A SECOND CHANCE

(revised piece)

Panting lightly she reached the top. She put a hand to her forehead to shield her eyes from the sun and surveyed her surroundings. In every direction the horizon stretched further than she could see. A hopeful smile came to life on her face. The land, although foreign, was indescribably beautiful. Outstretching her arms to the sky she span around and around, stopping only when dizziness began to take hold.

A gust of wind blew through her hair as she fell to her knees, and with her eyes closed she cherished the remarkable sensation; the cool grass and gentle breeze, combined with the momentary loss of equilibrium. ‘I’m not going to take my new life for granted,’ she thought. The past was the past, there was no way of changing it. Now she could live how she wanted; create her own life, her own future. She collapsed onto her back and blades of grass tickled her skin. Bathed in sunlight she slept; dreaming of walls crashing down around her.

It was cold when she awoke. Clouds had clustered about the sky, and the sun had just begun its gradual decent. She shivered and got to her feet with memories of body heat.

It had been many years since she’d been alone. Although she missed companionship its absence was liberating. It was just her and the world. She could think, act and live for herself. And maybe it meant that she’d somehow broken the curse… She banished the thought from her mind.

‘What now?’ she thought. Food, water, shelter, her head responded. She descended the hill and set out towards a leafy forest, and the faint sound of rushing water.

As she entered the forest she tripped and grazed her knee. She picked herself up quickly. The pain was nothing to her, but the sight of her blood brought back memories of her sons. A thought immediately sprung to her mind, ‘I need a weapon…’ The beauty of this place had distracted her; she was a fool to be so casual. She hurriedly searched her surroundings for anything that remotely resembled a weapon. To her disbelief, the forest afforded nothing of the sort. Not even a sharp stick that she could use as a spear. Was this place so beautiful that there was neither violence nor pain? Despondent, and now wary, she continued to make her way towards the sound of water.

Trekking on through the forest she passed several trees and bushes she’d never seen before. She marveled but wondered, ‘Where are the animals?’ The forest was eerily still. There were no birds, or even ants, as far as she could tell. The only sounds were the water and her careful footsteps through the thickening undergrowth.

It was considerably darker now, and every so often she’d furtively glance from side to side. The trees seemed to lean towards each other and create a kind of light-filtering canopy far above her head. She began to quicken her pace; the sound of the water was steadily increasing in volume. She needed to get there.

But before long she stopped. And crouched. A rock; sheer on two sides so that the edge was sharp like a blade. She put it in her knapsack and continued on.

The forest didn’t thin out at all, she was suddenly standing on a stony bank of the river. Water rushed by and to her left she saw the source of the guiding sound; a waterfall. It looked like a sheet of crystal cascading down from the heavens. She took a few steps forward and felt the cooling effect of the water as it flowed around her ankles. She advanced further so that the water was at her hips, and looked down at her feet. There was a time when she’d stood in a river similar to this for days – the icy water had penetrated her skin and chilled her bones – but it was all in vain. Penance.

Remembering her thirst, she cupped her hands and brought the clear water to her mouth. It tasted so pure that she began to feel she was sullying the river just by standing in it. She began to swim across to the other side. She couldn’t be sure but she thought she heard the snap of a stick from the bank behind her, but she was too busy fighting the current to look back. Whether she’d imagined it or not she felt safer once she was all the way across.

The other side of the river was a mirror image of the one from which she’d come; she walked up the bank and straight into dense forest. Drops of water trickled down her as she stopped and turned to face the river again. ‘Behind me?’ she thought. ‘How could that be?’ To the eye, the forest seemed as empty as before, with the occasional ray of sunlight shining through the overgrowth. But something told her that it wasn’t as empty as it seemed. Her hand drifted over the rock in her knapsack. She momentarily doubted how wise it had been to leave, but then her heart ached at the memory of her cursed life, the agonising pain.

Resolute, she turned her back to the river. Before setting off again she spotted a tree bearing a peculiar type of fruit. Reaching up she picked off three and put them in her knapsack for later.

She didn’t really know where she was going, or when she’d stop, she just kept walking because she could. Suddenly, she noticed that the trees were thinning out; the forest was coming to an end. Before her was a clearing, but there was an incline preventing her from presumably looking down into a valley. Although she didn’t have trees as cover, the light was fading slowly, so she boldly walked up the incline and peered down across the clearing. What she saw brought tears to her eyes. ‘Why?’ she uttered in despair.

“I thought you’d like it,” said a voice from behind her. She froze where she was. The voice was familiar.

She felt a hand on her shoulder. A strong hand. A man’s hand. Adam’s hand.

The garden below them was just like the first. They could start again.

It would start again.