Destination Eden

by Jim Payton

  Chapter 27

  When she awoke, Janet found herself still beside the stream. Looking about, she was scarcely able to believe what her eyes were seeing. All the colours seemed to be so vivid and vibrant. The flowers contrasted with their leaves to such an extent that they seemed to be paintings. The sky was the most brilliant blue. Birds flitted from tree to tree, and shrub to shrub. They pecked at berries, and their songs were like heavenly music.

  Puzzled, she looked at her clothes. They were torn and dirty. Her fingers and hands were dirty, and dust encrusted her boots.

  Looking about, she appeared to be in a private clearing. Taking the risk, she undressed and washed herself thoroughly in the stream. The tangles in her hair freed themselves easily. She washed her clothing and it dried quickly. Washed, and with clean clothing, Janet felt wonderful. Hanging from one of the trees was some fruit. It looked like plums. Nearby was more fruit that looked like oranges. She ate one of each and then some apricots. The tastes were different to what she believed they should have been, but she did not know how she knew that. For greenery, she ate some lettuce like leaves that appeared to be plentiful.

  Clean, and with a full belly, Janet sat and took stock of herself, and where she was. She could remember the despair that she had felt but could not remember why she had felt that way. She could also recall the warmth and light that had drawn her to it, but she could not recall how she had got from the despair to the warmth and light. Obviously, she must have walked, she presumed, but could not recall doing so. She knew that something had existed before the despair but that information appeared to be just outside the reach of her memory.

  The warmth of the sun was pleasant and 'just right,' neither too hot nor too cold. There was a gentle breeze stirring the leaves but it was so light as to be almost unnoticeable. As the sun dipped towards the hills, Janet took better notice of what there was around her. She seemed to be in a valley, because she could see hills in the distance. The vegetation seemed to be different from any she could recall. The grass seemed to be leafier and greener. She presumed the valley must be so placed that it formed a microclimate of its own.

  Uncertain of what to expect from the approaching night, Janet scouted around until she found a site where there were some quite high rocks with an over-hang making a small mini cave. She took her backpack to it and lay down gazing out at the sky as darkness replaced the daylight. The stars were incredibly bright and seemed to hang low in the sky. The Milky Way did not seem as distant as her memory recalled it. The moon made its appearance and was nearly as bright as the sun had been. The temperature was certainly not as warm as it had been during the daylight hours, but it was comfortable.

  Janet drifted off into a dreamless sleep. She awoke to a chorus of birds welcoming a new day. Sunlight lit up the tops of the hills she could see. Outside her shelter, the grass was wet as though from heavy dew.

  Again, she ate a meal similar to the previous day: fruit and salad.

  Many questions flitted through her mind. Where was she? How had she got here? Why was she here? What had made her despair so? No answers seemed to be apparent so she settled upon a course of action. She decided to explore where she was, and make contact with whom ever she could find. She included locating different food as a priority. She did not fancy living on fruit and lettuce. Having settled upon that plan, she picked up her pack and set off for the closest hills she could see. It took her until about midday to reach the base of the hills. She found them to be vertical rock. To climb them, she deduced, you would have to be an experienced mountaineer. That surprised Janet, because she presumed that to be in the valley, she must have walked. By the same reasoning, one would have thought that where she found herself should have been close to where she had walked in, but the vertical sides continued as far as her eyes could see in both directions.

  "Perhaps," she reasoned. "The vertical sides had something to do with the microclimate that existed."

  "But", she continued to herself, "That does not explain how I got here."

  She sat and ate some of the food she had gathered on the walk to the valley edge. She had found an abundant supply covering grains and fruit. It surprised her that they sometimes grew beside each other, something that seemed wrong to her mind. She put that thought to one side, deciding that she would examine obvious incongruities later.

  The sun was pleasant but not excessive upon her back as she ate. She found that she was giving a lot of thanks to God for what she was experiencing in the valley, for that is what she thought it was.

