As It Was In The Beginning, Is Now And Ever Shall Be

In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.

Time passed.

Two young lovers in smudgy gardening jumpsuits stood side by side under the shimmering afternoon sun in marvel at the beauty they’d created in their very own backyard. It was a vast assortment of roses, lilies, violets, dandelions, chrysanthemums, and a great many other exotic, flamboyant flowers forming a multicolored, vibrant sea of sweet smells and wondrous foliage. It was postcard perfect.

Adeline and Evan were more than proud of the accomplishments achieved in their garden. They believed that God’s presence was ever so strong in that garden, and as well they felt the flowers symbolized different aspects of justness and good in their lives. The lily, so clean and so bright, signified purity; the rose fair and so handsome, signified beauty; the violets held the colorful holiness while the chrysanthemums brought forth a sense of humility. Adeline and Evan, being the strong disciples that they were, believed that God had instilled these notions of symbolism in their hearts in order to keep them on the right path; one of the reasons why they adored the garden so passionately.

But what truly made their hearts fall was the golden apple tree. Right in the very center of the garden stood a grand and lovely tree which bore purely golden apples. No hint or hue of yellow, orange, red or green stained them. Even the trunk of the held a tannish shade, and the leaves wafted peaceful in the buoyant air glowing a lovely, dark emerald. To Evan and his wife, the many apples about the tree symbolized the many eyes of God, and the tree symbolized God himself amid the utopia of justness and good created by the virtuous crowed of flowers that set about him eagerly listening and ready to learn more.

“Look, Addy,” Evan whispered. “Look at how beautiful it’s become.” Adeline could not remove her eyes from the golden apple tree. She often spent much time staring into the eyes of the tree; praying by it; reading under it, sleeping beside it.

“Oh, Evan I hope winter never comes.” And winter never came. But it was November now and Adeline feared each day that snow would swoop it’s icy arms down and wrap a blanket of snow around the garden, but it never snowed where they were. It never snowed.

“Did you feel that, dear?” Evan felt a dash of ominous rain sprinkle onto the tip of his pointy nose. “We should head inside. I’ll start fixing that hole in the roof, and you can start on supper.” Adeline agreed. Together, hand in hand, they headed back to their humble, little house and set about doing their chores.

The two had met and fell in love by the age of four. They attended all of the same schools from start to finish and maintained a picture perfect relationship. All of the small quirks and kinks that they may have stumbled upon were weeded out with time. To Evan’s delight, Adeline blossomed into an extremely beautiful, dark haired women who loved to read and could cook up a storm. What he admired most about his whife was her smile, her simplicity, and her deep devotion to the garden in which they’ve invested so much.

Evan, on the other hand, was plain looking and rather skinny. He possessed several defining wrinkles on his face which brought out his notably pointy nose that sat under his thick bifocals. What struck Adeline about her husband was the fact that he was a hard working business lawyer desperately itching his way from small claims to respectable cases parading up and down the city with a stiff suit and a brief case, but at the end of each difficult day thrown onto his shoulders by the cruel world, he was still able to write poetry for her, study the scriptures with her, work in the garden with her, and listen to her. Oh, he loved to listen to her; especially considering the fact that she could sing like a bird.

However, it was his strong, unbreakable love for her that kept her amazed. He loved her with every last fiber of his being, and would willfully lay down his life for her in less then a second without thinking twice. She was everything to him. He felt she was a gift given to him directly from God in order to not only be his companion, but to aid him in his journey to heaven.

The two lived in a small house out away from the road, away from other people, away from the crazy world. Their home was where they had each other and their Lord. It was their sanctuary.

At supper that night, the two ate slowly and spent most of the time lovingly staring into each other’s eyes as they often did sitting across from one another. The candles in between them flickered like tiny wings. The serenity and silence at the table was broken.

“So they will finally become to our place for thanksgiving. I don’t know whether to be joyful or fearful,” Adeline said with a curled brow.

“Don’t worry, love. I’ll take care of things,” responded Evan gingerly as he placed his hand on hers. “You are a wonderful cook. Our families most certainly will not complain about the food.”

“It’s not that, Evan.” A wistful smile ensued. “It’s the garden. I’ve spoken so highly of it to everyone. I’m afraid they will come here and see it and will think little of it.”

“Love, anyone that thinks little of the splendor and magnificence we’ve created in our garden, does not nor will they ever understand true beauty and the wonders of nature and God, Amen.” The two embarked upon silence again as they inflected on the purity and the sanctity of their garden.

“I wonder if it’s holy ground,” Adeline whispered.

“It is, my love. It is.”

Time Passed.

A late November day, as bright as shiny as every, Adeline found herself frolicking pointlessly in the garden. With Evan away at work, she found herself rallying around in the holy garden more often than not. She especially dawdled around the golden apple tree. Today, a bright sunny Tuesday, Adeline danced around in her dainty white slip and sang old hymns from Sunday school. She let down her hair so that it would waft in the wind as she swirled and twirled in every angle. If she he’d gone at the rate she was going any longer, she would have fainted from vertigo. But her song was interrupted by an unnoticed spectator who’d been watching her for a while.

