Wayward Son (15 page)

Noah was evidently instructing his sons in their duties.

“
Ham
,
Shem
, and
Japheth
, my sons! We all must pitch in with the food and water supplies. Remember to check every cage and stall for signs of a sick animal. And keep in mind that this is a temporary sojourn for these creatures. We will not have to give these beasts long-term care, only an emergency rescue.”

So Noah envisioned an end to their voyage sooner, rather than later, thought Cain.

“As you know, my sons, many of these animals are free-ranging by nature. Unaccustomed to confinement, they may grow nervous. Do not become severe with them, my sons. Like you and me, they are God’s creatures.”

The silence that ensued was Cain’s cue for departure. Ham, Shem, and Japheth might well be preparing to descend below decks. Cain retreated down a level to the haystack.

***

During the next few weeks, he fell into a hide-and-seek routine, eluding Noah’s sons on the bottom deck and venturing out only in search of food. His shoulder wound had quickly healed and left no trace of a scar. Cain had been careful not to leave drops of blood creating a trail back to his hiding place in the haystack. To lessen the chance of discovery, he jettisoned the bloodied straw dressings out the back of the ark.

His best source of sustenance was the bird cages, where ample quantities of seeds were provided. He also pilfered from the squirrels, whose supply of nuts diminished rather more swiftly than expected, thus puzzling the well-muscled but somewhat ingenuous sons of Noah. From the monkeys, Cain procured roots and dried fruit.

One day, while hiding in the haystack, Cain overheard Japheth and Shem talking. Like Ham, the third son, both of them were much taller and more physically powerful than Cain. Brawny from the years of physical labor in building the ark, they could easily overpower him if he were discovered. Perhaps they would even throw him overboard.

“Throw me overboard!” came an echo. As Shem and Japheth stared at the green bird in disbelief, Cain could not suppress a grin. Was the bird a mind reader?

Periodically, great waves of noise washed over the ark. Provoked by some unaccountable trigger, and joining in chorus to outdo each other, the animals howled, brayed, roared, and trumpeted. After a brief pause, they took up the calls again: barking, squeaking, shrieking, bellowing, whinnying, bleating, grunting, and caterwauling. They neighed, hissed, and whined. When it happened at night, Cain was forced to stuff crushed hay into his ears.

It was another month before he thought it safe to venture upward to the top of the ark. Here Cain glimpsed another collection of smaller mammals, including rabbits, hares, mongooses, small wild cats, and jackals. Around the ark ran a semi-enclosed balcony, affording light and adequate ventilation to the whole vessel.

Cain gazed in amazement from the balcony. Rain was still falling. By now the height of the waters was staggering. There was not a single trace of dry land to be seen. Just small islands of tangled vegetation floating in the water. Logs, branches, and sticks mainly. But more disturbing were the bloated carcasses of cattle and other animals, along with what looked like human remains in those clusters. Cain grimaced at the occasional sight of large, saw-toothed fishes with gaping jaws frenetically feeding on the corpses. It was a ghastly image he hoped not to remember, but he knew his perfect memory would record its every detail for future nightmares, as it had for more than a millennium.

Angry at God’s vengeance, Cain made his way back to the haystack, which was beginning to shrink as time wore on. Having just witnessed a fate far worse than drowning if he were discovered and thrown overboard, he dug even deeper into the remaining straw pile before falling asleep. Thankfully, none of his wives or mistresses had ever mentioned to him that he snored.

Several days later, after night had fallen, Cain ascended surreptitiously to the middle deck and crouched at his listening post to eavesdrop again. He overheard Noah delivering what sounded like a sermon to his sons.

“My sons, as you tend these animals, remain mindful of God’s mercy and his care for us. Life after this great deluge will be hard. We will have to rebuild everything we had before the flood. We are still alive because God found us righteous in his sight. All the others succumbed to corruption and evil, and that is why they have perished.”

“But Father,” Shem asked, “why did God create all peoples only to destroy them?”

