Noah Read online

  “Why are you helping us?” Ham asked the Watcher.

  “For many reasons,” Og explained as they moved along. “The Creator formed us on the second day, the day he made the heavens. We watched over the first humans, Adam and Eve, saw their love and also their frailty. When we saw their fall, we pitied them. So we glided through the clouds, down to earth. We were not made of stone then, but of light.

  “It was not our place to help or interfere with humankind. It was our choice. And for that the Creator punished us. We turned to stone and became bound to your world. Still, we taught humankind all we knew of Creation.

  “With our help, people rose from the dust. But then they turned our gifts into violence and destruction. When we were chased into this dark land, only one man protected us.” He looked at Noah. “That was Methuselah.”

  Ila remembered Shem saying this name… Was that the name of Noah’s grandfather?

  “Most of us were killed—hunted for the light within us, known as tzohar,” Og went on. “We begged the Creator to take us back into heaven, but He stayed silent. And now…”

  Noah shifted Ila in his arms as the giant went on.

  “And now, you, Noah, claim to have heard His call. Our leader, Samyaza, cannot accept this. How could the Creator call to a man, when it is men who have broken this world?” Og’s voice softened. “But I look at you, Noah, and I see a glimmer of Adam—the man I knew, the man I came to help.”

  Ila dozed as they walked further along. At last they came to the foot of a mountain. It was green, rising above the empty dark plain. Ila thought she could see a few caves at the very top.

  Noah set her down on a soft spot on the ground and then helped Naameh set up their camp.

  “Shem and I will go alone to see Methuselah,” Noah informed the others. “The rest of you will stay here until we return.”

  Ham’s face fell. “Why can’t I go too, Father?” he asked.

  Noah kneeled to talk to him. “I need you to look after Mother.”

  Ham still looked disappointed. But obediently, he nodded. “I will, Father.”

  Naameh kissed Shem goodbye and then tapped him playfully on the nose. “And you look after Father!” she said teasingly.

  They waved goodbye and started toward the mountain. As they passed Og, Ila saw Noah lean in to speak to the Watcher. “Will you watch over my family?” she heard him ask.

  The giant nodded and spread out his arms. Now Ila could see that the strange-looking Watcher had not two, but six stony arms!

  “Yes,” Og answered with a faint smile. “They are in good hands.”

  * * *

  While Shem and Noah were on the mountain, Ila rested. Naameh brought her some food and water, and checked her wound from time to time.

  “You are healing, little one,” Naameh said soothingly. “Soon you will be much stronger.”

  Without Shem there for company, Ila played with Ham for a while. They took turns telling stories to one another and building towers out of rocks and sticks.

  Later, Ila tried to nap again. Nearby, inside the tent, Naameh was nursing the baby.

  Ila watched Naameh hold the tiny bundle close to her.

  Mother. Father.

  Grief cut through her, and Ila could not hold back her tears any longer. She could not believe they were gone.

  Her family had always been working, wandering the land in search of food and grain and shelter. It was not an easy life.

  But her parents had taught her to be strong.

  There is too much to do for us to dwell on what is hard, her father always told her. Fill your mind with what is good, Ila, the things you love.

  She rolled over and closed her eyes. She could easily picture Father’s dancing eyes and his strong arms… how his beard tickled her when he lifted her up to his face.

  And Mother… her quick smile and easy laugh. She sang so sweetly to Ila and was patient when she taught her how to stitch clothing and gather food.

  Now she knew what Father had meant.

  These are good memories, Ila thought. I will keep my mind full of them.

  Soon she rolled over to look at Naameh and the baby again. Japheth was very tiny, with dark eyes and wisps of hair. Ila liked to watch him kick his legs.

  Naameh saw her watching and flashed Ila a smile.

  Ila smiled back. As Naameh says, someday I will be strong again, she thought.

  And perhaps then she could find ways to pay back this loving family who had rescued her.

  * * *

  “Father!” Ham had been playing with Og for a few hours, darting in and out of the giant’s legs, when he spotted Noah and Shem approaching the camp. Ham ran to Noah and hugged him.

