to whistle softly.

"Why," he stammered, "you . . . you're the Queen of Air and Darkness!"

Smiling up at him from the corners of her eyes, the woman nodded. The cherub

stared at her big-eyed for a moment longer, too overcome for speech. Then,

suddenly, he beat his rainbow pinions together and darted off through the

trees without another word, the translucent air rippling in a lazy,

half-visible wake behind him. Lilith looked after him with a shadowy smile on

her face. He was going to warn Adam. The smile deepened. Let him.

Lilith turned for one last glance into the mirror of the pool at the strange

new shape she had just put on. It was the newest thing in creation-not even

God knew about it. And rather surprisingly, she thought she was going to like

it. She did not feel nearly as stifled and heavy as she had expected to feel,

and there was something distinctly pleasant in the softness of the breeze

pouring caressingly about her body, the fragrance of springtime sweet in her

nostrils, the grass under

her bare feet. The Garden was beautiful with a beauty she had not realized

until she saw it through human eyes. Everything she saw through them, indeed,

was curiously different now. Here in this flesh all her faculties seemed

refocused, as if she, who had always seen with such crystal clarity, now

looked through rainbows at everything she saw. But it was a pleasant

refocusing. She wished she had longer to enjoy her tenancy in this five-sensed

flesh she shared with Adam.

But she had very little time. She glanced up toward the bright, unchanging

glory above the trees as if she could pierce the floor of heaven and see God

resting on the unimaginable splendor of the Throne while the seraphim chanted

in long, shining rows about him. At any moment he might stir and lean forward

over Eden, looking down. Lilith instinctively shrugged her shadowy garment

closer about her. If he did not look too closely, he might not pierce that

shadow. But if he did- A little thrill of excitement, like forked lightning,

went through the strange new flesh she wore. She liked danger.

She bent over the pool for one last look at herself, and the pool was a great,

dim eye looking back at her, almost sentient, almost aware of her. This was a

living Garden. The translucent air quivered with a rhythmic pulsing through

the trees; the ground was resilient under her feet; vines drew back to let her

pass beneath them. Lilith, turning away through the swimming air after the

cherub, puzzled a little as she walked through the parting trees. The relation

was very close between flesh and earth-perhaps her body was so responsive to

the beauty of the Garden because it aped so closely flesh that had been a part

of the Garden yesterday. And if even she felt that kinship, what must Adam

feel, who was himself earth only yesterday?

The Garden was like a vast, half-sentient entity all around her, pulsing

subtly with the pulse of the lucent air. Had God drawn from this immense and

throbbing fecundity all the life which peopled Eden? Was Adam merely an

extension of it, a focus and intensification of the same life which pulsed

through the Garden? Creation was too new; she could only guess.

She thought, too, of the Tree of Knowledge as she walked smoothly through the

trees. That Tree, tempting and forbidden. Why? Was God testing Man somehow?

Was Man then, not quite finished, after all? Was there any flaw in Eden?

Suddenly she knew that there must be. Her very presence here was proof of it,

for she, above all others, had no right to intrude into this magical closed

sphere which was God's greatest work. Yet here she walked through the heart of

it, and not even God knew, yet- Lilith slanted a smile up through the leaves

toward the choruses of

the seraphim whose singing swelled and sank and swelled again, unutterably

sweet high above the trees. The animals watched her pass with wide, bewildered

eyes, somehow not quite at ease, although no such thing as fear had yet

stirred through the Garden. Lilith glanced at them curiously as she passed.

They were pretty things. She liked Eden.

Presently a swooning fragrance came drifting to her through the trees, almost

too sweet to enjoy, and she heard a small voice piping excitedly: "Lilith . .

. Air and Darkness- He won't like it! Michael ought to know-"

Liith smiled and stepped clear of the trees into the full, soft glow of Eden's

sun. It did not touch the shadow that dimly veiled the pale contours of this

newest shape in Eden. Once or twice that intangible breeze lifted her hair in

a great, dim cloud about her, though no leaves moved. She stood quiet, staring

across the glade, and as she stared she felt the first small tremor of

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C. L. Moore - Fruit Of Knowledge

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