“Everything is so quiet today,” Julia Genesee smiled, curling up beneath the Tree of Life in her backyard to read a book, and eating a handful of grapes. Her chestnut brown bangs fell in the middle of her forehead. “It’s almost too good to be true.”
It had been several months since 14-year-old Julia planted golden seeds from Adam II in Eden to grow a replica of the original Tree of Life in Humansville.
The Tree radiated light and peace, and Julia liked to spend time basking in its glow.
Of course, this Tree of Life only grew in the absence of the Tree of Good and Evil that once grew in her backyard with poisonous apples that almost destroyed her town. It was a version of the original Tree of Good and Evil that grew in Eden until the ground opened its mouth to swallow it after a great battle.
As it started to rain, Julia ran inside her home to find her mom cooking dinner.
“Anything but apples,” her mother Claire declared. “We don’t ever eat those anymore, not even apple dumplings with ice cream.”
“No, we only eat meat and vegetables,” Jacob, her father exaggerated, who loved to enjoy the all the fruit on the Tree of Life, including grapes, avocados, oranges, blueberries, plums, strawberries, cherries, peaches, kiwis, bananas, pears, and grapefruit.
“I miss the apples from the Tree of Good and Evil sometimes,” Nathan, Julia’s 12-year-old brother admitted. He brushed his blond hair from his face. “They made me strong!”
“No, you don’t miss them at all,” Julia argued. “They almost killed you and everyone in Humansville. We overcame them.”
She sat down at the player piano in her living room to perform an original song.
“I’m so glad that the piano doesn’t play all day and night anymore on its own,” Julia commented, alluding to how the piano originally appeared with the Tree of Good and Evil.
“Every time I play the piano, I remember the lessons the Tree of Good and Evil taught me,” she reminded her family. Then, she finished her song, and the piano played a big band number by itself. “Anyone want to dance?’ she asked, as her family bopped to the beat.
Later that night, the rainstorm grew worse with thunder, lightning, and hail. Sound asleep in her bed, Julia awoke to a sharp crackling noise. Her dog Meatloaf barked in fear.
She sat up in bed and pulled back the bedroom curtains to look outside.
“Oh, lightning hit the Tree of Life,” Julia gasped, looking at cracks through the trunk into the Tree’s roots. She threw on her jeans and a T-shirt, running into the backyard with Meatloaf, only to hear the same triumphant song that her player piano performed the last time she travelled to Eden through a magical window.
“Julia! Listen to me!” a woman’s voice screamed through what appeared to be the re-opened window between Humansville and Eden.
“Evelyn? Is that you?” Julia cried. “What is going on?”
“Please, I need your help! I’m still chained to the Tree of Good and Evil in Eden. No one in Eden will listen to me! I beg you,” cried Evelyn, a descendant of Eve, partially crawling through the window in her green leaf-like body suit. “The lightning storm must have caused the player piano an electric short and opened the window.”
Months ago, Evelyn had accompanied a replica of the Tree of Good and Evil with its test to Humansville, only to be judged by Eden’s ruler Adam II for lacking compassion. As punishment, she was chained to the original Tree of Good and Evil in Eden for eternity.
“Adam II has been captured by an evil ruler named Prince Ubel,” Evelyn cried. “He wants all the power from the original Tree of Life in Eden, and he has sent lightning storms to all the places in other worlds where seeds were planted to grow secondary trees.”
“Lightning just hit the roots of the Tree of Life in my backyard,” Julia confirmed. “What do we do now?”
“If you are brave enough, jump through the window again, and visit Eden to help save Adam II and the original Tree of Life,” Evelyn pleaded. “Prince Ubel has uprooted the Tree of Life from the springs in Adam II’s estate and hid it in an unknown location.”
“How am I supposed to help fix that?” Julia argued. “I’m just one person. Last time you gave me advice, you lied to me, and you almost got me stranded in Eden. Why would I trust you?”
“Because if you don’t trust me, you will die,” Evelyn argued with despair.
“If I trust you, I could die anyhow,” Julia answered flatly. “At least I could hide in Humansville for now.”
“If Prince Ubel controls all the power from the Tree of Life, he will have the ability to decide the life and death of every soul everywhere, and he will most likely destroy them and their children to create his own species—a species that would make any humans subordinate to them,” Evelyn explained, looking at Julia’s bewildered face.
