The First Genesis Read online

  He remembered her intelligence and her willingness to accept after critical examination. He had chosen her for those reasons as well as her determination and physical strength. He resolved to not underestimate her again.

  ‘No. You are not one of the gods. That is not something you can become. You will not die by accident, disease or by ageing. However, never, is too long to speak of with certainty,’ he said. ‘Everything dies. Everything comes to an end. Even my life will end. Even the lives of my race will end.’ He spoke succinctly as he gauged how much she could understand.

  She sighed and looked away. She attempted to understand. She did, a little.

  Her soft exhaled breath merged into words, ‘I am alone. It has been lonely.’

  ‘I know,’ he said. ‘I left you for too long. Away from here, time is not,’ he hesitated. ‘It is not as linear as it appears. I made a mistake. I am sorry.’ He walked to her.

  She did not flinch at his approach, knowing his power was beyond her comprehension. She did not stop examining his face as he approached her. He stopped before her and lightly, gently, picked up one of her hands that hung by her side. He delicately lifted it by holding on to just a few of her fingers. He examined the skin on the back of her hand as if he too was surprised that she had not aged. He looked from her hand to her eyes. He saw in them her strength, her wisdom and her sadness. He re-lived the time he had been aware of her struggle for life in the jungle. He remembered the instant when he decided that world would end. He held the reason for a new world, lightly and gently by a few fingers of one hand. He looked at eyes that, with no fear, returned his gaze. Amazing, he thought, after all she now knew and understood.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I’m staying now.’

  Chapter 2

  The Story of the First Night

  She watched him acutely, critically, as he walked towards her. She lay, naked, on animal skins. Animals she had hunted and killed. It was night but she saw him clearly. He was illuminated by the glow from the smouldering fire and moonlight.

  Her eyes fell over his approaching body. He looked the same as all other men and, for a moment, she thought she may have been tricked. She may have been drugged so that the long years of her life were an hallucination. He might be taking advantage of her, for simple male pleasure. She was, momentarily, unsure of her life as the naked man approached. However, she was as aroused as he demonstrably was. She wanted him even if he was taking advantage of her. It had been too many generations since she had shared herself.

  He lay down next to her. He brushed her lips with his and then drew away. He gently captured her hand and brought that to his lips. He held her, barely, by the ends of a few of her fingers. She let him play with her hand and fingers as if they were things of great beauty and delicacy that could be easily damaged if careful attention was not paid to them.

  He smoothed the skin on her hand although it remained perfect, it was unchanged by years of hunting and hard work. His touch was gentle, his skin had not been roughed by labour. She was aroused by his playful stroking of her hand and was surprised how gentle a male could be. But then, she thought with anticipation mixed with fear, he was not simply a male.

  He seemed to know of her fear and calmed her by brushing his lips across her hand. He returned her hand to her side like he was replacing an instrument back into its proper and safe place. He willed her legs apart by soft pressure applied to her knee. He traced a downwards line with his finger, beginning on the flat of her stomach and ending when he confirmed the line of separation between her labia. The same finger probed deeper as it began back along the same path and her inner lips parted and drowned.

  He lifted himself over her and on top. He entered her, sliding inside her body with no resistance. He stopped when she felt the end of him against her cervix. She could not have accommodated a drop further of human flesh inside her. She looked for his eyes and found them watching her. He did not move inside her, he remained perfectly still as he watched her face.

  She felt a pleasurable tingling begin at her cervix. She felt a calming sensation twist and wind up her spine. She felt a part of that stream split off and wrap and cradle her heart. Her heart slowed but was made stronger. The main stream pooled at the base of her skull. She shuddered, opened her eyes widely and stared at his face as she felt a breach inside her. He was inside her head like he was another observer in her own mind. He knew what she knew. He felt what she felt. He was as much a part of her as she was herself. He slowly moved his penis inside her. He touched her exactly where and when she needed to be touched. He shared her pleasure through to the final shudder and the satisfying, cleansed emptiness afterwards.

