How Adam Met Eve (A New World is Born.)        

Adam met Eve amidst the rubble of the world… echoes sat heavy where the ruins lay thickest, or silenced altogether and yet he heard singing … clear and dulcet, trembling a little with fear or weariness or age … he could not tell. Perhaps he was finally going mad.

He followed the sound of the voice down a wreckage-blocked road, buildings crushed and crumbling, shattered glass, all manner of debris hindered his progress. At every cluttered corner the beautiful singing led him around and onwards, until he realized he had trudged around an entire block and almost back to his starting point.

I am going mad, Adam thought wearily, sitting down heavily on a wide slab of cracked concrete. It had to happen. No man can live without company all these years… no man is island… the strain of being the last of my kind is just too much to bare… Little did he realize he not only thought these thoughts, but spoke them aloud.

As he sat there, the singing grew louder, closer, and Adam thought he heard a hint of crazy creep into the voice. Standing on the concrete block Adam called out into the empty world, "who goes there! Show yourself!"

Silence, even the singing stopped and Adam immediately regretted breaking whatever spell or trick of the wind that had created the lovely sound… any human sounding sound would have been a wondrous sound indeed at this point.

"I’m sorry" Adam yelled, a hint of crazy now creeping into his own voice, "don’t stop singing… please don’t stop!"

"Well make up your mind old man" a voice amidst the rubble, startled Adam, so much so he almost lost his footing and fell.

"Come down from there, before you break your foolish neck."

This time Adam pinpointed the sound of the voice, a broken and soiled shop mannequin in the ruins of a ransacked Myers window. He sighed heavily, "so I am going mad" he told the mannequin, "it was only a matter of time."

"Well, if you’re going mad, you just steer clear of me you old fool. Just my luck, only person I meet in 5 years and mad as a hatter. And conceited enough to believe he’s the only human alive. Pah! Not wasting my time on the likes of you!"

"Wait!" Adam searched the shadows until he found the true source of the voice – a middle aged woman with long grey plaits, dungarees and Bob Marley T-shirt. Around her neck she wore a heart shaped locket that had seen better days. Dented in on one edge, Adam doubted the locket still opened.

"I thought I WAS going mad" he told her lamely.

"You probably are… we both are… what choice do we have?" The woman smiling crookedly… "now come down from there and join me in a cup of herbal tea."

That is how Adam met Eve.

*

The two spent several hours talking… broke out rations and shared a meal… talked some more. They discussed the likelihood of the fabled Shangri-la actually existing … both claimed to know where it was located, soon realizing that they did indeed talk of the same area.

They decided then to find this place of idyllic waterfalls, lush plant life and unspoiled beauty; it would be their very own Eden, their home, their last resting place.

Before they left they searched the crumbling city for anything of use. Food, tools, weapons. Adam found a small screwdriver in the glovebox of an delivery van.

"You know Eve," he said, "I might be able to fix your locket, at least open it so you can see inside..."

"No!" Eve snapped, "don't touch it. What makes you think I even want to see inside?"

Four years the two traveled; They wandered silent highways, now graveyards to cancerous vehicles … they trekked inland past abandoned suburbs and isolated farms… faded echoes haunted them… windblown streets and hollowed buildings… They slowly, laboriously, climbed mountains, descending into verdant valleys.

Finally, they reached the place that both believed to be the legendary Shangri-la … and truly the valley was one of unmatched enchantment and magic.

 Adam fashioned a serviceable hut to live in… Eve planted the seeds she had been collecting and carrying for nigh on 10 years; years passed and Adam & Eve not only survived but seemed to flourish.

 One night as the pair sat beneath a crescent moon Eve noticed Adam staring at her in an odd manner.

"How long have we been here?" He asked suddenly.

"I have no idea" Eve replied,  "time ceased to have meaning many moons ago, before I even met you."

Adam looked at Eve closely… he scrutinized her face and hands and the straightness of her posture. He noticed the locket was no longer around Eve's neck.

"Do you remember when we first arrived here?" He enquired, "and how I couldn’t climb that peak where the nut tree grows?"

 Eve nodded

 "Well, I can climb it now… I feel fitter and stronger and younger… and you, my dear, look younger too. You look positively radiant."

 "Oh pishposh" Eve laughed, "that’s not possible."

"So you’re saying you don’t feel younger, that I’m imaging that spring in your step… imaging your flawless skin? " Adam raised his eyebrows questioningly… "you haven’t noticed more bounce in me?"

"Well, to be honest, yes" agreed Eve, "I have and it’s been troubling me."

"I shouldn’t be troubled if I were you," Adam laughed, "it’s a marvelous thing… we are getting younger!"

"But what if we continue to get younger? What happens if we end up as babes?" Eve demanded.

"We were going to die anyway"  Adam reminded her, "this way we live another lifetime… getting stronger and more vibrant as each year passes."

"I’m a bit frightened by that thought" admitted Eve… "more frightened then I was when the world ended."

"I’ll be at your side," Adam assured her… "besides, the world didn’t end… the world is still here… civilization ended… War and disease and hunger ended. We found this verdant Eden… WE are the new Adam and Eve. We planted vegetables and fruit trees; we created a food source…"

" Well you certainly sound a lot saner then the crazy man I first met, talking to mannequins!" Eve laughed.

"And you are even more beautiful than the beauty you were that day" Adam responded "and by the way, where is your locket? I hope you didn't lose it?"

"I didn't lose it" Eve said "I it in the waterfall"

"But why?"

"I don't need it anymore, I have you"

*

Sharonlee Goodhand