Before the first shadow touched our hearts, there was only light. I'm not just talking about the

sunlight, though it filtered through the canopy like liquid gold, warm on my skin, talking about life.

The air itself tasted sweet, like honey and rain. Everything hummed. Garden wasn't just a place we lived, it breathed with us. There was no fear here. Fear hadn't even been invented yet. A lion, this massive, beautiful creature, would lean his heavy head into my touch.

Everything was connected.

Everything was exactly as it was meant to be.

And Eve, when I look at her, I finally understand what God meant when he said, very good. And then, there's him.

It's the cool of the day. That's when he comes. You already know when he is near. The air changes.

It gets expected, like the atmosphere itself is leaning in to listen. We hear the sound

first, not heavy footsteps, but a shifting of the atmosphere, a weight of goodness moving through

the trees. And we run. We run towards the sound this voice it isn't just sound it's

it's the foundation of everything when he speaks it's warm resonant it vibrates in my

chest we talk about the colors of the water, why the monkeys

chatter so much, what it means to be us. There's no gap between us, no hesitation, no hiding,

it's, it's complete. Eve would say it's a feast, right? Everywhere you look at them,

taste that explode in your mouth, we are completely free, except in the very center of the

whole garden,

the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

It's the only boundary line in a world without walls.

God is very clear.

Don't eat it.

The day you eat it, you die.

Die.

...