  He moved off and lay next to her but he was still inside her head. In her mind he was standing next to her, experiencing and watching. She turned her head, just a little, to look at him. She did not want to move too much, she wanted to preserve the fading feeling. He was in two places. She smiled at him, both with her lips and inside her head.

  He laughed. She remembered his laugh in the cave and she experienced again that unbridled contagion of his joy. She knew she had yet to touch the perimeter of possible pleasure with him.

  Chapter 3

  When K’ul Kelem woke the next morning after the sun had barely risen. She was alone, wrapped among the coverings she had slept on. She opened her eyes but she did not move. She remained on her side facing the rock wall of the shelter. She examined its surface without concentration while she thought about the previous day and night. For some moments her night dreams merged with her waking hours. She could not differentiate between what was real and what was not. She felt an absence as if normality was disappointing.

  She was surprised out of her reverie, as if she was surprised that any other person existed, when she heard a voice behind her.

  ‘Good morning.’

  She rolled over and stared, continuing her lack of awareness. Hachakyum sat next to the fire. He was dressed in his white tunic. His face towards her. His words echoed in her head as if they had originated from within her. With an effort she understood that his words had come from outside her, that she had heard them and she was expected to reply.

  ‘Good morning,’ she said quietly.

  He smiled, which caused her to smile as if he had applied pressure to her face.

  ‘Did you sleep? Do you sleep?’ she asked. She watched him.

  ‘Yes.’

  He remembered that she expected more than specific answers to exact questions.

  ‘I don’t need to sleep,’ he said. ‘But while I am like this,’ he indicated his body. ‘Why not enjoy it?’

  ‘Can you change how you look?’ she asked. She moved her forearm so that it propped underneath her head.

  ‘It’s not a process to be performed at a whim. Why? Do you not like this shape?’ he asked.

  He waited without concern.

  ‘It’s a good shape,’ she said eventually.

  ‘Can you do that anytime?’ she asked. ‘Be inside me? Can you always know what I’m thinking?’

  ‘Don’t you like it?’

  ‘I like it. I was thinking more about day to day. Whether I have privacy.’

  ‘No. You have no privacy other than what I decide. Would you like privacy? Would you like me to not know what you’re thinking?’ The thought had not occurred to him.

  ‘Can I do the same with you?’ she asked.

  ‘No. Unless I decide.’

  ‘Well,’ she said. ‘No, then. Not to start with. Can you do that? Not listen to my thoughts?’

  ‘Of course.’

  She waited for him to say more. He didn’t.

  ‘What should I do now?’ she asked. ‘What can I do now?’ It was as if she was asking how to live the rest of her life.

  He smiled. ‘Whatever you want to do. Nothing has changed. The only difference is that I’m here.’

  A young man interrupted them. He was breathless from running.

  ‘K’ul Kelem, K’ul Kelem,’
he cried loudly. His voice was shrill. ‘Please come. The elders must see you.’

  Hachakyum turned. The young man had never before seen a man dressed in a white tunic. He had never seen K’ul Kelem with a companion. His face registered incomprehension, his mouth wide open.

  Hachakyum had been surprised and was angry with his lack of attention. He reacted. He lifted his arm and as he said angrily, ‘Go away,’ the young man was lifted off his feet and thrown on his back, ten paces away.

  K’ul Kelem frowned with annoyance. She walked quickly to the young man and crouched next to him. He was shaking with fear as he stared at where he had been standing.

  ‘You will need to be careful, in future,’ she said to the young man as she brushed dust off his back, soothing him like he was her child. She left her hand on the man’s shoulder, to reassure him, to quieten his fear. He made a childlike whimper and backed away from her, dragging himself along the ground. He was petrified as Hachakyum walked towards the two of them. The young man scrambled to his feet and tried to run. However, he froze in place, unable to move. He had control only over his eyes, which flicked from side to side in panic. He could not breath. The young man’s body was turned to face Hachakyum. The force that held him was released and he stumbled forward as if a trace of the momentum of his escape remained. He fell onto his hands and knees and took deep breaths. The ground at Hachakyum’s feet took all his attention.

