The Fall - By Chana Keefer

CHAPTER Six

Begin Again



Rapha stood, peering down into turquoise depths. With a sudden intake of breath he hovered a couple feet off the ground and moved over the water for a better view of dark shadows flitting in the seabed’s rocky terrain. For a moment, as he lost sight of the drama unfolding below, a flicker of fear crossed his mind.

Ah! There was Adam rising to the surface, a mere thirty feet below. But wait. Rapha focused on the large shadow looming out of the depths in Adam’s wake. It could not be! Mocking laughter floated across the water, drawing Rapha’s gaze to an outcropping where Lucifer lounged, enjoying an excellent view of Adam’s plight, with Emeth, Rapha’s monkey friend, perched on his shoulder.

If that creature was what Rapha thought it was, Adam didn’t stand a chance of out-swimming it. Rapha dove. Immediately the scene sprang to life with a piercing shriek, a rush of warm current and the flash of a long scaled body shooting past. Rapha strove to overtake them; his only thought was to come between monster and prey.

He had to give the boy credit as the frantic flight wove through submerged forests that forced the massive body to slow its pursuit. Finally, Adam led it into a maze with twisting corridors and, after coming dangerously close to snapping off the boy’s retreating feet, the creature was caught before a hole too small for its passage. Rapha saw Adam streak to the surface and, feeling relief course through his frame, he moved to follow, careful to rise slowly lest his shining form attract the monster’s attention like a flickering lure.

Just as Rapha broke the surface, Adam dove back in and streaked past. What was the boy doing? Obviously, Adam was determined to not leave well enough alone. In his hand, Rapha spied a long, thick branch. Did he expect to duel the beast?

But Adam was aiming for a point several yards behind the confused creature. The young man’s intent dawned over Rapha as he saw Adam wedge the stick beneath a large boulder and attempt to topple it from its precarious perch. He swam to Adam’s aid and, with their combined efforts, the huge rock shifted and fell. With a final roll it settled into place, blocking the creature’s corridor of escape.

Once again Adam shot to the surface and Rapha followed, thankful their morning’s adventure was over.

“That was cutting it a bit close, don’t you think,” Rapha began his lecture as soon as he clambered onto a sunny rock. Yet Adam grabbed an armful of surface plants, took a deep breath and dove again. “Adam!” He yelled as the boy’s shape disappeared once again into the depths. Rapha carried on a mumbled, frustrated, one-sided conversation as he stood to re-enter the water. Curious, he shot a glance where he had spied Lucifer earlier, but fallen angel and monkey were nowhere to be seen.

He dove to where their guest mucked the water, attacking the rock over and over in attempts to free itself. Through the murky cloud, Rapha saw Adam with an arm poked into the hole of the makeshift cage. The young man was yanked forward and almost through while Rapha froze, fully expecting to see a pool of red join the expanding cloud of silt—but all grew still and Adam withdrew an unscathed arm. Rapha swam closer until his glow lit the interior of the large, rocky chamber. There curled the beast, munching the plants Adam had provided and keeping a wary, luminescent eye on its benefactor.

After several more trips to the surface for Adam to secure more of the plants the beast favored, Adam and Rapha emerged to flop onto the sun-warmed rock. Adam’s formidable lung capacity had been sorely tried by their exertion but the expression on his face as he gasped for air was exultant.

“He’s one of the ancient ones isn’t he!” Adam proclaimed.

“He’s magnificent! Did you see the size of those teeth?”

“They would not be so exciting from the inside.”

“That was amazing!” Adam’s enthusiasm soared. “I thought they were just legend! And then whoosh! There he was staring right at me!”

“He was sent to kill you… or at least to test you.”

“How do you know that? He probably survived in some hidden cave all these years and….”

“Lucifer was here to watch the show.”

“Lucifer! THE Lucifer? Where?” Adam craned his neck to look everywhere at once. “What does he look like?”

“Your fascination is disturbing….”

“I’m not fascinated. It’s just….” Adam knew he was denying the obvious, “Aw Rapha, you must admit he’s a legend too. He must be pretty powerful to have… I mean, war against Adonai.”

