Eden
an excerpt

Lifting herself off the ground, the woman rolled onto her knees, her hand extended to keep herself from falling and retched. Closing her eyes, her body visibly shaken by the effort she attempted to calm herself as her stomach once again convulsed within her, this time bringing with it the burning remains of the fruit. She remained like that, staring at the remains of the fruit through tear filled eyes, coughing as she tasted the burning at the back of her throat begin to rise once again. Never had she been so fully aware of her body. In an attempt to curb the churning of her stomach she placed her hand upon it. Negatively noting for the first time the way that her skin rolled together. She looked down at her body; her breasts spilling forward, her legs folded beneath her and she felt as she had never felt before. She glanced to the man and seeing his eyes closed, his hands grasping his stomach, felt momentary relief. Shakily she got to her feet and, keeping her back to him, moved to the other side of the tree to appease the new found discomfort she now felt.

The man opened his eyes and sat up as she lowered herself on the other side of the tree. He wasn’t sure what to think or feel. He felt trapped in his skin. The torment in his stomach made him certain that, just as God had warned, they were dieing. And he felt terrible. All of the pleasure and desire he had felt towards the tree before was now replaced by sorrow, regret and anger. What was going to happen to them now? He could hear the woman crying from the other side of the tree and he went to join her there.

She was sitting, her back against the tree, her arms wrapped around her knees hugging them to her chest as her forehead rested against them. She was the same as she had always been before, but somehow as he looked upon her she was different. He had always loved her, had always found the curves of her body, the lively look of her eyes to be pleasing; but as he cast his eyes upon her now he found within her to be a creature of temptation. He rested his hand on her shoulder and discovered with morbid delight that the touch of her skin felt just as the bark had felt beneath his fingertips at his first encounter. He let it remain there, fearful yet delighted, soaking in her features in a way he had never imagined them before. The softness of her hair, the pleasing shape of her breasts, her long legs, delicate hands, the carefully chiselled features of her face, the dainty way her body was knit together; he wondered how he had missed it all before.