Eden

He was truly arrogant. I was his servant. His beloved angel. One of them. My brothers were strong and obedient, never questioning his demands. They tried to hush me when I asked questions. It infuriated him that I didn't always just take his word. I grew more and more inquisitive. My brothers tried to warn me but I didn't listen. He would always love me unconditionally, right?

One day he accused me of believing I was his equal. I didn't contradict his accusation exactly. It fueled more questions. What if I were his equal?

That was taking it too far.

He enjoyed entertaining himself by watching the interations of a species that had developed on a planet called Earth. The species was quite early in development and had only just started to evolve from beasts.

 He began sending us to interact with the new species. He had an agenda. I wasn't sure it was in the best interest of the residents of the pretty little planet.

When he grew so angry with me that he would have killed me, instead he banished me to walk the planet with the underdeveloped young species, never to reside with him in the heavens again. I was quite literally grounded.

A boy was left in an oasis for his entertainment. They gave him their child in exchange for his help in hunting and conquering for a season.

I stayed near to watch. They later brought him a girl. He wanted them to have children under his command. They grew older, doing whatever they were told, questioning nothing. He was doing the same to these humans as he had done to my brothers and I. The difference? The humans could reproduce.

Most of his actions and teachings seemed to be based on his egotistical and jealous nature. He had recently been divorced by this wife because of these things. I watched as he showed favor towards the male and largely ignored the female. He was still bitter.

I felt sorry for the innocent humans as I watched them cower every time his voice boomed into their garden with some new command or law. 

He went so far as to forbid them eating from one particular tree with very succulant fruit hanging from it. There was nothing wrong with the fruit. It was delicious and healthy, but he told them that if they ate it they would die. He lied to them and it broke my heart to watch them avoid the tree so carefully while they longed to taste from it.

Finally I had had enough. I decided to speak to them while he was occupied elsewhere as he often was. Usually spying on or harassing his ex wife.

The man, Adam, was so devoted to him that I decided Eve would be best to talk to. She didn't have the connection that Adam did with their 'God'.

I intercepted her while her husband was elsewhere. She was friendly and seemed happy to talk to someone other than Adam.

It didn't take long before we were laughing and talking like old friends. I liked her. She had such an interesting and open spirit. She was intelligent and curious.

I began to share stories with her, but I changed some things so as not to frighten her or have her believe me a liar. I wanted to tell her everything but I held back, unsure of how much she could handle.

I told her to beware of the one they thought was their 'God'. That his agenda might not be to their benefit. I told her that he was not so nice, so loving, as he had them believe. I told her of my own banishment and that my crime was simply curiosity. Wanting to know more about myself, about him. I told her the fruit from the tree was ordinary, very delicious fruit and that he only told them not to eat it to test their obedience. That he didn't want them to know what he knew. I told her that I believed if we were able to learn what he knows, it would remove his power over us.

She listened in disbelief at first.

"Hey, if you don't believe me, go ahead and try the fruit. You'll see that it won't hurt you. I promise it won't."

She reached out and with a shaking hand, touched a piece of the fruit hanging from a branch of the tree. When nothing happened, I winked at her.

Hearing her husband calling her, I said goodbye. I told her I'd come back to see her another day.

I didn't go far. I watched as she animatedly told Adam everything I had told her. The two decided to test my information and they bravely plucked a fruit from the tree. Adam bit it and handed it to his wife. She took a bite. They looked at each other in shock when nothing happened to them.

Suddenly his angry booming voice startled all three of us. I sank further into the shadows and watched him verbally attack my new friend and her husband. I watched as tears rolled down her cheeks when Adam tried to blame her instead of standing up to him and protecting her. I was apalled. What's more, without even a second chance, he did to them what he had done to me. He banished then from the oasis. They would have to struggle to survive out in the desert.

A tear escaped my eye as I watched the two innocent people I had grown fond of being kicked out of the only home they had ever known by the one being they thought loved them and would never hurt them. I saw myself in their terrified faces.

I vowed to be there to guide and protect them to the best of my ability and I quietly followed them as they left the Garden of Eden.