ate the rabbit!” Abel shouted, swinging the arrow at Cain’s shoulder. But Cain was ready for it and he blocked the arrow with his forearm. Then he punched Abel right in the face. Hard. Harder than he meant to. Abel’s head jerked back and he fell into the grass.
Cain looked down at his brother. In the glow of the yellow moon, he saw Abel lying silent and crooked at his feet, his hair matted with blood. Abel’s head had hit a rock hidden in the grass.
Cain shook his brother’s limp shoulders. “Abel. Abel,” he whispered frantically. Cain tried to wipe the blood off his pale face. “Abel, please wake up, wake up, wake up.” Cain sat down and lifted his brother’s head onto his lap.
“Help,” he said, barely above a whisper. He took a few deep breaths and then shouted, “Dad, help!” Cain’s shout woke up the night. The cows started mooing and wild dogs in the distance began frantically barking.
Abel opened his eyes. Then Abel touched his face and saw his small fingers covered in blood. He shrieked. “Dad!”
“It’s gonna be okay,” Cain said, crying tears of relief. “It’s gonna be okay.” Suddenly Abel’s body was illuminated with warm light. Their father stood over the two boys holding a blazing torch. Cain looked up at his father’s serious face.
“What happened?” Adam demanded.
Cain looked down at his brother who was screaming and crying. “I . . . I . . .” Adam crouched down and rubbed blood away from Abel’s eyes.
“What happened, Abel,” Adam asked again, this time his voice softer.
“A snake!” Cain said before Abel could answer. The lie came tumbling out of his mouth. “Abel came to find me. And . . . and a snake . . . a huge snake snapped at Abel and he fell and . . . and . . . and then he hit his head.”
Adam stood up and swung the torch around. “Take your brother inside.”
Cain helped his sobbing brother to his feet, unable to look up at his father.
“And after you wrap his head, go get more water for your mother. She is having a terrible time passing that fruit you gave her,” Adam said with a cold anger.
Cain nodded and walked him back into the house. Out of the corner of his eye he could see his father swing the torch through the long brown grass.
Inside he lifted Abel up onto a chair. His brother’s legs kicked wildly as he wrapped Abel’s bleeding head in long strips of cloth. Cain winced as he heard his mother moaning in pain from her bedroom.
When he finished wrapping the bandages, Cain put his hands on his crying brother’s shoulders. “All done.”
Abel felt the bandages on the back of his head and checked his fingers for blood. When he was sure he had stopped bleeding, Abel sniffed back his tears and hugged Cain.
Cain felt Abel’s small arms wrapped tightly around his chest. It had been a long time since Abel hugged him. He forced a smile. “Go lie down, and I’ll check on you in a little bit.”
“What happened to your brother?” his mom called.
He took a deep breath and walked into her mom’s bedroom. The air was thick with the smell of sweat and vomit.
“A snake tried to bite him, and he fell and hit his head,” Cain said, looking down at a bowl of green vomit on the floor beside her bed. The last remains of the fruit were now reduced to a disgusting pulp.
“Is he gonna be okay?” she asked. Her head was pale and sweating. The blanket flecked with green bile.
“I wrapped his head,” Cain said, climbing on the bed. He felt her sweaty fingers rub his earlobe. His body relaxed. He lay beside her watching through the window as the fire blazed in the grass. He saw illuminated shapes bucking and braying. The cows and goat tied up along the fence. Then he heard her stomach give a long painful-sounding growl.
“I’m sorry I made you sick,” Cain said as the tears rolled down his cheeks and onto the blanket.
“Don’t worry,” she sighed. “It was probably the rabbit meat.” The smoke began to blow in through the window and stung Cain’s eyes.
“Your father should have never let the grass get so long,” Eve whispered as she rubbed Cain’s earlobe in the dark.
In the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark, they knew nothing about what would happen
—Matthew 24:38–39
Naameh and the Ark
Naameh sighed with relief as she entered the cool still air of her shop. She brushed the sand off her robe and unwrapped her long gray hair.
“I was up late stitching,” Naameh said as she began to sweep in the dark room. The bones in her knees chirped and her wooden foot banged against floorboards.
“We went back through the guest list I and realized we were going to need more tablecloths.” It was five days until the wedding of her youngest daughter, Mal and Naameh had been spending her days in the shop, and her evenings preparing for the wedding—cleaning the ark, sewing new tablecloths and curtains, and finishing the matching wedding robes for her five grandchildren.
Naamah checked the tall jars that lined the walls of her shop. The first jar was full of creamy giraffe’s milk. She lifted the second lid—it was empty.
“Only one jar?” Naamah tsked. “Noah wanted to finish the lattice on the fourth floor before the guests arrived.”
“Why is there only one jar of giraffe’s milk?” Naameh asked again. When no one answered. Namaah finally looked up. She was alone in the shop.
“Old lady talking to herself.” She shook her head, quietly laughing at herself, the wrinkles in her plump cheeks gathering around her eyes.
“Mal!” She knocked hard on the door that led to the cellar.
“Hold on a moment,” Mal said, running up the stairs with a basket of ostrich eggs hanging from each forearm.
“I was just saying thank you for getting the milk in.” Naameh smiled, gently brushing the sand off her daughter’s forehead.
“I should have started with the giraffes.” Mal explained, a little winded. “By the time I got the first jar the sand was blowing in every direction. I know dad wanted to finish the fourth floor.”
“You leave your father to me,” Naameh reassured her. “Now, go put those eggs down so we can open the shop. People are already lining up.”
Naameh walked to the front door and openned it a crack. A hot gust of sandy air blew in with the first customer.
“Rayah! How are you?” Naameh smiled holding
