The Testimony of Taliesin Jones (6 page)

The grocer takes the apple back from Taliesin and holds
it up close spotting a blemish. He rubs it on his apron and looks again. D
eciding
that it isn't
clean enough, he takes another one from the box and does the same thing.

'Would it have been a Cox's that she picked?' Taliesin
asks. 'Well, it would have to have been an apple that was too good to say no
to; an apple that looked as good as it tasted. Most definitely a Cox
's.
Had to be. The Red
is too obvious. The Russet is too small. Perhaps if had been a Golden Delicious
she wouldn't have bothered picking it and we might still be in Eden
.
Imagine that.' The
grocer enjoys this speculation and
c
huckles to himself. Taliesin tries to imagine it
.
There are no maps of
Eden in his
Atlas of the World
.
He looked for it in the Middle Eastern section -that was
where he was told it mi
ght
be. He couldn
't
see it anywhere. His father told him that it might have
had a different name then. Mesopotamia or

so
mething. The grocer now holds an orange
.
'Now an orange wouldn't have worked. Too messy
and the wrong height. An orange would have been too much of a disincentive -all
that peeling and juice squirting in her eye.

N
o
.
It h
ad to
b
e a
n
a
pple. H
ere.
This is a bett
er o
ne.' Th
e g
rocer han
ds
him an
a
pple cl
ean e
nough to be th
e
fir
st f
ruit plu
cked
b
y
m
an
or
w
oman. Holdin
g i
t in his hand
,
T
aliesin ca
n
see w
hy
Eve wo
uld h
ave
p
icked
it
.
Impos
sible
t
o
r
esist.
H
e wo
uld h
ave
d
one
th
e sa
me thin
g
himself
.
F
alling o
ut
wit
h
Go
d
was as si
mple
as
th
at.
A
s
he pi
ctures
it he
s
ees h
is ow
n m
other as
E
ve
r
eaching
f
or
th
e
fruit
.

'O
f
co
urse
,
s
ome
sa
y th
at
it wa
s
a pomegran
ate
th
at s
he p
icked
,'
th
e g
rocer
says
.
'
Now th
ere is
a compl
icated
fru
it.
But I'll
go w
ith
t
he
a
pple. It
fi
ts. H
ere
t
ake
it b
efore s
he
sees,
'
th
e groce
r
says, as
hi
s
w
ife sc
uttles through th
e
ba
ck o
f th
e s
hop
.
T
aliesin spir
its
t
he
a
pple
away
into h
is sa
tchel ju
st as s
he
a
ppears
a
t th
e
b
ack
,
h
er
h
ead
m
oving a
bove th
e s
helves li
ke a s
hark
's
d
orsal fi
n
.

'
Enjoy i
t,'
t
he
g
rocer
w
hispers.

Th
e
bi
zarre s
un i
s r
ising,
s
till tri
cking
the
v
illage
t
hat
i
t's
s
ummer. T
aliesin
f
eels a
thrill
ing ce
rtainty, althou
gh
h
e's
n
ot s
ure
w
hat h
e's cer
tain
a
bout. Thi
s
t
alk o
f Eden
a
nd E
ve fi
res h
im.
H
e s
till h
as
th
at s
ense o
f
h
eightened
pot
ential
lik
e a
l
ovely
pr
essure i
n h
is
h
ead
,
l
ifting
him up
,
helpin
g
h
im
t
o see
m
ore i
n
w
hat i
s a
round h
im.
H
e
f
eels
l
ike
Adam
,
b
efore the a
pple
was
pi
cked
,
w
hen h
e sa
w thing
s
cl
early
and felt
sec
ure th
at every
thing h
ad
b
een cre
ated for him
.
In tho
se
pr
e-apple
d
ays,
A
dam co
uld h
ear Go
d w
alking
thr
ough
th
e ga
rden
i
n
t
he
co
ol
a
nd
occas
ionally G
od
w
ould
pu
sh
Hi
s
h
and
throu
gh a
cl
oud to
l
et
h
im
kno
w
H
e
w
as
th
ere
.
There
was
n
o
di
spute w
ith G
od
th
en. The
re
were
n
o c
hoices t
o
make
. T
hat
a
ppl
e c
hanged
every
thing
.

CHAPTER THREE

T
HE LIGHT S
HINES thr
ough
th
e class
room
sky
light in
a s
traight
co
lumn
,
hi
ghlighting
du
st a
nd
o
ther u
sually
un
seen
d
ead
m
atter.
P
art
o
f
the light
fa
lls
o
n T
aliesin's face, ca
using him
to close
hi
s eyes
and re
ceive
it
s
h
eat
.
T
here
a
re
o
ther
c
hildren
mo
vi
n
g
a
round th
e roo
m,
taki
ng
t
ime
to se
ttle d
own
.
Some
d
a
ys ge
t on
w
ith it
,
th
ey
p
ass a
nonymously
w
ithout dr
awing a
ttention t
o
th
emselves
.
Y
et to
day h
as a s
low r
esonance, a
h
eightened se
nse
of sig
nificance
w
hich
Ta
liesin
ca
nnot r
eally
pla
ce.

T
aliesin is a s
mall bo
y
f
or
hi
s
age, a
lthough hi
s fee
t
a
re bi
g for
hi
s size. T
his
g
ives hi
s
moth
er
hop
e
th
at
h
e w
ill turn
o
ut
a
r
easonable
h
eight
in the
e
nd.
'
Big f
eet;
b
ig
m
an,' s
he
a
lways
says
.
H
is
l
ack of h
eight bo
thers
oth
ers
mor
e t
han
it
d
oe
s
him
. P
eople a
re
a
l
ways
tryin
g
to comp
ensate f
or hi
s s
mall
s
tature
w
ith t
all o
bservations about h
is
l
atest g
rowth
s
purt. I
f a
ll th
ese
r
emarks we
re true he
'd
b
e
bur
sting
thr
ough clo
uds b
y
n
ow
.
Wh
en o
thers tell him ho
w
mu
ch
h
e
'
s g
rown, h
e
d
oesn't
di
sagree;
h
e
know
s
they mean
we
ll and th
at
th
ey're
l
ying
.
T
oday
t
he g
rocer was closer to th
e
truth with
out
b
eing
in
sulting
.
If h
e
is growin
g
h
e
i
sn't
se
eing i
t
.
It
's
h
appening impe
rceptibly
a
nd
a
t
a
differ
ent
r
ate f
rom
t
he
sap
lings
an
d bu
ds a
round him. In thi
s
pr
e-adolescent
w
ood
h
e
i
s a bo
nsai
amo
ngst b
amboo
.