  Ila sat up. She felt relieved to see the two of them back safely from Methuselah’s mountain.

  “We have much to talk of,” Noah began. “Let us eat and rest first and then we will tell you about Grandfather.” He gave Ila a smile. “Our new daughter looks well rested and healthier. Naameh, you are a skillful nurse.”

  Later inside the tent, Ila waited for Noah and Naameh with Shem and Ham. Shem showed her some games the boys liked to play with string. And then she watched the brothers wrestle. Shem was clearly bigger and stronger, but Ila could not help feeling impressed with Ham’s persistence.

  Ham doesn’t give up easily, she observed. Perhaps someday he will even be able to overpower Shem.

  Soon Noah and Naameh came in with baby Japheth.

  Noah settled himself on the floor. “My grandfather, Methuselah, lives,” he began. “He’s helped me to see what we’re here to do.”

  “I fell asleep during our visit,” Shem announced. “But guess what… I like berries and so does Grandfather!” He glanced shyly at Ila. “And I told him about you and how we found you.”

  Ila flushed. That made her happy for some reason.

  Noah began telling his story. She had much to learn about him; he confused her sometimes.

  “Men are going to be punished for what they’ve done to this world,” Noah was saying now. “There will be terrible destruction—not from fire but from water. But our family has been chosen for a great task. We have been chosen to save the innocent.”

  “The innocent?” Shem echoed. “What do you mean?”

  Ila was glad to see that Ham, and even Shem, were perplexed too.

  “The animals,” Noah explained.

  “Why are they innocent?” Ham wanted to know. “I don’t understand.”

  “Adam and Eve sinned, and they were cast out of Paradise,” Ila blurted out. “But the animals live still as they did in the Garden. That’s why they are innocent and man is not!”

  “Good, Ila!” Noah smiled at her and Ila flushed, happy that she had pleased him and knew something that the boys did not. “We need to save enough of the animals to start again,” Noah went on.

  “But what of us?” asked Ham. “What will happen to our family?”

  “Well…” Noah looked thoughtful for a moment. “I suppose we get to start again too. We get to start again in a new and better world. But first we have to build.”

  “Build what?” Shem asked.

  Ila was curious too.

  “Methuselah gave me a seed,” Noah explained. “It’s from the Garden of Eden.” They all hurried after Noah as he stepped outside the tent. He pulled a brown seed from a small pouch in his pocket and then bent down and planted it in the earth.

  He turned to face them. “A great flood is coming. The waters of the heavens will meet the waters of the earth,” he said gravely. “So we must build a vessel to survive the storm. We must build an ark.”

  An ark? thought Ila. An ark to hold all those animals? It would have to be enormous!

  She glanced at Shem, who was grinning at his father’s words.

  She knew why. Part of what Noah was saying, like the violent storm, sounded very frightening. But another part of his story sounded very exciting—like a brand-new adventure.

  * * *

  “
You’re a traitor!” a voice snarled. “You’ve been helping them!”

  Sometime before dawn, loud voices and sounds woke Ila. She got up from her bedroll and lifted the tent flaps to peek outside. A band of Watchers stood there, arguing.

  Noah started yelling as some of them dragged Og away. “Stop!”

  The leader of the Watchers, Samyaza, spun around and glared at him.

  “There is work to do!” Noah added quickly. “Please help us.”

  In response, Samyaza stormed over to Noah. Ila felt the earth tremble under his feet. She stepped back a little.

  “Help you?” Samyaza repeated. “We tried to help your kind once. We lost everything because of you!”

  “Not everything,” Noah said. “And we can save what is still left. We can serve Him again.”

  “You treacherous snake!” Samyaza thundered. Ila jumped as he raised an arm to strike Noah.

  “No!” she cried, rushing out of the tent.

  Samyaza halted. But it wasn’t because of Ila, she quickly realized. Instead the Watcher was staring at something, stunned by something in front of her.

  By now everyone had awakened and stepped out of the tent.