  With her body replenished, Janet set out to follow the rock side of the valley in a counter clockwise direction. As she walked, she heard the scuttling sound of animals in the bushes and behind trees. Apart from the birds, she had seen no other animal life, although she had heard various calls that were foreign to her. The rock cliff wall remained the same as she wandered along beside it. She continued to be amazed at the variety of fruit and vegetables that she saw. Many of them were familiar to her; silver beet or spinach, various herbs, onions, root vegetables including purple carrots, leeks, brassicas and many others. One of the plants she observed looked familiar but she could not recall where she had seen it before. She also saw figs, grapes, olives, apricots and apples. Again, it seemed to her, that something was different and unusual to have some of those things growing together in the same place.

  Then she saw it. With a scream, she turned and ran. She crashed through undergrowth. Her heart beat frantically and fear consumed her. Even above her noisy stumbling, she could hear the thudding footsteps behind her. She then found herself out of the bush she had battled through and in a wide-open space. She turned her head to look behind, and tripped. Suddenly it was there. The creature. It looked like a giant lizard, or crocodile, but it was the size of a cow. Unlike a lizard, or crocodile, its four legs came straight down from the body. Its neck was just a continuation of its body and ended in its head. The elongated head was like a cow or horse, but its eyes bulged outwards on each side. There was a tail, but again, it was a continuation of the main body. Large shell-like ears sat on top of its head. Its skin was not slimy but similar to that of an elephant or rhinoceros. Laying on her back, Janet was frozen to the spot, unable to get her limbs moving. The creature lowered its head and moved closer. On the end of its face were its mouth and nostrils. Janet tried to get herself to shift backwards away from the creature but nothing of her body would get itself into gear. The creature suddenly jumped backwards away from Janet and then took sideway steps until it had circled her and arrived back at its start point. Again, it lowered its head to Janet as though it was sniffing her. Finally Janet's legs moved. Again, the creature jumped back from Janet and made a yelp type of noise. Ever so slowly, Janet began to move herself backwards away from the creature. For every yard Janet moved backwards, the creature would advance a yard. Janet then got slowly and carefully to her feet. The creature jumped backwards, tossed its head and proceeded to run round and round Janet. After three circuits, it stopped and tipped its head to one side. It then made what Janet could only call a long lowing sound; similar to a cow but somehow different. It was not describable. Then it opened its mouth. Janet then saw its teeth and its long tongue. Her mind registered the teeth as being flat, and the tongue as long. The creature shook its head, ran round Janet again, jumped up and down a couple of times, and then stretched out its long neck and touched her with the tip of its nose. Its ears were angled forward, and one eye looked at Janet while the other looked backwards. Tentatively, Janet reached out her right hand. The eye that had been looking backwards flicked back to the front and joined the other eye in focusing on Janet's hand. She touched the creature and rubbed up and down on the long nose above the mouth and up towards the eyes but forward of the ears. Janet jumped back as the creature again gave a sort of 'yelp' noise and jumped up and down again, before re-approaching cautiously. This time it opened its mouth and extended its tongue. Janet again held out her hand and it was licked by the tongu
e: a rough, raspy type of tongue. It was just a little lick, and then the creature did its little jumpy dance around Janet again. It dawned on Janet that it wanted to play. She started to run in a large circle. Immediately the creature joined her. From time to time, the creature would run past her, and then wait for her to catch up. Next, Janet tried running for about one hundred yards in a straight line. She was followed. When the creature reached Janet, it then ran a similar distance before stopping and waiting for her to catch up.

  The creature was now letting Janet pet it and seemed to be reacting to her voice.

  From time to time, the creature would stop at a particularly dense area of grass, wrap its tongue around some of the grass, and pull at it until it came free of its roots. It would then chew on it for a while before swallowing the grass. Janet now knew why the teeth were blunt and not sharp; they were for chewing vegetation and masticating, not sharp for eating meat.

  By her reckoning, Janet played with the creature for about three quarters of an hour.

  Suddenly the creature stood still and looked back towards where it and Janet had exited the bush. Janet turned to see a larger, much larger, version of the creature she was playing with, emerge from that bush. Janet could now understand that she had been playing with a baby or young infant, and that the mother, or father, had just appeared upon the scene. She suspected that the appearance did not bode well for her. The baby galloped to its parent who nuzzled it. The baby then ran back to Janet while the parent followed. The parent showed no overt signs of aggression as it approached.

