Black Knight 02 - Back in Black (27 page)

So Lucky tricked Eve into eating the apple, and she shared it with me, and we got kicked out of the Garden, and headed off to the land of Nod and all that stuff you’ve read about since you were a tadpole. And that changed everything. We were out on our own, cast out of our Father’s presence, and betrayed by one of our best friends. Things were pretty tough for Eve and me for a long time, and eventually we parted ways. After a long time and more than a few beers, I managed to forgive Lucky and we reached an understanding of sorts, but Eve never let it go. Leaving the Garden broke something inside her that never healed, even after all these years.
 

Oh, I guess by now you’ve figured out that we’re immortal. Gaining knowledge of good and evil didn’t do anything to change the whole living forever thing we started off with, even though we didn’t pass that on completely to our children. Don’t get me wrong; they lived a good long time. I watched more than one century turn with my kids, but eventually they grew old and died. And it seemed that with every generation they died sooner and sooner until eventually Eve and I were alone. It didn’t matter what my buddy Clive Lewis wrote about all men being “sons of Adam.” That could never change the fact that my direct sons and daughters were gone.
 

So I sat on a little hill just west of Las Cruces, watching the sun go down, and trying to figure out what Lucky was looking for. What did he want me to do? He had suggested California, so of course I headed east, but is that what he wanted me to do in the first place? Lucky was the original trickster, so it wasn’t out of the question for him to double- or even triple-think me into going exactly where he wanted me to go.
 

As I sat there pondering, the first star of the night came winking into view in the east, and I could feel my answer. East. I had to go east, and I had to find Eve. This was gonna get ugly.