“This must be another test,” Julia decided. “I knew the Tree of Life would eventually bring me another test to pass. I’m just a regular girl. Why does this have to happen to me?”
“Because humans have too much free will, Prince Ubel’s new race without free will would control any humans who are not eliminated,” Evelyn told Julia. “Please, help me! You only have minutes to decide if you are up to the task. The window will soon disappear.”
“What am I supposed to tell my parents?” Julia chided her. “I could save Eden and get grounded by them. I already spend too much time alone on Friday nights.”
“Hurry! The window is going to close,” Evelyn emphasized. “You will not have a second chance to slip through it.”
Worried her family would wonder where she went, Julia scribbled a note in the dirt saying: “Be right back.”
Before thinking about it too much, she jumped through the window, spinning and whirling through time and space, to arrive next to Evelyn, chained to the Tree of Good and Evil in Eden.
Rain poured as Julia and Evelyn sat beneath dripping tree branches in Eden. Julia could not see the sun through the clouds.
“Adam II has been gone for days, and Eden is desperate for someone to find him and the missing Tree of Life,” Evelyn explained in a depressing tone.
Then to Julia’s surprise, out from behind the tree trunk jumped Meatloaf.
“What are you doing here?” she asked her four-legged friend. “I guess he could not let me travel to Eden by myself.”
“You had to bring your dog!” Evelyn commented. “Well, he could at least be useful.”
As the dog started to howl, a looming figure walked in the shadows until he appeared to the women.
“I am Prince Ubel, and you will now be my slaves,” he threatened, holding a sword.
“That’s the sword that was supposed to guard the Tree of Life in Eden,” Evelyn snapped at him. “What are you doing with it?
“It’s mine now,” Prince Ubel decreed. “Either join me with the rest of Eden or die. Adam II has only days to live. The power from the Tree of Life will then be mine forever. I will lead my own race of people.”
Evelyn and Julia exchanged glances, not sure how to respond.
“I would surely free you from being chained to the Tree of Good and Evil, if you serve me,” the false prince lied with a fake smile.
“I will join you for your reign,” Julia agreed, abruptly, fibbing. Secretly, in her heart, Julia planned to kill Prince Ubel at the earliest moment and free Adam II, but she could not convey this to Evelyn in front of the dictator.
“What?” Evelyn gasped and refused to look at Julia. “Why would you betray me?”
“You never wanted the best for me anyhow,” Julia play-acted in front of Prince Ubel. “I should have never listened to you in the first place.”
“Your fate chained to the Tree of Good and Evil is worse than death,” Prince Ubel decided. “So, I am leaving you chained to the Tree.”
He departed with Julia and Meatloaf at his side.
When the evil ruler looked away at his comrades in the distance, Julia looked over her shoulder, trying to communicate to Evelyn that she would be back as soon as possible.
Evelyn squinted, not able to discern Julia’s interaction in full.
Later that evening, Julia arrived at Prince Ubel’s camp outside of Adam II’s palace.
A bit of a ghost town, the residents of Eden had hidden themselves in their homes, hoping that the new regime would not coming looking for them.
“This is your tent for now,” Prince Ubel told Julia and her dog, opening the front of a small cloth hideaway. “My soldiers will move into Adam’s palace once his belongings are removed.”
“Thank you. I appreciate it so much,” Julia twisted the truth. “Last time I was in Eden, I had less than desirable lodging.”
“I want to put you in charge of identifying all the Trees of Life throughout the cosmos,” Prince Ubel instructed, pacing back and forth in front of her tent. “If you could organize them into an exact list, then I could be sure they were all destroyed with lightning attacks.”
“Of course, my lord,” Julia reluctantly agreed. “I will do my best to make the list right away.”
“Now come with me for a moment. I need you to start working on your assignment first thing in the morning,” he asked. “I will show you the key for the vault in my tent where I keep the maps of the Trees of Life.”
The vault perched behind the makeshift desk in Prince Ubel’s tent.
“I hide the key in plain sight where no one would expect to find it,” the less-than-intelligent invader explained. “I hide it in my top desk drawer.”
“Yes, sir,” Julia observed, as Meatloaf sniffed around his tent. “So, where are you holding Adam II?”