Rapha remained silent. Finally he sighed, “Perhaps I have been too careful. Trying to protect you, I have left too much to your active imagination.”

“I understand.” Adam’s young face flushed as he hurried to protest the accusation of ignorance. “You’ve told me his history.”

“Yes, but cursory knowledge does not acquaint you with the horrors of which he is capable. Your heart has not been destroyed in his quest for power.” A niggling foreknowledge in Rapha’s mind added a disturbing yet.

“What else do I need to know? He’s the enemy of Adonai and therefore he’s my enemy.”

How could Rapha convince Adam of a hideous, consuming ambition that would stop at nothing to achieve dominance? How could he explain such hatred when the protected manchild had no point of reference?

“What? I should fear him? Why should I fear the one Adonai defeated?” He searched Rapha’s face, striving to read his tutor’s thoughts. “Wait,” Adam’s eyes narrowed in concentration. “Why is he allowed here? If he was defeated, why does he still roam free?”

In truth, Rapha had wondered the same thing. When Lucifer had boasted of his residence in the garden, Rapha had immediately sought Adonai. Just short of formal protest, he had made his thoughts on the matter known—as if they were ever hidden—and in answer he had been offered only two words: “Trust me.”


As Adonai’s calm command had filled his mind, it had happened. There were no words to describe the merest flash of Adonai’s burden. Rapha, whose body was created to never fade, suddenly felt crippled, blind, and naked, shredded before the enormity of horrors past and those yet to come. A searing stripping of his sanity overwhelmed him in grief-drenched agony. Blessedly, the connection had halted as quickly as it had begun. Then, like warm, healing oil, Adonai’s voice had flowed through his being.

“Understanding would destroy you. Please trust.”

Now Adam was asking him to explain the unexplainable.

With a deep breath, Rapha said, “He is allowed here because it is his lawful right.”

“But Adonai created all things, including eternal law. Why would He knowingly allow….”

“I don’t know!”

Rapha immediately regretted his outburst. Never before had he revealed vulnerability, thinking it would lessen Adam’s confidence in him.

“Good.”

Stunned, Rapha looked at Adam.

“I’m glad you don’t know everything. It’s no fun to be with someone who always knows, who’s always under control. I think,” Adam hesitated, understanding dawning on his face, “I think that’s why I sometimes try to drive you crazy.”

Rapha smiled, “You are very good at it. Diving foolishly into Lucifer’s traps….”

“You can blame Lucifer all you want but this whole thing was your fault,” Adam accused.

“My fault?”

“If you hadn’t hidden the stone so well, I might never have disturbed the beast.”

“Well, at least you showed some wisdom by abandoning our game when it meant a choice between life or being devoured.”

With a smug smile, Adam reached into a crevice beside him and withdrew a large diamond.

Rapha tossed back his head for a laugh. As an eternal being, surprise was a rare commodity. It felt good.

“My turn!” Adam dove back into the water.

For a moment Rapha breathed deep, enjoying the beauty surrounding him. The sun’s warmth filtering through the azure sky soothed him. He needed to laugh more. The joy in Adam’s face when he had sensed Rapha’s approval had also been a ray of sunshine. Instead of feeding Adam’s cockiness, the thing he had been trying to avoid by limiting praise, Rapha had sensed an eagerness to please that had been lacking in their relationship. The day was indeed full of surprises when an old angel was learning something new.

Deep in his soul he knew this time was limited. He was under no delusions. Lucifer was biding his time, looking for an opportunity to tarnish this perfect corner of the world. Somehow, rather than bringing panic, the thought made Rapha determined to infuse as much joy into what remained as possible—as much joy and as much preparation. As far as was within his power, when the test came, his student would be ready.

For now, the boy’s greatest weakness was a steadfast belief in his own invincibility. Rapha peered into the water’s crystalline depths but could not spy Adam. Would the lad really be foolhardy enough to… yes. He saw Adam shoot out the narrow hole where the creature was trapped.