  When child and parent reached Janet, the parent stretched out its long neck, lowered its head, and licked Janet. It then sniffed at her while walking round her. It then headed off back towards the bush. With a similar lick, the child followed.

  Janet decided to tag along, albeit at a distance. The creature was definitely unknown to Janet's mind, and nothing like anything she could place as having seen before. She discovered she was hard put to keep pace with her two newfound friends. Their ability to cross the ground left Janet, with her pitiful steps, in the dust. Well, they would have, had there been any dust. From time to time, the infant would come 'gulumphing' back to Janet, but after a quick check and lick, it would return to its parent.

  Janet now found herself aware of many more animals, or creatures, about her. Many of them resembled animals she somehow knew; dogs, donkeys or horses, elephant like ones that she thought were mammoths, bears and even woolly sheep like animals. While they were similar to the animals she knew, or could remember, they were not the same. The dogs were more like wolves and the sheep more like woolly baby horses. There were also some unlike any animal she knew.

  It was the same with the birds. They were similar, but somehow different. They had wings, and flew in the air, but some had two sets of wings and some had four feet and not the normal two. Some had ears like a mouse's ears. Again, like the big creature she had first encountered, the eyes were sometimes on the sides of their heads but sometimes on top. They appeared to eat grass and fruit or berries. She did not actually see them pecking at grass, that is the ones that had beaks as apposed to those with mouths, but they did poke their beaks around amongst it. Perhaps they were after small berries, roots or something. Janet did not know.

  None of the creatures seemed to find Janet's presence alarming. They would look quizzically at her, but then go right on with whatever they were doing. The odd one would approach and sniff at her, but that was about the limit of their interaction.

  As the day cooled, Janet found an area for her to spend the night. It was beneath a tree with branches that hung almost to the ground. There was a carpet of thick leaves upon which she was able to find a comfortable lying position. Satisfied with it, she picked some berries and fruit and ate them. While her hunger was satisfied, she longed for something more substantial, and for a warm drink. She fell asleep and dreamt of roast meat, roast potatoes and hot sips of tea.

  Birds singing woke her. Outside the tent formed by the hanging branches, the ground was again wet: wetter than she had ever experienced with ground dew. She put that little mystery to one side. She had another breakfast of berries, fruit and a nibbled upon something she could only think of as a purple carrot. She drank from water seeping from a spring.

  The day stretched in front of her. Bird song and animal movement surrounded her. There was a feeling of contentment within her that did not make her feel lonely, or alone, even without any discernable agenda before her.

  She sat with her back against a tree. She knew that there was something missing in her mind. It did not bother her, but there was missing information. She knew that the birds and animals she saw were different to those that she knew, but did not know why she knew them to be different. She also knew that there were people like her, people she knew, but did not know why she could not see them now. Something in her mind seemed to have changed. Something was telling her mind that the world she was now experiencing was not the world that her mind knew. It did not worry her.

  Getting to her feet, she wandered about the area. There was nothing specific she sought, but unexpectedly she came upon a nest; a bird's nest she somehow knew. There were three eggs in it. She picked up one of them. It was a light blue in colour, and fitted neatly into her cupped hand. It was slightly warm. She thought she had never eaten raw egg and did not seem to have any inclination to start. She put it back into the nest. Moving on, she came across waving stalks of grass. She plucked, absent mindedly, at the seeds on the top of the stalks. She found them to be crushable and with a content like flour. Having never experienced wheat in the field prior to harvesting, she could only assume that what she held in her hand was wheat. She allowed it to fall from her hand.

  Her wandering took her close to the steep rock wall of the valley again. As she meandered with it ever present beside her, she heard an unusual noise coming from behind her. Turning, she saw that there were a few pieces of rock falling from the valley wall. The noise had been caused by the individual pieces of rock hitting against each other. Something niggled in her mind about rock against rock. Then it came to her. Sparks, fire. Of course, fire. Fire for heating, fire for warmth. What a great idea.

  "I wonder where that came from," she said aloud.

  A couple of the woolly baby horses raised their heads at the sound of her voice, but then resumed their grazing.

