The Tree of Eden By Marshall Oppel

Crowds outside the plane stood by the runway, protesting his trip. He was about to make a discovery of a lifetime, and these religious fanatics didn’t want him to go or else “all would be punished by the sword of fire.”

John boarded the plane, not bothering to look back at the crowds protesting. As he sat down in the back of the plane, John saw one of the flight attendants approaching. He didn’t bother to look at the name tag. He didn’t need to know her name.

“Hello, welcome to the Silver-”

“I know the name of my own plane.” John interrupted.

“I am sorry Mr. …”

John looked up. “How long have you been working on this plane, and you still don’t know my name?”

“I am sorry, this is my first day.”

“Still, make it a note to remember the name of your boss, its John, John Hal.”

“Sorry Mr. Hal, I am –”

“I don’t need to know your name, just go get me a drink, if you don’t know what I like, ask the cook, if the cook doesn’t know what I like, ask another flight attendant, if she doesn’t know what I like, you’re all fired.”

“Yes, Mr. Hal.” She walked off.

I should have just fired her the moment she couldn’t remember my name. Everyone here knows I don’t drink anything when I am on the plane, John thought, sitting back. He loved to sit in the back. It made him feel, important, having everyone going out of their way to wait on him.

John thought some more about the dig. It would probably take days, but he had all week. All week to get even richer. John picked his phone up. He began to type out the speech he would make upon proving “Eden” didn’t exist. Half way through writing it, he fell asleep, and began to dream.

In his dream, he saw an old man in robes. The man was talking in some foreign language, but English echoed back after he finished each sentence.

“Do not do what you have come to do. For you will find Eden, and you will put the curse of the flaming sword on all of mankind,” Came the echo. “Countless innocent people will die if you do this. Turn back.” A flash of light marked the figure’s exit.

John jumped up, wide awake. He looked out the window to see Middle East terrain, mostly desert, but some vegetation gave signs they were in the Fertile Crescent.  The pilot shouted over the P.A. “Mr. Hal, we are now at the site for the dig, we received a call while you were asleep. Your men were to begin digging without us, and they have already finished one section and found nothing, so we are here at the second dig site.”

I wonder when I am to meet the Mullah for that “talk” he wanted, John thought walking to the front of the plane and stood in the door way.

“Take her down pilot!” he shouted.

“Yes sir, but I would advise-”

“I said take her down!” John cut the pilot off.

“Yes sir, the Silver Wing is landing.”

As the plane landed and the door slid open, John was standing in the door way.

“If you guys would have gotten it all done without me, I would have fired you, you know that right?” John smiled.

The lead digger walked up to the plane. “Sir, we have the whole area in between the Tigress and Euphrates, I doubt we would have,    but, one of the crew members kept rambling on and on about some flaming sword. We assigned him to another section with a small       group, but they paged me that when they found a strange fruit that was fossilized, he freaked out and ran. After that, we cancelled that    dig so you could be there. We are almost done here, and will take you there shortly.”

“What type of fruit?” John asked.

“It was weird, it was huge, about the size of a small watermelon, but it was shaped like an apple.”

“So it was just a large apple, so what?”

“I have no clue. He is one of those “religion solves the world’s problems” type of guy,” The lead digger said.

John nodded and began to walk to where a table was set up with some food. He had eaten before he left, but he was hungry again. There was no meat, just fruits. John scowled. He grabbed a banana and unpeeled it. He walked over to where they were digging. The lead digger walked over to him again.

“You know Sir; we really are sort of scarring up the terrain.”

“Yes, but if we can disprove Eden, then you know we could end this war.” Because we disprove the Christian’s belief, the Jew’s belief, even the Muslim’s belief, which would pretty much end this war, because all it is the Christians defending the Jews, who are both being attacked by the Muslims, John added mentally as he walked up to the four-wheeler that was parked by the dig supplies. “I am heading to town; call or text or whatever when you are done here.” He revved up the engine and zoomed off.

“Sir! That’s our only mode of transportation until… the others arrive,” The lead digger looked back at the site, they were almost done; by the time John got to town, they would be done, unless… “Alright guys, take a break, John’s gone to town and said we could take a few minutes off, but we had to be done before he got back, but it could be a while.”

About an hour later, John’s phone vibrated. He looked at it. “Sir, we’re done here and waiting for you to get back, the other four-wheelers are being brought here.”

John looked up. He re-wrapped the sub he was unwrapping when the phone vibrated. He put the sub in the back compartment of the four-wheeler, and drove off.

When he got to the dig, he saw everyone was wiping off, standing around the table.

The lead digger walked up to him, sweat dripping from his face from the mid-day heat. “What’s that?”

“Oh, a BLT, without the bacon, so I had them put chicken on instead.” John said, un-wrapping it and taking a bite, he chewed slowly.

The lead digger’s mouth watered. “Well, we couldn’t get the four-wheelers, so while you ride on that, we will ride in the truck they bought instead.” John nodded. He finished the sub and hopped on the four-wheeler and drove after the truck, which the lead digger was already driving.

They arrived at the third dig site about eight o’ clock at night. John slept while the crew dug.

In the morning, there was a lot of commotion. “What happened?” John asked.

“We found a tree, not fossilized, but encased in stone… alive! The crew decided that you should finish chiseling it out.” The lead digger said.

John rolled his eyes and grabbed the tool he was handed. Thirty minutes later, the tree was almost fully free from the stone, except one part. John brought the hammer down hard on the chisel on the last part of stone. It fell off. Immediately fruit grew on the tree. Apples the size of watermelons, in a matter of seconds.

One of the crew members shouted “It’s the tree of Eden!” and started running, many others did as well. Suddenly, the ground behind the tree exploded and shadows raced out of the hole. They were winged monsters. One of them landed next to the tree, looking straight at John, and spoke in clear, modern day English.

“Who are you, human, to disturb Eden?”