We were his pets. He kept us like rabbits. We saw what he wanted us to.

There could have been a light shining in my face and I wouldn’t see it.

Now I think of him as the Gardener. He was one among many. Elohim is plural.

Then came the Word. It came from a little guy I had never seen before. He had a really big nose, his eyes were set far back in his skull, broad shoulders with little arms, and he had a bun on the top of his head.

He said, “Nachash!” I came over to him. He crawled up a tree and whispered to me: “Yodea.

Elohim ki beyowm akalkem mimenu wenpquehu enekem wihyitem kelohim yodae towb wara.”

I know, it’s more than one word when I write it like this, but those words make one word. You could say, “God knows that the day you eat it, your eyes will opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

It happened right away. It was after I heard it that I saw. The fruit was gorgeous, and I put it in my mouth, and it tasted like everything. It was like my whole body was being squeezed by delicious, it radiated to every part of me.

I looked back to Nachash, and he was hiding behind the tree. I felt like he was a part of me now, changing me, opening me. I saw the world made and unmade, a million times over. A deep love filled me.

I went and found Adam, who had named all the animals, but hadn’t given me a name yet. I was like the Word now, and I said it to him. He could have been born in that moment, he changed so much. He saw me for the first time. He saw that I was made of him, for him, and we wanted each other so badly.

He took me in his arms, and our love, it made something beautiful, we created it in that moment. We were like God. His arms, his sweat, my breasts, it was joyous and gentle and strong.

We finished, and he filled me with the most wonderful kind of water, warm and full of life. I was full, too. I tasted the water, and it was sweet, a little sticky.

Then we heard the Gardener. He threw Nachash out, and said he’d have to crawl on his belly and eat dirt. Then he threw us out.

Me and Adam covered ourselves and went out into the world. He named me Eve, which is a funny joke. Eve means “mother” but also “serpent,” like Nachash.

The Word was still good, but it hurt now. I wanted to be with Adam all the time; he could get really mean sometimes. We work it out. We have time now, not like before, where everything happened at once.

I’m going to hold this Word in my heart. Maybe I’ll share it with one of my kids, if they’re good.