In response, the Prince drew the sword that once protected the Tree of Life in Eden and held it at Julia’s throat. Stomping on his foot, she slipped away from him and ran beneath his desk in defense and grabbed the key from its top drawer without him noticing.
“I’m sorry for asking,” she cried, running with Meatloaf into her tent to sleep for the evening. Thankfully, the insane prince did not follow her. She zipped the tent cover shut and pushed the table and chairs inside the tent in front of its entrance.
“Meatloaf, you must go out during the night and find Adam II and come back and give me a clue as to his whereabouts,” Julia whispered into his ear softly. “I can’t go looking for Adam II, or Prince Ubel will kill me.”
Meatloaf scurried to the back of the tent and dug a hole under its corner until he squeezed his way out into the darkness. “Good boy,” Julia cheered. “Come right back after you find him.”
After she sent Meatloaf out, she sneaked back over to Prince Ubel’s tent and spied through the curtains to see where he kept the sword that once protected the Tree of Life.
“I need to get my hands on that sword,” Julia determined, not finding it anywhere in sight. “It’s the best way to kill him.”
As she peered through the curtain of Prince Ubel’s tent, watching him sleep on his bed for the next few hours, she noticed that Meatloaf returned to her tent, whimpering, and digging in the dirt with no clue as to Adam II’s whereabouts.
After considering her options, and curious as to what else might be in the vault, Julia slipped into Prince Ubel’s tent with the key while he was asleep and opened the vault door when his guards were not looking.
“What is this other key?” Julia whispered, staring into the vault filled with maps and a second key. “Maybe it could be used to free Adam II?”
As she lifted the second key and the maps from the vault to take them with her, she found the stolen sword. Its silver edges glistened in the darkness. She slipped the second key on the chain around her neck.
She glanced at Prince Ubel who was fast asleep and then studied his guards, evaluating her chances at killing him with a successful escape.
The guards yawned and rolled over but did not fully awake.
“I’m ending this before it gets worse,” Julia sighed, considering her few options.
With Meatloaf outside the tent, she decided that she had no choice but to kill Prince Ubel now and put herself in charge until Adam II could be found.
With one fell swoop, she decapitated Prince Ubel.
“I can never tell Mom and Dad about this,” she squirmed, stabbing the prince’s guards in the back with the sword before they noticed her. Then, Meatloaf ran into the tent and barked.
As other soldiers approached the tent, Julia held the head of Prince Ubel on a dinner plate. She pointed the sword at the guards and declared: “I am now the ruler of Eden, and you will bow to me or be destroyed with the rest of the prince’s soldiers.”
In terror, the guards fled as a beam of light streamed from the sword and struck them dead. Meatloaf cringed his nose, looking at Prince Ubel’s decapitated head.
“I have to take it with us, or Evelyn won’t believe me that I killed him,” Julia explained to Meatloaf. “I don’t want her to think I’m a trader.”
Before any more guards arrived, Julia took Prince Ubel’s head on the plate with the maps and the second key and fled with Meatloaf back to Evelyn.
“Run, Meatloaf!” Julia called to him. “We can’t waste any time.”
When Julia arrived back to the Tree of Good and Evil, Evelyn gasped in horror.
“You cut his head off!” Evelyn trembled. “I am stuck here by myself, and you did the best that you could.”
“What else did you want me to do?” Julia raged, holding up the sword that once protected the Tree of Life. “You asked me to help you. I even found the Tree’s sword.”
“Did you find Adam II?” Evelyn hoped, crawling around the Tree of Good and Evil.
“No, I haven’t found Adam II, but I did end the reign of Prince Ubel,” Julia clarified, unrolling the maps from the vault. “Try to be grateful.”
“Did you check in the caverns below the palace for Adam II?” Evelyn wondered, studying the map, and fascinated with how many seeds had been planted from the Tree of Life in other worlds. “There must be even more trees than on this map.”
“You would think so,” Julia commented. “Even if you tried, no one would be able to keep track of all the trees.”
“Maybe the original Tree of Life is hidden in the caverns,” Evelyn considered. “You would have to hide it somewhere that had room for all of its roots.”
“It would not be that easy to shove into a closet,” Julia admitted.
“There is a channel of rivers that runs beneath the palace into the caverns,” Evelyn explained. “If Adam II is in the caverns, maybe there is still time to find him before he is killed in captivity? We have to hurry.”
