The Man walked through the dappled glade, feeling the warm sun against his bare skin. It had been a beautiful day, just like they all had. But a change had come over the weather, something he had not felt before. There was a build up in pressure in the air and, although the sun still shone bright, it did so through a gauzy film of cloud that seemed to be steadily building.
There was something a little unsettling in the change of weather, but only a little, above all he had faith that this was part of the plan, that, like everything else that had happened, this would turn out for the best.
It had been bright sunshine that morning when he had first set out. He had wanted to explore the eastern part of the Garden, near where the great river ran out of the water gate into the wide world beyond.
The Woman had not wanted to come with him, preferring to gather fruits near the glade that was their home, so he had set off alone. At first they had not wanted to be parted for even a moment and had spent every waking hour walking hand in hand through the Garden, marvelling in its sights and sounds and they had spent the nights sleeping softly in each other's arms.
But after many, many days, too many to count, the Woman had begun to favour spending more and more time in the glade while he was ever more inclined to wander far, even as far as the great walls circling the Garden.
So today, he had travelled even as far as the extreme eastern edge of the Garden and had run his hand along the rough stone wall along its circuit. A thought came into his head, to see what lay beyond.
The thought gave him a moment's pause, which was itself unusual, as to whether such a thing was allowed. The Master had given them the Garden and surely that was enough? But the Master had only laid one command on them and it wasn't this. Besides, he didn't plan to leave the Garden, merely peer beyond.
He had found a nearby tree and started to climb it, which was something he had never done before. The bark of the tree was rough but in a way that felt good to grasp. He found the ascent a little difficult and often had to pause to consider his next move. But again the difficulty simply increased his pleasure as each small obstacle overcome felt like a minor victory.
He almost forgot why he had even started to climb and was simply concerned with climbing higher and higher, losing himself in this new and simple pleasure. Soon enough however be reached a point where the branches would no longer bear his weight and he remembered his original purpose. He was easily higher than the wall now so he turned his head and looked East.
The great river ran wild and rugged through a vast and rocky landscape. To eyes accustomed to the lush richness of the Garden, the wide world looked almost unimaginably barren and desolate. There were a few stark and broken trees and clumps of grass scattered between the rocks and the sandy wastes. Somewhere in the distance a lone jackal scampered towards the horizon.
Clearly life was possible beyond the Garden walls but only in a stunted, precarious form. The whole vista was bleak, dreary and monotonous, broken only by distant mountains thrust up like broken teeth along the horizon.
The Man shuddered and turned his face away. He had seen enough. He couldn't ever imagine wanting to see it again.
Turning to look at the Garden after starting at the wasteland, it seemed almost shockingly green and the merry chatter of birds in the branches, which seemed as though they had fallen silent when he gazed out over the wasteland, to be deafeningly loud.
He drank in every sight of it. The great river splashed playfully through the rocky pools in the Garden, so unlike the raging angry torrent it became beyond the wall. A family of deer stooped down to drink by one of the shallow pools.
The rich green canopy of the forest stretched away in every direction. And in the very heart of the Garden, upon a smooth green hill, the two great trees grew.
His heart leapt inside him and he was overcome with the sudden desire to return to the Woman and be blissfully beside her in their glade in this beautiful Garden, all desire to see more quite forgotten.
He scampered down the great tree, quicker perhaps than was wise, falling almost as much as climbing, the branches whipping and scratching him on the way down, but he paid no attention to that.
Reaching the lowest branch, he jumped down and set off at a run. But he had travelled most of the morning to get there and it was too far for a run. And as he moved swiftly through the Garden, it worked its familiar magic on him and all urgency seemed to leave him. The memory of the great wasteland soon seemed to feel like something confused and out of a dream.
That unfamiliar thrill of horror that had gripped him soon began to subside and if it hadn't been for the steady build up of pressure in the day he might even have entirely forgotten it. His pace became languid and it was already late afternoon when he arrived back at the glade.
The Woman wasn't there.
He called for her but heard no response. He wandered on again and called again and again until finally he heard her call back. Her voice came out from the direction of the green glade with the great trees.
His heart full of foreboding, he rushed towards her.
She was sat at the very foot of the tree, her legs slightly parted and a faraway look in her eyes. Straightaway he noticed something different about her, so that at first he didn't even notice the half eaten fruit in her hand.
He didn't know how to describe the change but it was unmistakable. She looked somehow even more real than everything around her. But harder somehow, the soft gentleness of her was tempered somehow.
But she looked even more beautiful than ever, even if it was a beauty that unsettled him.
She looked up at him, a look in her eyes that he didn't recognise, eyes flashing and hungry as she gazed on his naked body. There was a desire there he didn't understand.
Then he saw the fruit.
He was somehow less shocked than he might have been. There was, perhaps, something inevitable about it.
The pressure in the atmosphere was becoming unbearable. A change was coming.