“Ah, well,” Rapha commented to himself as he prepared to seek the diamond, most likely hidden in the beast’s teeth, “maybe when the creature claims a chunk of Adam’s flesh and bone the boy will finally learn caution.”

Later, he would wince at the prophecy of those words.


The next morning, Rapha gave up trying to teach the boy a blessed thing. By midday, Adam was beside himself with anticipation, chattering and cavorting around Rapha in a manner that once more brought to mind the excitable Emeth. Indeed Rapha could not have felt more harried if the manchild had been climbing back and forth over his head as the little monkey was wont to do.

“But Adonai laughed! He actually laughed as He gave hints of when but He wouldn’t tell me!” A fresh wave of restlessness struck Adam and he climbed up the nearest tree where he proceeded to dangle upside down while his barrage of chatter continued. “All He would say is that it would be ‘soon’ and I would be ‘summoned’ when it was time. What do I do with that? Does ‘soon’ mean a day, several weeks? Anyway, I couldn’t sleep and I can’t eat, so hopefully ‘soon’ will mean….”

“By the way,” Rapha studied his fingernails with casual ease as he broke in, “it is time.”

With a thud, Adam landed headfirst. “What?” He sat up rubbing his head with a look of terror. “What does that mean, ‘It’s time’? That Adonai wants to discuss things more, that there’s unfinished work on the shelter? What?”

Once again Rapha was surprised. Why should the fulfillment of his heart’s desire frighten the lad? Wasn’t this what he had been begging for and talking about for weeks? Why did he now look prepared to flee? The angel could only guess it had something to do with being young and inexperienced. Rapha could relate very little on either count.

As it was, he could not resist exploiting this turn of events. It seemed due payback for the countless times Adam had harassed him. The particular morning the young man had organized the tree-dwellers to ambush Rapha with a barrage of fruit projectiles sprang to mind. Some of the chimpanzees had enjoyed the game so much they still shook the trees with their laughter whenever he passed.

“When I say ‘It is time’ I refer to several things, starting with ‘It is time for you to come down out of the tree.’ Once again you are being a bad example for the primates.” As he spoke, Rapha offered a hand to assist Adam to his feet. “But since you have already fulfilled the first directive, we will move on to the second—the issue of your appearance. Adonai has decreed you should care for and understand the animals, not smell like them. So, it is time for you to bathe!”

With that, Rapha flung the astonished young man over his shoulder and covered the short distance to the water’s edge. As if Adam weighed no more than a skipping stone, the angel tossed him high and far over the water, then threw back his head with a roar of laughter as Adam flailed in mid-air and landed with a spread-eagle slap that routed several gliding flocks of waterfowl.

When Adam sputtered to the surface with a disgruntled “Hey!” Rapha ignored the boy’s protests.

“Now come here. It is time to cleanse that bird’s nest you call hair.”


With the sun’s light filtering through the trees overhead, Adam’s hair shone as if he too were woven of light rather than earth. “So, are we going to meet her?” His appearance may have been kingly but the tremor in his voice belied Adam’s nervousness.

“No,” Rapha said as he worked drops of fragrant oil through Adam’s tangle-free, debris-free mane.

Adam whirled to grip the angel’s muscular shoulders, his hands at the height of his own head to do so. “What do you mean, ‘No’?”

He was tempted to continue teasing but Adam’s emotions were so strong on this point Rapha felt it would be cruel.

“I am afraid that person does not yet exist.”

“What?” Adam searched the angel’s face. Rapha could be evasive but he never lied. “Look! I’ve been scrubbed within an inch of my life, not to mention I endured your raking that, that thing through my hair until my scalp fairly bleeds, only for you to tell me she doesn’t exist?”

“Adonai wishes to secure the proper substance with which to knit her form.”

“But, is she not to be like me? I was fashioned from earth. I see no shortage of that particular substance, so what else is needed?”

“She will be formed of something nearer to you than the earth.” Rapha began leading the way with the confused manchild following.

