Murder One

[Author's Note: I'm surprised that no one has ever noticed this before. Or maybe they have and I just don't know it. But it's interesting to read the book of Genesis with the idea that *everything* in it is happening for the first time.]

Murder One

by Edmund X. DeJesus

Jared ran breathlessly into Kenan’s house and blurted, “Abel is dead.”

Kenan looked up from the chronicle he was writing. “Who?”

“Abel,” Jared repeated, resting against the doorpost. “Adam and Eve’s son.”

Kenan stared. “That is terrible.”

“Yes.”

“Was it an accident?”

“I do not think so.”

“A wild animal?”

“No.”

“He could not have been sick?” Kenan asked doubtfully.

Jared shook his head.

Kenan narrowed his eyes. “What else is there?”

Jared shrugged. “I do not know. They found him in the field of his brother.”

Kenan considered. “It is hard to believe. Only last month, Abel helped us to hunt the lion that was threatening our people.”

“Indeed,” Jared replied. “And only a few days ago, Abel assisted us in rescuing old Mahalalel from that dangerous pit.”

“I was just recording that in our chronicles.” Kenan sighed. “It is a grievous loss. Our duty is clear.”

“Yes.”

They fell to their knees.

“Let us pray to God to console his parents, Adam and Eve.”

“And Cain, his brother.”

*****

“We do grieve with you on the loss of your son, Abel,” Kenan told Adam and Eve solemnly.

“We do thank you for that,” said Adam, his arms around the weeping Eve.

“You must have loved him very much,” Kenan continued.

“We did,” replied Adam, nodding.

“And you, Cain,” Jared added.

Cain stirred. “Yes, of course. I did always love my brother, Abel.”

“Not so, Cain,” Eve broke in, wiping her eyes with one hand. “Were you not angry with Abel just yesterday?”

“Yet, my anger did pass,” Cain said hurriedly.

“Why were you angry with Abel, Cain?” asked Jared.

“It was nothing,” Cain asserted.

“It was this way,” Adam related. “Abel was a hunter, as you know, and Cain is a tiller of the soil. Both made an offering to the Lord, but the Lord favored Abel’s offering. Cain was angry with Abel.”

“My anger did pass,” Cain insisted.

“I am sure that it did,” Kenan said. “When did you last see Abel?”

Cain shook his head. “I do not remember.”

Eve interrupted. “But, Cain, did you not ask Abel to walk in your field with you last evening? You said that you wanted to show him an animal track.”

“Yes, I remember now,” said Cain.

“He must have died after you parted,” suggested Kenan.

“He must have,” agreed Cain.

Jared sighed. “If only you had been with him, perhaps he would not have died. Can you lead us to where he is?”

*****

Kenan and Jared looked down at Abel.

“It is a sad thing,” said Kenan.

“Yes,” agreed Jared.

“It is no wonder that Cain did not wish to remain with us here.”

“He was very troubled.”

They knelt to look more closely at Abel.

“What a grievous wound is on his head,” Jared observed.

“I suppose,” began Kenan, “that he must have fallen and struck his head upon a stone. For how else could he show such a grievous wound?”

“Perhaps,” said Jared. “But see how the wound is at the back of his head, yet he lies upon his face. If he had fallen and struck the back of his head upon a stone, how did he come to lie on his face?”

“That is true. What if he struck his head, then moved before falling onto his face?”

“It may be so. But look how this wound has bled so copiously.”

“Truly, the whole ground beneath is soaked.”

“Yet, if he had moved and then fallen, would there not be blood elsewhere upon the ground?”

“You are right, Jared.” Kenan sat back on his heels. “And yet, if he did not strike his head upon a stone, from whence came his wound?”

Jared, too, sat back. “Could a wild animal have attacked him from behind?” he wondered.

Kenan mused. “It could be. But wouldn’t such a hunter as Abel have heard the approach of a wild animal?”

“You are right. Moreover, the ground here is soft, and there are no tracks of an animal.”

“Indeed. The only tracks here are those of Abel and Cain.” Kenan frowned. “Ah! What if a large bird flew down and struck him from behind?”

“That could be,” Jared acknowledged. “And yet the shape of the wound is not such as a bird would make with beak or claw.”

“No, it is not. It is remarkable that the shape of the wound is very like the mark of the hoe upon Cain’s field here.”

“You speak truthfully, Kenan. The mark is very much like that of a hoe.” Jared stared upwards. “Do you suppose that Abel might have held a hoe above his head, and then dropped it accidentally upon himself?”

Kenan pouted in thought. “That would be possible. But would not the hoe then still be here with Abel? For who else has been here to take it away?”

“Yes. Only Cain has been here with Abel.”

Kenan frowned. “It is most mysterious.”

“Yes.”

They both sat silently for a long time. Then a strange look came over Jared’s face and he said, “Kenan, if you came upon an animal with such a wound on it, what would you think?”

Kenan pondered, then replied. “I would think that some man had been standing in the field with a hoe, and that the animal had come up, and that the man had struck the animal with the hoe and killed it.”

Jared nodded slowly. “Then think upon this: What if the same thing happened with Abel?”

Kenan looked at Abel, then at Jared, then back at Abel again. “Do you mean that it was a man who struck Abel with a hoe and killed him?”

Jared looked at Abel. “Yes.”

Kenan shook his head. “But why would a man kill another man? I have never heard of such a thing.”

“Neither have I. But that would explain the wound on Abel’s head.”

“Yes. That is true.”

There was another long silence. Kenan said, “It could have been an accident. The man may have been swinging the hoe, and Abel may have walked up, and the hoe may have struck him by chance.”

Jared shook his head. “But the wound is at the back of the skull. His back must have been toward the man with the hoe.”

“The man with the hoe,” said Kenan, and stood up abruptly. “Cain.”

Jared stood next to him. “Yes, Cain.”

“But if Cain struck his brother, and it was not an accident – ” Kenan couldn’t finish the sentence.

“It was because Cain wanted to kill Abel,” Jared continued almost unwillingly.

Kenan put his hand over his mouth and looked off across the field to the house of Cain.

*****

Cain heard them approach and came out of his house.

“Cain, did you kill your brother, Abel?” Kenan asked immediately.

“Yes!” Cain cried, burying his face in his hands.

Kenan turned to Jared, open-mouthed. Then he turned back to the sobbing Cain. “But why?” he asked with horror.

Through his cries, Cain answered, “I was angry with him.”

Jared nodded. “As Eve told us,” he murmured.

“What will you do with me?” Cain wailed.

Kenan shook his head. “I do not know.”

“All men will hate me,” said Cain. “They will then try to kill me.”

Jared stepped back horrified. He looked from Cain to Kenan. “We will place a mark upon your forehead,” said Jared. “And we shall warn everyone of the meaning of the mark, so that no one will hurt you.”

Kenan looked down at the ground of Cain’s farm. “I shall go and explain to Adam and Eve what has happened,” he said dully.

“I will stay with Cain,” said Jared, and drew forth his knife.

THE END