The Retelling Celia Scully

Celia Scully

In the beginning, there was the Word, the garden and the apple of our conceits. Anon.

1. Sturdy little apple tree adorned in ruby red, when you were cast from Eden, through no fault of your own, did you think to ask, like Job, “Why, Lord, me?”

No. In free fall, shock and fear, there was no time for such. But I will tell you my story; let you be judge and jury: was justice done when all were punished for the curiosity of one?

But weren’t there two? True. But hear me out.

2. Life was simple until that couple came along— he— a bit of a dullard, naming all in sight, content to do as he was told; she—the lively, inquisitive one, bent on self-improvement and enjoying life to boot.

Why the Lord chose to test them, I cannot fathom. Did He, who knew all things, not know how badly it would end? Why root a tree mid-garden, whose fruit a sacred-secret held, then say, “Don’t touch; don’t eat,” and point at me? 79

I had to act, and quickly. My plan, so eloquent in its simplicity—

no fruit/no problem—made me laugh out loud, which woke Big Snake who had been napping. Grouchy and annoyed, he rattled his fearsome tail at me and swore to soon get even.

Foolishly, I paid no heed, for I was caught up in the glory of the story folks would later tell: how a humble little apple tree sacrificed its red-ripe bounty to save a naïve couple from its own cupidity.

Revenge came swift and sugar-coated as the woman fell for Big Snake’s fiction, tasted of my fruit, and waited for an adrenaline-rush of godly super-knowledge— then tossed the apple to her mate and said, “You try.”

How ironic that her name and mine should be forever linked in legend, myth and bible story: she, as original sinner; and me—the innocent one— as the bad apple. I ask you, “Is that fair?”

3. Sturdy little apple tree, I’ve heard your story through and through but judge and jury cannot be. For I, too, know God’s forte is not fairness.

But let me ask you this: when you were freed from Eden to live a life so rich in film and brand

and ‘oft retelling, was not a favor done?

Good point, my friend, and one that had escaped me. There is no going back, nor would I, if I could. My DNA is wired for bigger, greater things— in my crystal ball I see: Breaking News…Cosmic Apple Discovers New Eden in The Pleiades.

Stay tuned, for the fate of Paradise lies in the stars where myth and Space Age meet: will history record a doomed repeat or obviate the Second Coming?