Sneak Peek--Vector One: The Tree of Life

There was a time before time began, before we started counting time in days, twenty-four hours at a time, sixty minutes in an hour, sixty seconds to each minute. Before time was as we perceive it to be, life was the way the Creator intended it to be. They said they created the world in six days—the water, the sky, the creatures. Then they provided light so everything on Earth could see. But this was before time had any particular meaning, before humans walked the earth, before memories became a part of how we made sense of life on this planet.

They fashioned first man in their image, and then first woman from first man. Man and woman lived in paradise, with everything they needed. Air to breathe. Sun to warm their skin. A tree provided nourishment. A river provided water. They had each other for companionship and the ground to lay down and sleep.

But then something happened. Before time became anything we understood. Before first man and first woman started asking questions. Before happiness and joy gave way to jealousy, hate, and carnal desire.

One day, man and woman walked from where they slept each night, from the tree that offered them sustenance. They walked farther than they had walked before and came across something they had never seen. It was way down the river, across on the other side, a tree that was off limits, yet they looked and wondered.

Not long after, something moved along the ground. It slithered silently, slowly, hidden in the grass. And then, everything changed. Life as they knew it, was over.

Later on, we are not sure how far into time it was, as time had not yet been measured the way we measure time today, man and woman grew a branch. The branch grew and spread, sending offspring into the world, into places they had never seen, never known before. And over time, maybe years, probably decades, most likely generations, their branches reached across all masses of land that covered the planet.

The Creator looked down, and was sad… It was no longer as they intended.