Story Behind The Book
I began Camaraderie when I was fourteen. It started with a poem; the preface and over the next three years I worked on and off to make something worth reading. The characters came first, and I built the story around the characters. I hope you enjoy my story, and the next one, and the next. It is my Joy. For your pleasure, here is a little story about that too. Genesis By Meagan Mandell There is still a Garden. Whether you believe in the Christian God or not, there has always been a Garden. I can tall you how the Garden will bloom and grow, for the story perpetuates itself. We all have our Garden… Someone was to come and sit with me in the Banyan tree. Its limbs were long and tangled, the fingers rising from the palms of God’s hands. I lay upon his thumb, felt the vibration of his footsteps in my belly as I lay like a leopard on the branch. “Adam.” Of course, there were no names in The Garden, but you could never know him as the animals do; just for his very humanness. The man looked up. He did not smile. There were no smiles, there. “Eve.” His face was like the tree; nothing but the extension of the lifebeat of the Earth, no reciprocation. His eyes were unfocused. “Adam, come sit with me.” I did not know whether he would come or not. He climbed the trees for food, for shelter, but never for me. It was not a test…I am not so shortsighted. I know how things are. Adam put his hands on the base of the tree and clasped his fingers around the vines. He pulled himself up. I did not rise from my position, but took from between my breasts The Fruit. It left a long red stain where we mortals now keep our hearts. Adam shied away. A large gash ran down the side of The Fruit and I knew my lips were stained red with its blood, what would become our blood. We were creatures of stone before this in more ways than one. Adam gaped and mawed like the fishes in the pool. He tried to speak, but he could say nothing. There were no words for Betrayal, or Honor, or other such trivialities. I raised The Fruit to my mouth once again and wet my lips with it. A drop ran down my chin and traced my neck, pooling in the hollow of my throat. Sensation was not known before. There was no warmth, no cold, no pleasure, no pain… no distinction… I leaned forward and kissed Adam. A kiss was a new invention, so there was nothing for him to guard, nothing to be against. He could not resist. He was innocent. He could not have felt as I did. I began to pull away and he resisted. Such a beautiful thing. When he opened his eyes, they turned to the left, then to the right, and settled on me…on my breasts, on the stain on my chest, on The Fruit in my hand. Adam swung his leg over the branch so as to turn and face me. He took The Fruit from me with both hands, and tasted. The world burst into life. I smiled. I was not alone. I promise you, I heard a quiet laughter in the distance… my own laughter, but not my own. The very Earth was laughing. Thus was born Joy.
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I read<em> Camaraderie </em>before it was published, and though I rarely read more than a page or two of something on a computer screen, I couldn't put it down. -Anonymous