Eve and the Serpent
copyright 2000 by Tracy Marks
(creative writing assignment for Finding
Your Jewish Voice, Hebrew College course)
CREATIVE WRITING ASSIGNMENT: Sweet N Sour
Begin a story about a relationship between two individuals. Keep it
entirely sour. Give yourself no more than THREE minutes, then turn to 3B.
Continue the story where you left off, but switch to a sweet tone or
attitude. Everything that occurs, within and without, is nothing but sweet.
Give yourself THREE minutes, then turn to 3C.
Continue the story where you left off, but switch back to the sour approach
to everything. Consider this section the end of the story. Give yourself
THREE minutes, then turn to 3D.
Attach a brief punch line (two or three sentences) reversing the tone from
sour back to sweet. Find some way to slap on a sweet observation or twist,
etc. Take no more than TWO minutes to come up with this tag.
|
SweetnSour:
Eve and the Serpent copyright 2000 by Tracy Marks |
“You’re miSSing out,” hissed the serpent, twining himself around the nearby branches. “Every day you taSSte new fruit, but you never taSSte the beSSt fruit of all, the fruit of thiSS tree.” “That tree?” asked Eve. “That’s the tree we’re forbidden. God told Adam not to eat of that tree. If we eat its fruit, we die.” “Why believe God?” the Serpent challenged her. “I eat thiSS fruit, and I haven’t died. InSStead, I SSee more, know more……” He slithered toward her, “I think you’re just SSScared!” “Scared? ” asked Eve, recoiling. “Scared of what?” “SScared of being all you can be!” the Serpent hissed. “All I can be?” asked Eve, intrigued, despite herself. “Whatever do you mean?” “Do you want your eyeSSS to be more open SSo that you SSSee all the wonderSSS of life?” “Oh, yes,” replied Eve. “To be aSSS a God, to be able to create whatever you wiSSSh?” “That would be wonderful!” “To have great wiSSSdom, to know good and evil?” “I want to know all there is to know,” said Eve enthusiastically, eyeing the fruit. "But…..to die?” “You WON’T die,” the serpent promised. “You’ll live SSSuch a fuller life.” Eve eyed the fruit, longingly. Its red skin now glistened in the sunlight.It shimmered and glowed. Tentatively, she reached toward it, then paused, to smile at the serpent. “Maybe you’re right,” she said. The serpent coiled up a long the branch of a tree above Eve’s head, nudging a fruit so that it broke from its stem and landed on the soft moss where Eve sat. “Eat it,” urged the serpent. “Eat it!” Eve eyed the fruit, then turned and met the Serpent’s eyes, now gazing at her with urgent intensity. In the warm sunlight, she felt a sudden chill. “WAIT!,” she said, “This isn’t right……Why should I believe you instead of God?…..Why do YOU want me to eat this fruit?” The serpent, now on the ground, shoved the fruit toward her, into her hands. “WAIT!” Eve cried, “You’re pushing me! I don’t like to be pushed!” “Then don’t eat,” the serpent hissed, taking a chance, as he slithered away, ever so slowly. “It’s your loSS…. If you want to miSS…..the bliSS.…” Eve was alone with the fruit. At every moment it appeared to gain splendor,to promise lasting knowledge and immortality. She took a bite, and then another. Her taste buds exploded with sweet flavor. Her mind expanded, as new doors of perception opened. Her pupils enlarged as she gazed in awe at a world that had gained color and detail. The Serpent, who had circled around behind her, returned now, and coiled himself around her body, in a gentle embrace. She did not push him away. |
Another Eve story here!
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