A SHORT STORY - EDEN

It was the year 2060 in the last days of Eden and Earth’s garden floor was at its weakest. Humans had wreaked havoc with their wars, technological advancements and man-made diseases. It was indeed the end of times or maybe just the beginning of a new era. Not even the wisest of wisers could tell. Of all God’s creations, the trees were the most rooted and long-lived. They survived catastrophes for generations having a life expectancy of up to one thousand years unlike humans, sea creatures and the beasts of the earth. The war between man and nature was up for debate in the upper echelons of our garden sphere and I was its most absentee member. I mean, who really cared about trees dropping dead, hell we needed all the wood we could get.  Also, that Sycamore Tree that haunted Jane Francis five decades ago and made her run to the graveyard and dig graves for every fornicator and adulterer in all of Eden was enough to send our self-righteous community into a chopping frenzy. Do you know that Jane Francis was now a celebrated visionary? We still do not have the balls to cut down that tree to this day.

Despite Mr. Sycamore, mankind still won the war, or so I thought - a war being fought for centuries between man and nature. There were only one hundred trees left and the air we breathed was no longer fit to inhale. We were dying and if that was not funny enough the trees knew it and mocked us for waging a scientific war. Honestly, we thought we were such badass geniuses; we had conquered science and science had conquered life itself. We attempted to make humans from earth and when that proved futile, we made robots. We made trees from artificial GMO developed seeds and bore fruit and food to eat. We were conquerors. But then, one day, the seeds stopped germinating and all of Eden’s soil became fallow. The animals became infected and all the plants were diseased. By this time Eden was a concrete jungle and all our rooftop farms were plagued with man-made viruses. We were all casualties, trees and humans alike, and God allowed us to be the wrath wrought upon ourselves.   

The Government of the day decided that clean air was now a commodity, more expensive than diamonds and all of earth’s natural resources. I found myself at the front of gypsy protests rallying for better healthcare. You see, I am a coffee addict and I have only just realized that there are no more coffee bean trees to supply my habit. This has literally caused a latte of problems for humans. Maybe that is why the last coffee I drank was called a “Depresso”. But back to the air fiasco, how could an invisible gift which God gave to man freely become commoditized. The truth is the air was so dirty that scientists being the scientists that they are, began trying to find ways to capture it and clean it but our GMO ridden trees would not do it. And the last army of our God-given trees took a stance and began rooting themselves into one and huddling their branches and leaves together. They no longer bore fruit. They were sacrificial. They understood their value to life.

The human thinks he is more powerful than the tree, but the tree knows he is superior. It is the tree that feeds us, shelters us, and takes the windfall of many natural disasters. We are only just beginning to reap all the destruction we arrogantly sowed.

Written By: Josanne Rojas