  “How amazing…” Naameh murmured.

  Ila looked down. In the spot where Noah had planted Methuselah’s tiny seed, water was bursting out of the dry earth. Cracks spilled open at their feet, small rivers starting to push through the dry ground.

  Is this the great flood coming? Ila wondered. But Noah had said there would be time to build an ark. It seemed too soon for the great flood to begin…

  Soon the earth began to rumble.

  Ila grabbed Shem’s arm. “What is that noise? Is it an earthquake?”

  He just shook his head, looking around. He didn’t know what was happening either.

  The sound grew louder and louder as the earth shook and boomed. And then suddenly Ila gasped. All around them, green shoots shot up from the earth! They were plants… trees… growing faster than anything she could imagine. By the time the sun rose, Ila could see that the empty, dark landscape was gone. Now a thick forest of tall trees surrounded them.

  Ham looked terrified. “What is this, Father?” he asked. “What’s going on?”

  “This…” Noah smiled broadly and gestured at the tree trunks, “is our Ark!”

  Most of the Watchers were gazing at Samyaza, waiting uncertainly to see what their leader would do. At last, the giant leader limped over to one of the tall trees. He touched the trunk, and then stared up at it as if he were in a trance.

  When Samyaza turned back to Og, Ila saw tears glistening in his eyes. “We will help this man,” he said.

  3

  TEN YEARS LATER

  LAUGHING, ILA RAN THROUGH THE FOREST. SHE RUSHED past the tall leafy trees, ducking under a few low branches.

  “No!” she shrieked playfully.

  Right behind her was Shem. He quickly caught up to her and grabbed her around the waist.

  “No!” she cried again. She giggled as he gently wrestled her to the forest floor.

  “No, please, no!”

  “Yes!” he said, biting her neck softly.

  “Yes…” Ila closed her eyes, inhaling his scent, which had become as familiar to her as the scent of the dense forest where they lived.

  The two of them had been friends first, of course, when they were young, but as they grew, it hadn’t taken long for their friendship to blossom into something different. Now Ila loved him with a fierceness she hadn’t known was in her.

  Shem kissed her lips. She put her arms around his neck and kissed him back. Then she stared into his eyes. They were so green, almost the color of the leaves on the trees around them. She thought he was strong and beautiful.

  They kissed for a long time. Slowly, his hands and lips glided lower. He lifted her shirt, his hands quickly finding their way inside.

  “Shem…” She tried to stop him, but his lips had already found their mark—the thick scar that traveled along her belly. She flushed as he kissed it tenderly.

  His hands went lower, as Ila knew they would. “Shem…” she said again, wincing this time. “Please…”

  Reluctantly, he lifted his head to look at her. “It still hurts?” he asked softly. “It still hurts when I touch you there?”

  “Yes.” She nodded, trembling. “It still hurts.”

  He dropped his head and let out a long sigh.

  Ila turned away. They had been through this many times before, and Shem was usually patient. But she could feel his frustration building. And it pained her to know that she was the one causing it.

  She used to tell him that things would get better, that she might heal inside, or learn to bear the pain, but she rarely said that anymore. They both knew the truth: Ila’s injury had left painful scars and had made her barren. So there was no hope of expanding their family, of having the sons and daughters that they both wanted. Nor was there much hope of Ila’s finding pleasure in lying with Shem as a wife.

  Can one be happy yet disappointed at once? She wondered.

  Snap.

  As they lay there in silence, they both heard a branch crack.

  Shem leaped to his feet. “Who’s there?” he demanded. Ila spotted a flash of color behind some bushes.

  Shem saw it too. “Ham!” Shem bellowed, charging at him.

  But Ham had a good head start. When Shem returned a minute later, he vowed to pummel his younger brother next time he saw him.

  “Ham needs to grow up,” Shem snapped. “I’m tired of him spying on us. I told him last time…”

  Why is Shem so angry? Ila wondered. Then the answer came to her. It’s my fault. It’s because of me.