“What could possibly be nearer? Will she be formed of the air I breathe, the water I drink? Neither seems a hardy enough substance.”

“Yes, she will contain those substances, just as you do, but her seed, the core of her existence, will be unique from any other creature on earth.”

Wondering why Adam’s footfalls had ceased, Rapha called over his shoulder, “Come! Adonai expects us.” When the boy remained unmoving, locked in a fog of misery, the angel retraced his steps.

Adam’s voice broke with grief. “I thought Adonai understood. I desire someone like me, more similar to me than any other creature He’s ever created, someone who sleeps when I sleep and hungers and dreams and longs to feel my touch more than any other. I sometimes feel this longing will reach up to swallow me like, like the gaping jaws of that creature trapped in the rocks.”

Rapha reached to place a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Adam, think. Who is the most unique creature in the garden?”

“I am the only one without another like me.”

“Now place your hand here,” Rapha guided Adam’s palm to lay it flat on the boy’s chest. “Do you feel that?”

As the rhythmic throb of his own heart pounded against his hand, Adam gave a slow nod.

“The seed of your mate can feel the life flowing through you as well. Adonai will use you to create her.”

Adam struggled with this mystery. “But the seeds you showed me, the ones that grew from the ground and began to flower, when I dug down to see what had happened to them, they had burst. Will Adonai put me in the ground until I burst so she may live?”

Rapha smiled and spoke gently. “Adam, does that sound like Adonai? No, you will not be destroyed so she may live.”

Again Adam followed in Rapha’s long strides. Curiosity still permeated the air but for the moment the boy seemed content to know she would be a part of him and that he would not have to burst to accomplish this. However, with the desperation Adam had exhibited, Rapha felt certain the boy would gladly sacrifice an arm and a leg if it meant he would gain his mate.


That evening, once again in the valley of his making, Adam approached his Maker with emotions overflowing in every direction. Rapha was used to sensing the boy’s moods; in fact it was solely for Adam’s understanding that words were ever required. But the moment Adonai appeared and beckoned the manchild forth, the intensity of feeling flowing through Adam’s frame was so strong even Rapha’s knees felt weak in empathy. He wondered how the human was able to remain upright as his emotions surged from excitement to fear, anticipation, dread, and an overriding determination to hold these feelings in check in order to not make a fool of himself. Though Rapha sensed a gnawing uncertainty, his respect for the boy soared, knowing he was getting a glimpse of the kingliness inherent in Adam.

When the Maker asked the manchild once more to state his heart’s desire, Adam’s voice was firm as he requested a helpmeet in his likeness.

“Are you prepared to lay down your life so she may live?”

His voice shook only slightly as he answered, “You gave me life. It is Yours, O Adonai, to take as You will.”

Adonai’s answer was a whispered, “Well spoken, my son.”

The boy’s eyes never left those of his Maker as a thick, sparkling mist rose from the ground at Adam’s feet. The love and trust between them brought a lump to Rapha’s throat. Although Adam remained unsure of his fate, he had placed himself in Adonai’s hands. Rapha had beheld countless glorious beginnings in creation but the beauty of that moment eclipsed them all. As Adam’s eyes closed in slumber and he swooned to the ground, the Maker’s hand was there to cushion his fall.

In spontaneous praise, celestial voices sang of Adonai’s glories, His triumphs, His faithfulness, His goodness and His unfathomable love. All creation joined the song, caught up in irresistible joy, straining with one mind to see Adonai’s desire fulfilled. The voices blended as one, piercing and harmonious, gentle and cacophonous, soaring to the heavens, swirling the thick mist surrounding Creator and created. Then a new melody rose, similar but more undulating than man’s creation song with its booms and triumphant crescendo. This was a gentler movement, more subtle and varied with a relentless, steady rhythm that supported and carried the original melody. Mysterious and ephemeral, it seemed to echo the diamond glow of the stars that slowly appeared one by one as if summoned to sparkle in syncronous resonance.