“Wherever he is right now, I’m sure Prince Ubel set a trap,” Julia assured. “I found this second key in his vault, so I am hoping that I can use it to free Adam II.”
The key hung from a chain around her neck, as if it could unlock the future of Eden.
“You can enter the caverns when the river splits on the West side of the palace,” Evelyn pointed. “It eventually descends into the caves.”
“I was always a good swimmer, so I should be able to do this,” Julia agreed, looking at Meatloaf and hoping he could tread water. “I’m leaving this sword with you. It’s too valuable to get lost.”
“I’ll make sure no one steals it again,” Evelyn assured, burying it in the leaves of the Tree of Good and Evil.
So, Julia and Meatloaf set off to the palace, avoiding Prince Ubel’s guards that might try to kill them. As they approached the river near the palace, a small boat with a lantern sat near the shore. Two paddles rested on the side of the boat.
“It looks like someone might have recently used this boat,” Julia said to Meatloaf. “Now, I hope you don’t mind getting wet. It’s almost like all the times that I washed you in the bathtub, but we don’t have soap to add any bubbles.”
Julia held up the lantern and descended into the caverns with Meatloaf at her side. As she paddled, the water grew higher and higher, and the boat neared closer to the top of the ceiling as each minute passed.
Then a wave of water crashed against the boat and knocked the key on Julia’s necklace into the river. “Oh, no!” Julia cried. “I can’t let go of the paddles!”
Without a moment’s notice, Meatloaf swam through the water and grabbed the chain with his mouth as Julia controlled the boat.
“Good boy!” Julia applauded. “What would I do without you?”
After hours of floating along a dark corridor, the boat rocked back and forth, and Julia knew she could not travel much farther until she would have to turn back.
All of a sudden, Julia and Meatloaf spied a figure behind bars in the corner of the cave.
“Adam II, is that you?” Julia called, pulling out the second key from the chain around her neck that she took from Prince Ubel’s vault. “Stay here, Meatloaf!”
With Meatloaf still in the boat, she jumped in the water and swam to rescue Adam II. “Hang on!” she yelped. “We’ve come to save you!”
“Thank you, Julia! Hurry, the water is filling up the cavern!” Adam II warned. “I would have only had a few more hours until I drowned in the rising water.”
The original Tree of Life had been tossed next to him with its tangled roots pointing toward the ceiling. Its branches were bent and crunched. Its fruit and green leaves had either fallen off or had withered in the water.
“I hope the tree is still alive,” Julia commented, sticking the key from her chain in the lock on the cell door. She jiggled the key left and right, and it finally opened.
“Freedom!” Adam II cheered. “I am indebted to you, Julia.”
“I killed Prince Ubel and took control of the kingdom,” Julia explained with Meatloaf barking in triumph. “Eden is still in disarray. We must hurry before someone else tries to put themselves in charge.”
Worried that they still might drown, Julia hurried back into the boat where Meatloaf whimpered with concern. Adam II carried the Tree of Life on his back, and then floated it next to the boat. “If you don’t think we’re going to make it, leave me, and just take the Tree,” Adam instructed Julia, willing to sacrifice himself, as he climbed into the rescue raft.
“We’re all going to make it,” Julia determined, paddling them back to the surface as quickly as she could.
One splash of water after another came against the boat, which hardly held the trio in the first place. Every few minutes, it seemed that they were going to capsize into the waters.
As Julia paddled, Adam II used his arms to direct the boat, paddling with his hands.
At the end of the tunnel, Julia could see a glimmer of light. “We’re going to make it to the surface,” Julia pointed out. “I can see the sunlight. We’re almost there.”
“Prince Ubel’s guards could be waiting for us on the shore,” Adam II warned. “If they are waiting for us, my best advice is to run. I have no weapons.”
“I left the sword from the Tree of Life with Evelyn,” Julia explained. “I didn’t want to risk losing it.”
“Keep your head low,” Adam II told Julia as they rose out of the caverns from beneath the palace.
Julia grabbed Meatloaf close to her chest, and he shut his eyes in fear. Still floating next to the small boat, the Tree of Life was sopping and moldy.
“I wonder if the Tree will actually grow at this point. It looks awful,” Adam II lamented, studying its roots. Then, he spotted two guards of Prince Ubel’s monitoring the river.
“We’ll hide behind this brush for now,” Julia determined, stopping the boat near a large bush, and waiting for the guards to leave.
