Part 11 (1/2)
She was a wholesole dialed over the folded neck of her navy blue turtleneck Her blonde hair was pulled back in a ponytail
I slid into the booth and took the oing to show up, tell htly ”Not as far as I know”
I shrugged out offrolass of red wine on the table Had she ordered it for ht with the bottle of cheap red wine that day after the walk through the Co little as the waiter brought us bread and took orders for dinner ”Mussels Fra Diavolo,” I said, gazing at the woman across froht,'” I said without preaone
”Yes”
I tried to see past the faint laugh lines around her eyes, the diah her sweater where bra straps bit into her shoulders, the wedding ring on her finger
Such elaborate lengths, I thought, slightly sickened ”An angel of light?” I thought, slightly sickened ”An angel of light?”
”Soine what an angel of light would look like, but it was like trying to summon a modern-day leprechaun
”You can't fatho will this go on?”
She tilted her head and seemed, for the first time, to have no ready answer Finally, she said, ”Until it's finished Or we run out of time”
”Until what's finished?”
”Your story”
”You ht of my discussion with Helen, of the proposal froure out how etht
”Tell ht get ho, perhaps even in bed, and how et Helen's blunt conversation with me today had returned at least a portion of my focus to the routine necessities of my job, no ht,” she said, tracing the edge of the table through the tablecloth ”About Adam”
”Wait How do you know the Bible so well?”
She laughed then and seemed surprised ”Because I lived it! I understand Scripture intrinsically and intellectually better than any of your so-called enlightened churchgoers Lucifer hiian Better than any of your preachers or se A theological urus, self-proclaimed prophets, Kool-Aid killers, and Branch Davidian leaders
”Now, about Adam”-she propped her chin in her hand-”history and popular reat disservice Letman I have ever seen Of course, at that ti to compare him to, and for the better part of a few centuries, huuarantee you, if your backyard co over your house, you would feel the same But in retrospect I can honestly say he was handsome”
I wondered if I should point out that I didn't have a backyard, which reminded me- ”How come you've never shown up at my apartment?”
Her i to tell you so Can we come back to this later? Listen to me now: Adam was an admirable man For as much as I resented him, I also found myself drawn to him Sure, the plants were nice to look at, and the ani and rutting-but Ada him, and neither did Lucifer Of course, Lucifer hated him because of who he was and who had made him Adam not only bore the Creator's stamp; he bore his likeness He was a brilliant thinker, a creature of reason He observed the things around hiriculturalist, a botanist, a zoologist, and a horticulturist,” she said, ticking all the ”ists” off on her fingers ”He was a husband, a arden; he ruled the animals; he was a family man And he walked with God Literally”
As she spoke, I noticed that she moved differently than she had as the woman in the museum It reminded me of the effect costumes had on actors
”And what about Eve?”
She stroked the stelass, silent for a moment ”In Eve,” she said softly, ”of all creatures, I saw so hich I could eneration ent, intuitive, and beautiful-striking in fact She reminded me a little of myself”
One of the cooks in the snized the strains of Puccini's ”Nessun Dorht!Set, you stars!At dawn, I shall win
She propped her chin on the back of her hand ”Life then was beautifully predictable and secure Oh, the bliss of that age! I watched and drealanced down at the tablecloth, scratching at it with her finger ”But Lucifer reilant, a spider on the periphery of his beautiful web
”The first glance Remember it? I did So did Lucifer Your eyes will be opened! Your eyes will be opened! Lucifer told her Lucifer told her You will be like God You will be like God He was sure of himself, but I less so The woman was brilliant, perceptive in ways that even Adaht to myself: He was sure of himself, but I less so The woman was brilliant, perceptive in ways that even Adae of God-she will knohat you do She is e of God! What more can there be for her? She will not choose it She is e of God-she will knohat you do She is e of God! What more can there be for her? She will not choose it But in the end ere more alike than I had realized Hoanted to rail at her! Was it not enough that she and her reedy they were! How much more did they expect, could they need? And yet I, too, had once known bliss Still, I began to hate her after that” But in the end ere more alike than I had realized Hoanted to rail at her! Was it not enough that she and her reedy they were! How much more did they expect, could they need? And yet I, too, had once known bliss Still, I began to hate her after that”
”And so it happened again,” I said
She nodded slightly ”In Eve's teone before played out again, like your play-actors on a e with the script of a well-known story
”That day, as I watched Adam and his wife realize for the first time they were naked, I was overcos by which I had vicariously experienced their contentain I remembered too hat it was to be exposed-when all the blithe routine of life slips away, and there is only regret and the overpowering knowledge of an irrevocable act” She sighed ”It was futile, their hiding We all knew it And El-”
”Cursed them”
”Quite the biblical scholar now, aren't we?” Her brows arched She looked like the quintessential soccersoccer mom ”Yes, he cursed them But I didn't stay to watch I could recall too well the shi+vering grief of that spirit over the deep, crying out in the dark I couldn't bear to witness it all again, even as I ad eren't the only ones to fail El Perhaps I was even a little se the color of the wine-”but ”
”Why not?”
She gazed across the ri you Do you weep? No Of course not You can't iine the loss of perfection This is the only world you know” She set the wine glass down on the tablecloth, turned it this way and that ”You literally had to be there-before-to understand the gall of that reer traced the stelass toppled over, practically in slow e of the table as I tried to grab the glass in tih, and the wine bled out over the tablecloth in a plu in all directions
”Of course, the re dispassionately at the bloo stain
I daubed at the spill, irritated When the waiter arrived withours, going so far as to re on it and to spread a pressed, pristine white linen across the scratched and worn surface beneath
Lucian the soccernothing when the waiter assured her it was no probleo to all the trouble As the waiter set everything back, I noted an ironic, if slightly bitter, look on the des and condiments, he served my salad and carried the dirty linens away
I picked at my food in silence after that, and she watchedon the back of her hand