“The flood grieves God’s heart,” Noah replied. “He had no wish to destroy humanity. But human beings rejected God by their actions. Murder and lust, greed and theft, and betrayal and idolatry had no end. False idol worship especially angered the Lord.”

“Why did God spare the animals, Father?” asked Japheth.

“Animals cannot commit idolatry, Japheth. They follow their instincts. Animals may slay each other, but we would never call their violence acts of murder. God has made them so that they live by the laws of nature. God had mercy on them, just as he pitied us. That is why he gathered them from all parts of the earth and brought them to the ark.”

“And how long will the flood last?” Ham wanted to know.

“God has his own purposes, my son. We will know that the deluge is near its end when the waters from above and below recede. Then, after the ark comes to rest, we will send out winged messengers to explore the Earth.”

Silence signaled that the conversation was over. Cain crept back to his hiding place and lay down to rest. Before he fell asleep, he could not help but reflect on the paradox Noah seemed to embody. Cain had never heard such confidence mingled with such dependence. Noah, too, believed in survival, but only at the will and pleasure of his God.

Cain had kept only rough track of his days on the ark, but he knew that months had elapsed since the ship’s great doorway closed. The animals were becoming noisier and ever more restless. The thick odor of animal waste smothered the ark like a fetid blanket. In contrast to Noah’s steely resolve, Cain was beginning to despair at, what for him, were the prisonlike conditions he had no choice but to endure.

***

One evening at his listening post, Cain overheard Noah speaking to his sons about an “altar” and a “covenant.” Cain shuddered at the remembrance of his own disfavored sacrifice and the curse it had brought upon him, but he had no idea what a covenant referred to.

“The rains have ceased!” Noah announced with joy. “A drying wind has been sent from God. The floodwaters will begin to recede. Within the next week or so, our ark will come to rest.”

Noah proved correct. One week to the day after he had made his prediction, the ark lodged on a mountainside with a loud thud. But release for her passengers was not imminent. The waters would still have to retreat far enough to make disembarking—and spreading out afterward—practical and safe.

More than three months passed on the stationary vessel. For Cain, this was the most trying part of the whole ordeal. He was desperate to leave the ark. Indeed, he had devoted most of his time over the last several weeks to planning how he would explore the earth. On his mind as well was how he would escape from the ark unobserved. If Noah stood at the only doorway to bid the animals farewell, as he had stood there to greet them months ago, Cain could not avail himself of that exit. He would have to improvise, depending on circumstances. In any case, he thought with a grimace, he could use the chute leading through the transom if he had to, lowering himself by means of a rope to the ground.

During this time, Cain also pondered what Noah had revealed about God’s purposes. It seemed clear that Enoch had been targeted for supreme punishment, and part of Cain seethed with resentment at the annihilation of his life’s work. Had God willed Cain’s destruction as well, and, if so, was it just a matter of time? Although he had been protected by the ark, was his destiny to be obliterated once he left the vessel? And how would this be consistent with the mark God had placed on him and with his apparent longevity—perhaps even immortality?

***

Finally, Noah declared that he had received God’s command to leave the ark. As the patriarch, his family, and the animals began to disembark, Cain bided his time, and his patience was rewarded. Noah’s first act on dry land was to build an altar of thanksgiving. He and his sons prepared a sacrifice. As the smoke from the altar rose to the heavens, a brilliant
rainbow
appeared in the sky. After months of clouds and rain, the colors shocked the senses with their intensity and beauty.

Noah and his family gazed up at the glorious phenomenon. Rapt, they failed to notice a man leading a pair of horses down a narrow path behind the ark. Strapped to the backs of the beasts were some caged chickens, several sacks of grain, a spear for fishing, and a bow and arrow.

As the rainbow burned in the sky, Cain set his face toward the horizon and walked without looking back.

