Escaping Eden

They call our town Eden. I never read the bible in as much detail as I was supposed to. Alisha and I dn't believe in any of the ramblings of the fantastical book. It was a grand story to us, but that was the extent of it. The only thing I can give the book credit for is how similar their Garden of Eden is to our village. The lush plant life and bountiful animal supply keeps us fed and happy. Well, it doesn’t keep me and Alisha happy. Something I didn’t mention about Eden? It’s a technology dead zone. Not that we’re supposed to know what technology is, or even know it exists for that matter. Not only is it a dead zone, but our town is also bordered by tall, stone walls. Moss has crept between the stacked pieces of rock to allow for a beautiful barrier between us and the world. Despite its beauty, it’s still a barrier that we aren’t allowed to leave. It’s one of the laws. Nobody seems to mind because we have all we need. Decades ago, the Eden government was created, and with it, strict laws. The laws follow the ten commandments, plus some. Punishment for the crimes? Execution. If you’re familiar with the ten commandments you must recognize that Thou shalt not kill is an important one, yet it is the punishment? Another huge crime in our community? Being in love with somebody of the same sex. Punishable by death. Bear in mind, Mrs. Judith, one of the church elders, once was caught lying in bed with her neighbor Thompson, without her husband’s knowledge. Whether her husband knew or not matters little. It was a crime punishable by death and she walks free anyway. Yet, Gabriel and Noah were stoned to death because they were two men lying together. Both equal crimes, with unequal punishments. Although Alisha and I adore Eden, the soft leaves, and silky grass, we must leave. Our love is too great, and death is not an option for us. This place is a beautiful prison that we must free ourselves from.

               Laying in the grass, running my fingers through the blades, I wonder if the outside world is as dry and barren as they say. They’ve shown pictures of dried, cracked mud that was once a lake; circular weeds that travel across the land, ripped from their moist roots by the suns unforgiving heat. Alisha says Bradly Wilson once told her it’s a lie. He says that they took photos from a place called Arizona and pretended that was the world. He says there are places called rainforests that look exactly like Eden, better he says. We don’t know how Bradly came across this information, or if it is true, but I would take a whole Arizona world over hiding my love for Alisha a day longer. My heart yearns to kiss her. To tangle our naked flesh by a lake and get lost in each other’s eyes. Now that she has enough money, that dream can be a reality. She’s been working every day since she turned eighteen. She’s twenty now. She’s saved up many dollars by living at home, hoping to get away before her parents find a suitable male partner for her. She doesn’t want to stop working. If she was married off, she would have to. She has convinced them that though she is a woman, she should be allowed to work on her father’s farm and do more than milk cows and plant crops. She butchers now and sells cattle in the square. They have allowed her to do it with permission from the government. I have stuck to gardening, as my father is less open to a woman doing man’s work. If our plan works, and Alisha and I can be freed from this place, I would like to help her farm. My father says milking cows is even too much for a woman’s delicate hands. He calls her father a fool for letting his daughter be swayed by such masculine habits. My father calls her terrible names because of it, and it prevents him from blessing our friendship.

               “A vision in orange.” Alicia’s voice echoes from behind me. I’m startled from my webbing thoughts. Her smock is dirty from the mid-summer harvest. I rise to my feet, fluffing out the sunset-colored gown my father bought me.

               “He thinks I’m a peacock; I must show my colors to attract a mate.” I say quietly. The thought of attracting a man makes me shutter.

               “Ah, but you are a peacock. I am brown and ugly like a female, and you attract me with your display of colors.” I blush at her words, her wit. She has always been smarter than I. She has more connections to the world. She is my only hope for leaving this place. In these moments I want so badly to touch her. To hold her. I am left to wonder what her hands would feel like on my waist. It’s bad enough the town has begun to see our friendship. They call us best friends. Inspirable. We’ve done our best to change that view of theirs. It’s far too much attention from others to be seen as best friends. It’s too close to the truth. Out here though, by the dead tree, people seldom come. We are free to talk and laugh here. They think it’s cursed, the spot in Eden the devil has grasped. The tree is twisted and brown, but not a healthy brown like the other trees. An ash brown. The leaves have long since fallen, some still visible below, tangled in the sod. The grass around the tree has grown back to its vibrant green state and some pink flowers have even crawled up the side and clung to it.

               “Are we really going to leave this place tomorrow night?” I ask, nervous that she will say yes. Nervous that she wills ay no.

               “Bradly said he has slipped away before. A hole was dug under the fence, tangled in some brush where dogs have come and gone. It’s a chance I’m willing to take.”

               “Tomorrow night. At the hole in the fence. Midnight.” I say, repeating what she has told me many times.

               “Yes, love.” She bows gently, slipping back down the once groomed path from which she came.

I sat on the balcony attached to my room, watching the silver moon rise in the sky. It’s time. I put my best dress on, stash my journals in the messenger bag my father bought with some of our vegetable money and set the note for my parents neatly on my pillow. I wrote an apology to my mother and father. Aside from the fact that they would have had me killed for my love with Alisha, they are good parents. I will miss them greatly. I hooked my feet into the trellis just off the balcony along the house, and climbed down quickly. The town was lit by dim lanterns. Few guards patrolled the town after the nightman lit the lanterns, so I had little to worry about. They thought the village people to have more sense than wandering at night. If I would run into them, I would simply tell them Alicia’s father sent for some fruits for his pregnant wife, not a complete lie. He had done that before. We grew the largest fruits in the whole town, and she got late-night cravings often. It always gave me a chance to see Alicia’s home, feel comforted by the short distance between us. In Eden, late-night strolls give me the creeps. Wolves prowl at night to catch stray sheep that escape from farmer's fences, or they find deer nestled in the thicket. For a town of three-thousand five-hundred people, the wolves sure make their home at night. We’ve only had one wolf attack in the past twenty years because most villagers are smart enough to stay indoors unless they have the proper training.

