On the Evening of the Eighth Day

“He is my brother and my son” said the second man, and then whispered, “I am his brother and his father and his mother is my mother and my wife and my lover and my life” and then he shouted, “Father, why have you forsaken us?” And then he cried crystal tears that fell to the fertile earth and turned it to dust.

His sister, who was also his mother and his wife, listened, staring, silently, somewhat curiously and a bit impatiently. She’d heard this before, albeit from her other son, who was also her husband and her father. How to answer them she wondered, they were so few and so thoroughly confused, and there were no others there like her, at least not yet, and if they came, then what would their role be, what would she be then, what would she do, how would she answer when they asked.

The man who’d been transformed into the serpent had once prophesied to her and his prophecies had come true, he’d warned her and cajoled her and perhaps, even tempted her, but she’d not known what to do, so nothing is exactly what she’d done, what other choices had she had? And now, what was she to do? Nothing hadn’t quite worked out as she had hoped it might but the serpent was long gone and no one else was there to proffer her advice. Only questions from the others, her others, to which she had no response, but she had learned to look wise and say nothing, leaving them to their own conclusions.

Once there’d been another who seemed to care, but he’d soon become rude and bad tempered and impatient, and then, even violent, all novelties then, and then he’d disappeared, as had so many other things, things useful then, now barely memories. Still, they’d all seemingly left echoes and shadows of sorts, and deep, dark frightening dreams, and these latter she’d sometimes come to consider as prophecies, and she frequently wondered whether the dreams were not reality and what she perceived as reality merely dreams.

“He is my brother and my son” said the second man, and then whispered, “I am his brother and his father and his mother is my mother and my wife and my lover and my life” and then he shouted, “Father, why have you forsaken us?” And then he cried crystal tears that fell to the fertile earth and turned it to dust.
_______

© Guillermo Calvo Mahé; Manizales, 2016; all rights reserved