  ‘Forgive me,’ Hachakyum said to the back of the panting young man. ‘You startled me. I am,’ he searched for the word to use, ‘unused to being startled. I will try to not do that again.’ Hachakyum placed his hand under the shoulder of the young man and lifted him to his feet. The young man blubbered like a child afraid of monsters in the night. Hachakyum smiled and the young man’s face broke into a forced, quiet surrender.

  Hachakyum returned to sit next to the fire.

  Inarticulate sounds came from the young man’s throat as he took shallow breaths. His fear swamped and overpowered the exaltation that had been forced on him by Hachakyum’s smile. He shivered with shock while K’ul Kelem patiently waited for him to come to his senses.

  She felt weary although she had just woken. She anticipated the questions her people would ask but she had few answers. She had worked hard to appear normal. She hunted and provided for them. She decided their disputes. She made peace with nearby groups of hunter-gatherers. She occasionally provided for all those other people as well. She had spread her influence in every direction. Her old workload would be easy compared to the new expectations, with Hachakyum as her companion. She was treated almost as a god, but worried how that perception would change when she was confirmed as reverential, by keeping the company of the gods themselves on earth. However, her years of loneliness were over and Hachakyum had to stay, whatever the consequences.

  ‘That is Hachakyum,’ she said quietly to the young man. ‘Your god lives among you.’

  Chapter 4

  The young messenger hurried off, glad to get away. He ran at first but then slowed. K’ul Kelem must be a god herself, he thought. He wondered why she had not shown her power as obviously as Hachakyum. His fear returned and his body shook as he remembered the familiar way he had spoken to her before Hachakyum’s arrival. He stumbled as he remembered one time he had playfully pushed her shoulder when she had said something amusing. He would not do that again. He would have to warn everyone that the woman who lived among them, and could not die, also had the power of the gods. He was momentarily angry with K’ul Kelem for not showing her strength, for allowing friendly intimacies as if she was one of them. His anger dissolved into a cold fear as he wondered if K’ul Kelem could read his thoughts and her anger would grow out of his anger with her. He had slowed his pace after he had stumbled but at his renewed fear he raced off hoping his thoughts could not be read as his separation from her increased.

  K’ul Kelem watched the young man run away. She was angry at Hachakyum for his unrestrained violence but, she thought, at least the young man lived. And Hachakyum had apologised, of sorts. What had been proved was his lack of omnipotence and a certain vulnerability. He suffered anger, embarrassment and contrition, at least. He was not emotionally aloof and he was not unaffected by the plight of others. Her anger gave way to joy. He was more human-like than she had imagined. She had believed him callous and uncaring to watch her suffering. Perhaps, she thought, he also suffered from indecision.

  ‘I have to go,’ K’ul Kelem said to Hachakyum.

  He watched the flame flicker as if he was unaware of K’ul Kelem’s presence.

  She turned to leave but stopped when he spoke to her.

  ‘Why do you go to them? Why do they not come to you?’ he asked.

  She turned back, surprised that he had asked her a question. Her heart thumped strongly, just for a few beats. Perhaps his humanness was true, she thought, and their lives together would not be so one sided. Perhaps she had things to offer that he did not already have.

  ‘That is my way,’ she said. ‘Although I am older than their ancestors, my appearance is like a daughter.’ She tried to explain her wish to appear normal to others of her community. ‘Do you understand?’ she asked.

  ‘No,’ he replied quickly. ‘Among equals, yes, it is correct behaviour but the difference between you and them is immense. No, I do not understand. Perhaps you don’t understand your own power.’