CHAPTER 16

The Great Wandering

DETERMINED TO PUT AS much distance between himself and the tribe of Noah as possible, Cain traveled as swiftly as he could. As the ark faded into the distance behind him, he turned and raised his fist in a final gesture of indignation. He had survived, but for what? Noah’s God seemed to have blessed the ark builder and cursed the stowaway.

Cain navigated by the sun and the stars. The horses were fresh and eager for the journey, though they traveled through a world that was eerily silent, save for the occasional call or wing beat of a passing bird. He almost missed the cacophony of the ark. Its protection had been welcome. Now he was free to travel anywhere, yet with no fixed goal to give him purpose, nor human companionship to give him solace.

With game animals not yet available, he headed for open water, following the banks of the nearest large river toward the sea and watching for the flight of marine birds. Fish were his diet for some time. When he reached the nearest coastline, it proved hospitable. Gathering vegetation and the trunks of dead trees, Cain fashioned a rough-hewn camp. Clams and other crustaceans along the beach offered sustenance, and with practice he managed to spear a good number of fish in the shallows. In the first year, the horses foaled.

As an abundance of plant life returned to the world, Cain wondered if the great flood had wrought any change in his punishment. To probe the matter, he decided on a test. Although God had said the earth would never be fruitful for him, he tried planting the seeds he’d taken from the ark. But the effort was in vain. The result was a patch of ugly, stunted weeds with dark green leaves and blood-red veins.

Cain could not bear to look on what he had sown. Ripping the accursed plants out of the ground, he buried them in a shallow grave on the beach. The next morning, a violent itching burned his hands, kindling a fresh rage at his tormentor as he realized anew the gravity of his destiny—he could survive in this world, but only as a wanderer.

The eternal wanderer.

***

The master of spirits visited Cain as he slept.

“You are happy, Cain?”

“What have I to do with happiness, spirit? No, I am angry.”

“As well you should be. What kind of god is this destroyer? He vaunts that he has created all, and then he annihilates all. How can such a god deserve our allegiance? He is malicious and malevolent.”

“But I did not drown. The ark kept me safe.”

“And to whom should you be grateful for this outcome, Cain? It is I, and I alone, who saved you. The huge wave, the dangling rope, the porthole—I led you then. And I preserve you now.”

“For what purpose, spirit?”

“I safeguard you against a natural death. God has punished all of humanity for your parents’ ambitions. You can blame him for the sorry plight of mortals.”

Death. Punishment. Blame. The words rose to a crescendo even as the voice of the master of spirits dimmed. Another voice replaced it, a voice from far in Cain’s past.

“Where is your brother? Where is Abel?”

“I don’t know.
Am I my brother’s keeper?
”

“From now on you will be a homeless wanderer on the earth.”

“My punishment is too great for me to bear! You have banished me from the land and from your presence. Anyone who finds me will kill me!”

“No, for I will give a sevenfold punishment to anyone who kills you.”

Cain wrestled in his sleep. Whom did he believe? Whom
could
he believe?

***

As the earth regenerated, animals spread once more across its face. Cain surmised that Noah’s descendants were likely spreading as well, but where were they? Where was he?

Cain paced the world with restless steps, seeking something he could not quite name. Traveling the length and breadth of the postdiluvian landscape, he discovered marvel after marvel: a great inland sea that stretched beyond the reach of his eyes, yet came together at a narrow strait to empty into an even more vast body of water; mountains that seemed to reach past the clouds, some spewing fire and ash from their highest reaches; sections of beaches transformed into glass by the fearsome power of lightning; a mighty river that flowed through a desert and flooded the sand with life-giving water; beautiful crystals in a shallow cave that shone like stars in the morning sun.

And so the years became decades, and the decades flowed into centuries like rivers into the ocean. Cain stayed for a time in places—long enough to hunt, or fashion pottery, or sing melancholy songs by the shore of a lake, accompanied by an animal-skin drum or a hollow reed—but always a distant urge called him onward. In the great stretches of silence, when he could hear the desolate moan of wind on some towering desert spire, Cain understood what he was really listening for.