“Adeline, my beautiful, Adeline,” said a man in a black suit and black top hat approaching the Adeline slowly. The man tall in stature, was remarkably handsome with dark, beautiful eyes, broad shoulders and a sweet-toned masculine voice. “So here you’ve been hiding all of these years.” Adeline’s first reaction was fear and her insides raced with fear. But as the man advanced closer and continued to speak, familiarity struck. Lucius Santiago. A man with which she’d tried frantically not to fall in love during her years in school. A man who’d captivated her heart many times but was unable to win it over due to her loyalty to Evan. She loved Evan, but she lusted over this man and could not deny it. He was her strongest weakness, and , well aware that the only reason she was able to stand by Evan throughout his attempts was because her friends and family were there to keep her faithful, he took her frozen hand and said, “At last, we are alone.” It took her a second to realize she was only wearing a slip.

“Lucius, what are you doing here?”

“This is a beautiful garden, a very sensual garden. I always knew you’d do something spectacular with flowers.” The hint of a Spanish accent made his voice all the more alluring.

“Lucius, I don’t think you should be—“

“Nonsense. This garden is so beautiful, but so small. Why, you don’t have enough space in your yard.”

“Yes, and things are getting cramped, so I can’t start on anything new.”

“Well, I know of a place that is just a large heap of plane waiting to be covered with color. You could go there and plant all you want.”

“We don’t have enough money to buy any—“ Adeline stopped abruptly due to the scowl Lucius made upon hearing the word “we.” Lucius sternly stared into Adeline for several seconds.

“Adeline. You’ve heard of my successes.” She had. He’d become an extremely wealthy banker. His words sunk to a whisper. “Adeline, I could give you everything.” Adeline possessed a light heart that could easily be molded and his worlds melted right into her. “Adeline, if it’s not diamonds and jewelry you want, I can give you stability. If it’s the garden that is your priority, I have more land than any man in this county, Adeline. If it’s love you want, I can give you love, Adeline.” Adeline’s eyes began to tear, for she wanted this more than anything right then. She wanted him, deep inside she’d always wanted him.

Intense passion filled the garden.

Lucius Santiago pleaded and begged Adeline to lie with him there in the garden, amid the flowers, under the golden apple tree, and it didn’t take long before Adeline gave into him. In the garden it was perfect. It had to be the garden that made it so perfect and just and good. It was the garden.

Time passed.

Drips of guilt fell from Adeline’s eyes whenever she turned away from Evan. She wasn’t able to allow herself to run off with Lucius, but everytime she looked at Evan, the pain made her wish she had. Evan’s ignorance and consistency in his love for her brought her to feel that she was indebted to him do to her injustice to the sanctity of their marriage.

“Evan,” she called to him one arbitrary evening with a stone face donning that same white slip. He looked up at her from the newspaper that his sharp nose had been ironing. “Make love to me, Evan. Make love to me in the garden.”

He and his wife had never even brought up her request as a topic of discussion. Evan was a very reverent man, a pious man. He would never disrespect Adeline in order to satisfy himself. “Adeline, are you alright?”

Adeline through a smile onto her face and jumped into his arms, ripping the newspaper out of his hands. “Come on. Underneath the golden apple tree! Let’s go, now!” She jumped up and pulled his hands along with her attempting to lift him up from the chair.

“Adeline, when did you last sleep?” he asked.

“With you? Never. Now come! Come!” She began to plead hysterically. Evan noticed the tears start to fall down her eyes incessantly.

“My love, is this what you want?”

“Yes.”

And the garden was stained a new color yet again.

Time passed.

A knock sounded on the door two weeks after thanksgiving. Evan eagerly opened the door. In stead he found a weary Spaniard in a mechanical wheel chair.

“Lucius?” Evan looked down in wonder at his old classmate. “What happened to you?”

“I lost my leg in a car accident, if you must know. What happened to your garden?” he asked with a hint of competition.

“The heavy snow we got two weeks ago caused a power line to come loose, and it set the whole thing on fire.” Evan’s words were slowly and heavy.

“Where is Adeline?” Evan’s heart sunk along with his head. He could no longer look at Lucius.

“She’s asleep upstairs. She’s sick.” Pause. “She caught the virus.” Lucius looked at him with pitiless eyes. He was well aware of what virus Evan spoke of; was well aware that he’d ruined Evan and Adeline’s lives and the lives of their children forever; but still his gaze was pitiless.

“I slept with your wife, Evan.”

“I know,” he stated shamefacedly. “She told me. She told me! She told me!” hot tears ran down Evan’s pale faces as he turned away and banged on the wall with all his might, hard enough to make a book fall off of the nearby bookshelf. It was the bible. Evan knelt down to pick it up and noticed the thin recycled pages were opened to Genesis chapter one.

Time passed.

God forgave Evan once he forgave Adeline. God for gave Adeline once she forgave herself and accepted her hardship. Lucius Santiago remained confined to the wheelchair for the rest of his life.