  Janet picked up two pieces of stone and struck one against the other. They both broke in half. She threw them aside and continued her walking. As she walked, she picked at various items of fruit and berries and ate them on the move.

  "Hey, sheepy things," she called to some woolly horses. "Look at me. I'm grazing just like you. If I'm not careful I'll get fat won't I?"

  The woolly horses ignored her.

  Not much later, Janet noticed the smell of sulphur in the air. Again she did not know how she knew it was sulphur, she just did. Following the smell, she found a pool of water. It was not large, nor was it very deep: about ten to fifteen yards across and knee deep. The surrounding rocks had a yellow and green tinge to them, but the water looked clear enough. Steam hung over the pool. Reaching down with her hand, Janet felt the water. It was warm, not too hot, warm. She slipped off her clothes and into the pool. She found the temperature perfect and she was able to float easily. It was so relaxing that she found herself in danger of falling asleep. She picked up her clothes and washed them in the pool. After that, she left them hanging over some rocks while she again relaxed in the water. When she found that her skin was wrinkled, she left the water and dressed again.

  Daylight seemed to be slipping away so she made her way back to her hanging branches shelter. As she walked, she continued to graze fruit, vegetables, nuts and berries. By the time she reached her tree-tent, she was not hungry. Nearby though, was a goat-like creature. It was somewhat larger than the image her mind generated at the word goat. It was about the size of a cow and made a similar noise, although it had solid one-piece hooves. Another simi
larity was that it was feeding a baby from an udder between its rear legs. Janet walked towards it. The adult watched her but showed no signs of aggression. Actually, now she thought of it, Janet had seen no signs of aggression between any of the species she had seen. The goat-like animal allowed Janet to pet it, and exhibited total disinterest when she attempted to extract milk from the udder. Janet could recall farming practices, but again she did not know why or how she did. She wrapped one hand round a teat and pulled gently downwards while squeezing at the same time. She repeated that a few more times and was rewarded with a palm full of warm milk. Janet could not recall ever drinking fresh warm milk but she found it tasty and creamy. Her source of milk walked off followed by her baby.

  Before settling down for sleep, Janet prayed. She could feel creative power all about her and knew that this was God. She knew, somehow, that God had a Son, and a Spirit form, but she could not recall the son's details apart from his name of Jesus.

  She found that while saying her prayer, it was as if she were saying it to some one very close to her. It felt as though God was beside her but invisible to her naked eye.

  The days drifted into weeks, and the weeks became months. It would be wrong to think Janet had settled into a routine. She had not. She had though, settled into the valley. Her explorations revealed that what she thought was a valley might not have been. She thought there was a possibility that it was three sided with an open end. Width wise it was about five miles, but four days walking failed to reach its end, lengthwise. At the end of four days, Janet returned to the end she called home.

  Generally, she sustained herself by grazing, like the animals. She ate mostly of nuts, fruit, berries and vegetables. They were an endless source of food that replenished itself. On the odd occasion she would catch, and cook, a fish. She had managed to obtain a spark from some rocks that she had found, and subsequently set fire to some small pieces of wood that she found lying close to the rock sides. All the trees in the valley did not seem to die or rot, so she assumed the sticks she found must have fallen down the sides from whatever was at the top of the rock walls. Similarly, she was able to cook eggs from the nests she found and make a type of yeast-less bread from the wheat. Janet knew she could exist without the fish and eggs, but there was just something about them that connected her with a portion of her inner self.

  Several different types of animals, medium, small, and even big, became pet-like to her. She named the goat-like animal 'Nanny' and collected milk from her and some of her fellow 'goats'.

  Janet no longer wore the clothes she had worn upon her arrival in the valley. They had become tattered and worn. One morning she had awoken to find a set of clothes made from some type of animal skin, lying outside her tree tent. She had no idea how they came to be there, but they fitted comfortably.

  For a while, she had only her hands to use as a cup for water and milk, but over a few weeks, she fashioned a cup using mud and hardening it in a fire. With a cup, she had been able to make a hot drink using some sweet smelling and tasty herbs.