“They might change guards soon,” Adam II explained, wet and tired. “Then it will be our chance to run.”
After an hour or two, the guards relieved themselves of duty, and Adam II lifted the Tree of Life on his back. He carried it until he replanted it firmly beside the springs on the East side of his palace.
“This location is closer to my palace than it previously resided, but I will be able to keep better watch on it,” he explained, trying to protect Eden.
“You are the once and future king,” Julia cheered, bowing to him.
“We need its sword! Sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow,” Adam II decreed, longing for the silver sword that belonged to the Tree of Life.
“Meatloaf, run to Evelyn and bring back the sword hidden beneath the leaves under the Tree of Good and Evil,” Julia instructed him, hiding a note in his collar for her comrade. “She will give it to you.”
“He will more easily slip past any evil guards,” Adam II agreed, watching Meatloaf hurry off on his daunting errand.
The next morning, after Julia and Adam II slept beneath the Tree of Life, Meatloaf woke them up with a grunt, holding the missing sword’s handle in his mouth.
“Meatloaf, I knew you could do it!” Julia celebrated, as she watched the sun rise over the hills.
Adam II grabbed the sword from Meatloaf and threw it into the air, and it circled the Tree in a sophisticated swinging motion, flaming and flashing back and forth to protect from intruders that would destroy it.“The sword is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart," he explained to Julia, as he walked with her and Meatloaf to his palace and sitting on his throne of supernatural fire. She sat at his feet. "I have now reclaimed my throne," his voice boomed.
Slowly, over a few days, the Tree of Life began to stand up straight and bear buds for new fruit and leaves.
A few days later, upon finding Evelyn back at the Tree of Good and Evil, Adam II praised her for her faithfulness in asking Julia to save Eden.
“For your allegiance to Eden, you are hereby released from being chained to the Tree of Good and Evil,” Adam II decided, reversing the previous judgment that he rendered on her for her selfishness toward Humansville.
Julia cried tears of relief as her latest journey had come to an end. Meatloaf jumped into her arms and cuddled his head in her chest.
“Julia Genesee, you will once again return back to Humansville,” Adam II instructed, handing her golden seeds. “These small seeds are from the original Tree of Life that you helped me save. They came forth as gold from the fire in my throne.”
Then, Adam II waved his hand, and the magic window between Eden and Humansville opened once again. Hugging Evelyn, and then Adam II goodbye, she stumbled through the window with Meatloaf.
“Until next time,” she called to Eden, swirling through time and space. She landed in her backyard next to the replica of the Tree of Life with its cracked trunk.
“Did anyone notice that I was gone?” she announced with Meatloaf barking.
From her backyard, she could hear the player piano performing from the living room. It played the same triumphant magical song every time the window between Eden and Humansville opened.
When no one answered her call, she realized that she had gone and come back without her family missing her. Her note, “Be Right Back,” was still scribbled in the dirt.
Watching the sun rise over the hills, she wondered how time worked between Humansville and Eden. It seemed to be a bit of a mystery.
“We have to cut down this broken tree, Meatloaf, and plant a new one,” she told her dog. “I have to go find Dad and ask him to help me get the electric saw. I hope he’s finished with breakfast. Then, I'm giving you a real bath in the tub with lots of bubbles.”
“Yeah, we'd better get rid of this mess before someone trips over it,” her father decided, drinking his morning cup of coffee. “It’s probably rotting. It will just turn into a no-good mess.”
“That was quite a storm last night,” her mother commented. “It hadn’t rained like that in ages. I’m so glad nothing else got struck by lightning.”
“I saw your note, ‘Be Right Back,’” her brother admitted, eating pancakes with bananas for breakfast. “I was too tired to figure out where you went. I figured it wasn’t far.”
“It wasn’t far at all,” Julia comforted her family by not giving them all the information.
After her father had cleared away the damaged Tree, Julia planted a golden seed from Adam II from the original Tree of Life in Eden to grow another replica tree in her backyard, hoping for a second chance in Humansville.
Meatloaf held the garden hose with his mouth to water the seed. She kept the leftover seeds from Adam II for planting of other trees on another day.
“Plant a seed today, and enjoy the fruit tomorrow,” Julia insisted. “As long as there are no bad apples.”
Copyright 2023 Jennifer Waters
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