Free THE FALL (Rapha Chronicles #1) (The Rapha Chronicles) by Chana Keefer Page B

climbing back and forth over his head as the little monkey was wont to do.
    “But Adonai laughed! He actually
laughed
as He gave hints of when but He wouldn’t tell me!” A fresh wave of restlessness struck Adam and he climbed up the nearest tree where he proceeded to dangle upside down while his barrage of chatter continued. “All He would say is that it would be ‘soon’ and I would be ‘summoned’ when it was time. What do I do with that? Does ‘soon’ mean a day, several weeks? Anyway, I couldn’t sleep and I can’t eat, so hopefully ‘soon’ will mean….”
    “By the way,” Rapha studied his fingernails with casual ease as he broke in, “it is time.”
    With a thud, Adam landed headfirst. “What?” He sat up rubbing his head with a look of terror. “What does that mean, ‘It’s time’? That Adonai wants to discuss things more, that there’s unfinished work on the shelter? What?”
    Once again Rapha was surprised. Why should the fulfillment of his heart’s desire frighten the lad? Wasn’t this what he had been begging for and talking about for weeks? Why did he now look prepared to flee? The angel could only guess it had something to do with being young and inexperienced. Rapha could relate very little on either count.
    As it was, he could not resist exploiting this turn of events. It seemed due payback for the countless times Adam had harassed him. The particular morning the young man had organized the tree-dwellers to ambush Rapha with a barrage of fruit projectiles sprang to mind. Some of the chimpanzees had enjoyed the game so much they still shook the trees with their laughter whenever he passed.
    “When I say ‘It is time’ I refer to several things, starting with ‘It is time for you to come down out of the tree.’ Once again you are being a bad example for the primates.” As he spoke, Rapha offered a hand to assist Adam to his feet. “But since you have already fulfilled the first directive, we will move on to the second—the issue of your appearance. Adonai has decreed you should care for and understand the animals, not smell like them. So, it is time for you to bathe!”
    With that, Rapha flung the astonished young man over his shoulder and covered the short distance to the water’s edge. As if Adam weighed no more than a skipping stone, the angel tossed him high and far over the water, then threw back his head with a roar of laughter as Adam flailed in mid-air and landed with a spread-eagle slap that routed several gliding flocks of waterfowl.
    When Adam sputtered to the surface with a disgruntled “Hey!” Rapha ignored the boy’s protests.
    “Now come here. It is time to cleanse that bird’s nest you call hair.”
    With the sun’s light filtering through the trees overhead, Adam’s hair shone as if he too were woven of light rather than earth. “So, are we going to meet her?” His appearance may have been kingly but the tremor in his voice belied Adam’s nervousness.
    “No,” Rapha said as he worked drops of fragrant oil through Adam’s tangle-free, debris-free mane.
    Adam whirled to grip the angel’s muscular shoulders, his hands at the height of his own head to do so. “What do you mean, ‘No’?”
    He was tempted to continue teasing but Adam’s emotions were so strong on this point Rapha felt it would be cruel.
    “I am afraid that person does not yet exist.”
    “What?” Adam searched the angel’s face. Rapha could be evasive but he never lied. “Look! I’ve been scrubbed within an inch of my life, not to mention I endured your raking that, that
thing
through my hair until my scalp fairly bleeds, only for you to tell me she doesn’t exist?”
    “Adonai wishes to secure the proper substance with which to knit her form.”
    “But, is she not to be like me? I was fashioned from earth. I see no shortage of that particular substance, so what else is needed?”
    “She will be formed of something nearer to you than the earth.” Rapha began leading the