  “Shem,” Ila said gently. “Ham does not have a wife. There’s no one here for him. Ham just…”

  Ila wanted to say more, but something unusual in the sky made her words trail off.

  The sky was filled with a stream of birds—thousands, maybe millions of birds—so many of them, the sun was blotted out as the massive flock flew over the forest.

  Shem saw them too. He turned to Ila with a stunned expression.

  “Let’s go!” she said. She reached for Shem’s hand and they took off, running.

  * * *

  In the clearing where the Ark was being built, Noah and Japheth were also watching the sky. As Ila and Shem drew closer, she could see that Noah’s face was lit up with joy.

  “It begins!” he declared when he saw Ila and Shem. Together they all watched as the birds flew lower, slowly descending toward the boat in the center of the clearing.

  Ila let out a breath. It was an amazing sight. Just as Noah had promised, two of every kind of bird imaginable had arrived—raptors, song birds, seabirds, parrots, hundreds of species. Most of them she’d never seen before. The sky was a tornado of colorful beating wings.

  “What an incredible sight!” Shem murmured.

  He squeezed her hand and she nodded, the earlier tension between them melting away.

  Soon Ila rushed into the Ark to prepare for the birds’ arrival. She helped Naameh lay dried leaves for bedding as the flood of birds began pouring inside.

  By now the Ark was nearly finished, and just as Noah had envisioned, it was an enormous ship with three expansive decks that were all connected by ladders and intricate walkways. All over the ship were spaces designed to hold two of all the animals on earth.

  Ila and Naameh finished preparing the nest boxes. The boxes were stored on the top deck, where the family would have its hearth and living space.

  When the nest boxes were ready, the birds seemed to know exactly what to do next. Instinctively, they swarmed to the top of the ship and jammed themselves into the boxes.

  Noah had also known exactly what to do, Ila realized with more amazement. He had planned and built the Ark perfectly. Every bit of space built for the birds was now filled.

  * * *

  Later, Ila swept the deck. The boys helped Noah calm the birds by burning some of Naame
h’s herbs in a brazier. As Noah walked along swinging the brazier, the birds fell instantly to sleep.

  Ila glanced at Ham. She wondered if Shem had ever confronted him about his spying on them in the woods. Ila was sad that Ham felt so lonely. She knew Shem was annoyed at him, but she hoped Shem had not been too hard on his younger brother.

  Japheth stopped suddenly in front of the doves. They’d been the first birds to land in the clearing, and the young boy seemed enchanted by them. Ila smiled as he reached out now to stroke one.

  “Careful, Japheth,” Noah warned. “See, that’s the boy one and there’s the girl. After the storm, they will become parents, and their hatchlings will spread across the world.

  “We have to be gentle with the birds,” Noah went on. “And we have to be very protective. If something were to happen, it would be a small piece of Creation lost forever. All of these creatures are now in our care.” He touched Japheth’s chin. “It’s our job to look after them.”

  Japheth smiled proudly, pleased to have such an important job. But when Ila looked over at Ham, she could see him watching the birds with a different expression. He looked thoughtful and maybe even a bit worried.

  Ila suspected she knew what he was thinking—that the birds had mates while he had none.

  The two of us have something in common, Ila thought. Like Ila, Ham was worried about the future, sad that he might never have his own family.

  She watched him a while longer. I will find Ham later and try to talk to him, she decided.

  * * *

  The next animals to arrive at the Ark were not as pretty as the birds.

  “Snakes!” Japheth shouted one day as he burst out of the woods and ran into Naameh’s arms.

  Ila was sitting with Shem. Ham and his father sat nearby at the cooking fire, discussing something in low tones.

  “Snakes!” Japheth cried again. “And other reptiles. They’re crawling all over the forest floor!”

  Ila looked toward the woods and could see them for herself—snakes, lizards, turtles, crocodiles, and more. Above the crawling reptiles were swarms of insects. They were all headed for the Ark.

  Naameh lifted her eyebrows and looked at Noah. “Reptiles and insects are coming with us too?”