Not only am I now talking to animals…I think I understand them? It wouldn’t be the weirdest thing to happen to me. So, just like I’d seen Alfred do, I picked the berries till the basket was full before giving it the rabbits. After I finished with them came the birds, then the deer, then the bears… I became so used to turning around and seeing a new group that when I turned around and saw nothing but the gardens I was a little stunned.
“Nicely done,” Alfred said suddenly walking up beside me and taking a berry for himself to eat.
“Where am I? Was I sent to animal heaven instead? Forced to feed berry-loving animal souls for the rest of entirety?”
He laughed. “And if this was animal heaven, what would you do?”
“Nothing. Here isn’t bad…It’s the opposite of bad…It’s just…” I trailed off as I watched the sky darken to a deep purple-pink hue while the sun slowly began to set. It was beautiful…Esther would have stared in awe.
“Esther. You miss Esther.”
Her name. For some reason I looked around to see if she was here, but she wasn’t.
Which was good.
“You look relieved.”
“Aren’t you?” I questioned, looking over to him. “If she isn’t here, she must be alive. She’s the better person between us.”
“She could be in the heaven for man,” he joked and I rolled my eyes but laughed too.
“Then she’d demand you get a message to me.” Knowing her, she’d give up wherever she was to find me, to stay with me. Was she alright? I didn’t want her to be sad. I didn’t want to leave her, but at least the cycle was over. “It’s finally over, Alfred, and yet I’m still clueless. Why did this happen? What were we being punished for? I have so many questions. I thought death came with the answers.”
“For you to get answers you have to ask questions, don’t you think so, Malachi?” he replied and walked over to a bench I had not noticed before. He took a seat in front the tree, leaned back and looked to me. “Why don’t you ask?”
“Ask who? You?”
“Yes, I do remember you thinking once about settling this like men?”
I stared at the old-age covered brown face of the man I’d considered my father.
“I am your father, just not Alfred.”
Could one be shocked in Heaven?
“Yes,” he answered with a smile on his face. When he closed his eyes, I felt the breeze and warmth of the air blow by. “Do you know how many people demand answer to questions they do not ask me? They speak to themselves, or others, but never to me. And when no answers are given to the questions that aren’t asked, many decide to come up with one themselves. Like who is it that said you were being punished?”
It was at that I found myself able to speak again. “One thousand times. I have died one thousand times, each after meeting the love of my life. You—we wanted to be together and yet we were torn apart by—”
“The world around you,” he answered, eyes now open as he looked directly at me. “The darkness entered the world by you both, kept you apart time and time again. Anger, hate, jealously, greed—that which seeks to destroy love.”
“Darkness I let into the world? Me? I’m not…” I trailed off, trying to think and I looked up and around me. “This is the Garden of Eden?”
“It has been called many things, but I call it the Garden of Good. All that is good resides here. You resided here as Adam: the man. Taking care of all that was here, just as you did now, and at the end, you wished for a companion for yourself. Just like now.”
“Esther and I are Adam and Eve?” I couldn’t believe it and yet, that meant… “And you are…”
“Adonai, Allah, Bahá, the Deity, Elohim, Krishna. I am called many different things as you know Malachi, for you have called me many things, and each I have heard you.”
“If you heard,” I whispered slowly hanging my head. “If you heard, why didn’t you help us? Why did you—”
“You didn’t need help.”
“One thousand—”
“One thousand times, you called to love, as I told you to love, and you loved.”
“I didn’t want a thousand time!” I put my hand over my face. “I just—I just wanted one. One good happy one. Why couldn’t she and I have that? You asked me who told me I was being punished? No one needed to tell me. I felt it. I watched the person I love die and die and die before dying myself. If that was not punishment, then what was it?!”