  Janet continued her praying but it became more and more an intimate conversation. Often she caught a glimpse of something at the edge of vision, but was unable to actually focus upon it; if it actually did exist. Whatever it was, it seemed to be nearest to her at prayer time. Answers and replies to her prayers flashed into her mind and there was always a comfortable feeling enveloping her. There were, though, no answers to her questions about how she got to the valley and what she had been doing prior to her arrival. She did not doubt for a moment that it was God, and God alone, with whom she was interacting. He did speak about another world and it was a world that she knew, but did not understand how she knew. He spoke of his love for the people of that world and the future he had for them. He also spoke of his sadness that those same people no longer lived by the guidelines they had been given.

  From time to time, she believed she was actually talking with other beings that were with God, and sometimes even involved in discussions with them. If asked, she would not have been able to explain how she knew that, she just did. She did not hear the voices the same way that she heard the animals and birds. They were in her head and aloud at the same time.

  From the forming of the earth, through to what she knew was the present day, was explained to her. Right and wrong, pain, suffering, prophecy, the bible as God's word and the end times were explained. The future was laid out for her, but her part in at all was not revealed.

  Often, while wandering, Janet would be aware of a presence, or presences, about her and they would talk with her in their out loud but unable to be heard voices. They comforted her.

  Overall, Janet felt contented and cared for. She felt overwhelming love for her and everything that existed. It was a feeling beyond any she had every experienced. It embraced her, covered her, lifted her up and carried her. It was indescribable.

  From the time she had found herself in the valley, Janet had kept a record of the days as they passed. She did so by making a vertical scratch on the rocky walls with another piece of stone. From time to time, she missed the odd day but generally, she maintained her calendar faithfully.

  One evening, as Janet sat gazing at the stars, she again felt a presence beside her. She welcomed it. For a while, there was a companionable silence and then the presence spoke. As usual, Janet heard the voice but was uncertain if it was aloud or in her mind.

  "Janet," said the voice. "The time has come for you to leave here and return to your journey. You have often asked me how you knew certain things and why those things were different to what you were seeing and experiencing. You also knew that some other place existed that you had experienced. It is to that place you must now return.

  "You will remember your time here with me. Many will not believe you when you speak of it but be assured that it has been real. Never forget me. You are a wise and clever woman. You will have to face many trials, but being strong, you will overcome. Above all, remember that I am always with you, and will be for all of your days, even until the end of the world."

  Janet felt the embracing arms holding her. Tears poured from her eyes and her arms held a form that she could not see, but could feel. The invisible arms released her, stroked her hair, and disappeared.

  Janet fell asleep.

  The following day began as all her previous days in the valley had commenced. She bathed, ate some food and spoke with the animals that lived about her. Not only had the woolly horse settled with her, but Nanny and various other animals, large and small, also kept her company. There were a number of birds that remained local as well.

  Janet said her morning prayers, as had become her habit, and went over the things she had heard the previous evening. The voice had been different to the other ones with whom she had spoken. She knew that it was Jesus and wondered why he, rather than the voice she thought was God, had spoken with her. She knew it was an interesting fact but could not work out the reason behind it.

  Finished her ablutions, breakfast and devotions, Janet began her daily wander. She went to the rock wall and scratched another mark for another day. She counted the marks she had made since her arrival: five hundred and fifty. She continued on her walk, considering the fact she had been in the valley for about a year and a half, as she remembered time.

  She had not experienced any great temperature change in that time. It did get cooler in the evenings, but she felt that previously there had been major changes called seasons, but they had not been present in the valley. There had also been a continual renewal of life, both animal and plant.

  "Why was that?" she asked aloud. "Why did I not see anything dead? There were no dead plants, no dead trees or animals. Only those I killed.

  "Another of those mysteries I guess."

  She was now comfortable in the clothes provided for her, but likewise, was quite at home naked. From time to time, she would come across the clothes she had been wearing when she entered the valley, but they meant nothing her.


  Out of the bush ahead of her came the first animal she had seen when she arrived. It was now as big as its parent. It walked up to Janet and licked her face while she petted it. As it went to move away, it accidently knocked Janet to the ground with its tail. As she fell, she hit her head on a piece of hard earth and knocked herself out.

  THE RETURN