Through tears of joy, Rapha was aware of Adonai bending over the human. With the flash of a piercing point of light, a line of bright red appeared in Adam’s side. Through the flesh, a slender bone was withdrawn. Again the piercing light flashed and the flesh mended.

An overriding rhythm began to pulse at Rapha’s feet, a swoosh and throb that grew stronger and nearer with creation’s every breath, so compelling every living being aligned with the magnetic force drawing this power from the earth’s womb. With one smooth movement, Adonai scooped a hand into soft, fertile soil. As if drawing forth a tiny germ of a living star, His hand now cradled a pulsing brilliance smaller than Adam’s fist.

For a brief moment, the Maker held the light close to His chest as if unwilling to let it go. Then he brought the light to His mouth for a gentle kiss and whispered words none present could overhear. As His hands moved to place the light within the curve of Adam’s bone, a shining tear fell from His eye. As that tear joined with the light, it became shrouded in deep red flesh, shading its light and buffering its pulse.

The Creator laid flesh and bone in a hollow depression before him and bent low, covering life’s seed and calling forth Earth’s elements to converge. A thunderous clap echoed through earth and sky and a blinding glow engulfed the very spot where the seed lay while a sparkling flow bubbled up to fill the hallowed depression. To Rapha, the swell appeared infused with liquid gold that swirled in the glimmering fluid like living starlight, diving to entwine and flow, leaving bits behind every time it embraced the brighter glow in its center. From the earth’s pores, various hues arose, from vibrant and daring to muted pastels, providing pigment for the Master Craftsman’s canvas. The glory of Adonai filled the valley.

As an indiscernible shape took form in the liquid light, all creation shifted forward, straining to behold the work of Adonai’s fingers. The melody grew soothing and peaceful although the air seemed ready to explode with anticipation. In the midst of the lullaby, a surprising duet began. The sweet trill of a nightingale rose, calling forth peaceful repose even as the lament of a she-wolf sounded a restless summons to the heavens, stirring the blood with an untamed fierceness.

The two voices continued, dancing in a fragrant breeze that shushed the night. All paused to breathe deep. The passing perfume was a draught of exotic nectars of the sweetest fruit and most alluring blossoms coupled with an earthy, nut-flavored spice. It was a heady, healing, stirring yet simple scent of which Rapha felt he could never tire. It seemed woven of such varied and subtle bouquets that, if he were given unlimited time to peel back its composition, he could never plumb the depths of its mysteries.

Then a strange wonder occurred. Rapha was accustomed to the distinct characteristics of the temporal and the eternal, since daily he passed through the veil between them, but in that one shining instant, the two converged. Time was suspended as eternity sealed and sanctified the moment. It was a joining of opposite realms, knit together and destined to strain at the fabric of their confinement, and that very struggle was a key ingredient in the Master’s plan.

Again all was hushed. The glow at Adonai’s feet grew dim, and restfulness descended on Earth’s witnesses. The fullness of that silence was profound. Rapha felt oddly detached yet acutely aware of every detail as he was lost in the importance of that moment, woven into the flow of eternity.

As if waking from a dream, animals and celestial beings began to stir. A lion roared. Adam stretched before gazing with a dazed expression to ponder the surrounding spectators. His eyes widened with remembrance of the occasion and his head snapped to aim a questioning look toward Adonai.

The Maker laughed and again all creation responded with joy. “Patience, son,” the soothing voice said. “All is well.”

Sensing the summons, Rapha stepped forward to lead Adam to a quiet place to recover. The boy was reluctant to depart, curious to delve into the new mystery at Adonai’s feet, but he obeyed Rapha’s prompting, even as the assembled crowd began to disperse.

Once again, sleep was elusive for Adam. Late into the night he lay awake, staring at the stars, asking Rapha to repeat all that had occurred, then gazing toward the place where Adonai’s glory continued to hover. Just before dawn, the exhausted manchild slept. His final words before drifting into slumber were, “Just think. Hereafter, she will keep me company at night.”

Rapha supposed he should have felt insulted to be so quickly discarded, but this was as it should be.

One thing Rapha knew with certainty. Everything was about to change.