  ‘Perhaps. I know I’m different. I’ve known that for a long time.’ She went back to the fireside. ‘Even if I had your power over them I would not act differently. There’s no point in forcing my will onto them.’

  ‘There is respect to be considered,’ he said. He knew she was criticising his behaviour with the young man. His face grew dark. She became cold. The world lost confidence. She doubted her abilities.

  ‘Respect works both ways,’ she said, forcing the contradictory words out of her mouth by force of will.

  ‘Yes, it does,’ he said and smiled. The world lightened and she became herself again. She returned his smile and their discussion was over.

  She was unreasonably happy as she left him. She felt like singing. She felt like she had been raised as one of a kind and her solitariness had been broken by the unexpected appearance of another, just like her.

  Her greatest wish, if she was to have any power in the world, was that she had his power to force happiness onto others.

  Chapter 5

  The elders waited at the far end of the rock shelter. They stood quickly when K’ul Kelem approached. She saw the fear on their faces. The news of Hachakyum’s anger had travelled quickly. She had already been elevated to god status and she could not do anything about it.

  She sat down and waited for them to also sit. The braver ones sat quickly, not greatly fearing K’ul Kelem’s newly uncovered powers by association. The wary ones waited, as if they were less vulnerable if they remained standing.

  She waited. Slowly, everyone sat down. The last few did so quickly once they realised they may be the last to remain standing and did not want to anger, by disrespect, the new god among them.

  There was a nervous, shifting silence until an older woman in the group spoke.

  ‘K’ul Kelem,’ she asked softly. ‘We have heard you have a companion.’

  ‘Yes,’ K’ul Kelem said. She did want to explain herself or Hachakyum. ‘But that cannot be the reason you asked to see me.’

  ‘No,’ the woman hesitated. She, and the men, wanted immediate reassurances for their safety but did not wish to anger K’ul Kelem by pestering her. ‘No, it isn’t.’

  One of the men spoke. ‘Chak K’an has been killed.’

  ‘I’m sorry for that,’ K’ul Kelem said. She did not understand why she had to be told of another death. Death was regular.

  ‘He was a brash young man,’ another elder said.

  An older man, visibly upset, interrupted quickly. ‘He was my son. His death cannot go unanswered.’ The man implored K’ul Kelem to share his anger. She saw his fear of
her and his new hope that she could bring his son back.

  ‘Tell me what happened,’ she asked the first elder, pointedly ignoring the passion of the grieving father.

  Chak K’an had travelled outside the ancestral range of K’ul Kelem’s group. He, and other young men, had gone to the lands of people who thrived on the coast far to the north. He had heard that they had many beautiful young women and had decided to bargain for the women, or to steal some for wives. The bargaining had failed when Chak K’an bragged that he was from K’ul Kelem’s group and he could take the women if he wished, and there would be nothing the other group could do. The attempt at stealing the women had been singularly unsuccessful and Chak K’an had been killed in the act of theft.

  K’ul Kelem listened to the lengthy tale, embellished by details of the trip to the coast, the descriptions of the plentiful estuarine resources and the wide ocean and the slow and humiliating return trip.

  K’ul Kelem thought the matter solved. The young man had misbehaved and had suffered the consequences. However, the immediate family was determined that pay-back was necessary. The rest of the day was spent discussing possible responses. She vetoed violent, direct reprisals but let the elders talk through other options. She thought of Hachakyum and wondered how he was spending his day. She wondered if he was patient. Unlimited life should preclude boredom but, she thought, it had not worked for her as she waited for the elders to come to the obvious solution to their problem. She would travel to the people on the coast to the north and apologise for Chak K’an’s behaviour. Then she would barter for some women to return with her to satisfy the honour of the dead man’s family.

  Late in the afternoon, when the sun had fallen into the tops of the trees, a resolution was made that K’ul Kelem would leave the next day. The young man’s family accepted that the effort she would make on their behalf would satisfy their honour. She would go and she would talk.