I trekked along the well-worn, animal-made path, towards the shrubbery where the dogs slip through. In the dim light of the glowing moon, I see two figures huddled closely. My heart begins to race until Alicia’s blond hair catches my eye. Next to her is a red-haired boy, maybe just a small man? I got closer and recognize it as Bradly. I had never met her mysterious friend but in letters and hidden deep in the tall grass she has told me all about him and his adventures. He holds a bag just as we do, prompting me to look at him curiously.

“Hey, I’m Brad—ly. Whatever you wanna call me. I talked to Alicia. I’m leaving for good too. I know a lot about it out there and I promise I can help you guys. I saved eight grand and miss amazing here saved three, that gives us eleven grand to start our lives together! I’ll help us get an apartment and jobs. Whatever we need to do. I gotchu.” His language was so different from ours. Different from anybody in town. He truly must have ventured far. I wondered how he's left as many times as he has, for as long as he has, without getting caught. I didn’t understand half the things he said, but Alicia looks happy to have him with us. Bradly kept talking as he pushed through bushes, “I have so much to tell you, Dalia. I’ve told Alicia the gist of it, but you. You will love it. I didn’t want to tell her until she was ready to hear it. It’s huge. Now that we're all leaving, you HAVE to know.”

Just like Alicia had said, a very small dip had been dug underneath the fence. Good thing we’re all on the small side. I look down to my clean, blue, dress and back to the small trench. It is about to be ruined. Bradly took our bags and stuffed them over the other side then slid under himself. I followed. Then Alicia behind me. On the other side, I was shocked to see that barren wasteland like in the photos. Was this really the world? He said it wasn’t. It did have slightly more vegetation than in the pictures one could say. More green bushes, but so few. Bradly looked up to the gate, then gestured for us to grab our bags and go.

We rushed in a line, towards the darkness that surrounded us. I heard the distant sound of a barking dog then we were suddenly struck by daylight. Was it daylight? The white light blinded me, and a faint buzzing began to wail. The sound of barking dogs got closer and closer.

“Oh man, this is not good.” Bradly whispered loudly. He pulled a huge bundle of cash from his bag and shoved it at Alicia. She shook her head, but he forced it into her hands anyway and pushed her forward.

“Please. We can’t all escape. Alicia, take this, take Dalia far away from here. Remember the path I discussed? The train ticket to Illinois?” She nodded her head, taking deep breaths of the cool night air.

“Go, they know someone’s escaped. Somebody must be caught, or they’ll catch up to all of us.” He shouted. Alicia took my hand and drug me into the night. The commotion behind us faded into a quiet murmur until all I could hear was the sound of crickets and the panting between us.

The train contraption we've come across is weird. It is the most metal I’ve ever seen in one place. Eden is too small to need something like this to transport people. The biggest thing our village has is a couple of buggies owned by the very wealthy. The rest of us use horses. Alicia recited what Bradly had apparently told her, “Two tickets to Chatham, Illinois please.” The man took her money but ended up giving some back. He handed her coins I had never seen before, but the bills were the same. When we got onto the stinky train contraption, we put our bags in storage above us and slid into our seats. Alicia looked around and to our pleasure, the section we sat in was empty. Alicia took a deep breath and grabbed my face, kissing me as hard as she could. It was warm and caused a vibration to travel through my body, down between my legs. When I pulled away, the moment of sheer bliss between me and the woman I love was quickly overrun by fear. Uncertainty. She looked stressed, like that world had taken too much from her. And I felt tired, and terrified of what had happened to Bradly. I wondered if she was thinking of him too. She grabbed my hands, looking me deep in the eye. The warmth of her skin makes me want to melt like a candle, but her eyes are cold and serious, preventing the heat from melting me.

“We were an experiment, Dalia.”

“An experiment?”

“Yes. There’s a government, a much bigger government. One who controls the world outside of Eden. Eden is surrounded by technology, that’s what keeps the temperature the way it is. Eden is under some sort of dome. Bradly called it an energy shield. The government was trying to see what people would do if they were given everything they needed, a perfect environment. They wanted to see how we would react. They wanted to see if people would try to create technology, and when we did, they made sure it never worked. The government wanted to see how a civilization would act without advancing, if it would be happy never moving forward.” She was still holding my hands. Searching my eyes for a reaction. It doesn’t entirely make sense to me. I don’t understand why a bigger government would do this or what this all means. But I do know one thing. We were free, and we were never meant to be. The world out here is limitless. I realize she is still searching for a reaction, but it will never come. I open my mouth several times, but the words just get stuck there.

“How will we navigate without Bradly?” I ask her, feeling guilty for uttering his name.

“I’m not sure,” She says, dropping her head, “He has told me about a lot over the years. Things I was too afraid for you to know. He said they could get us all killed. Maybe he told me enough.”

I grabbed her hand again, squeezing tightly, “There are so many uncertainties. But right now, in this moment Alicia, it’s you and me. And we escaped.”

“We did my love. We escaped Eden.”