Cain (10 page)

stables, performed a kind of dance step with his front feet,
then turned his back on the man and unleashed a kick that
sent the poor devil flying. Although he had acted in legitimate
self-defence, the donkey was immediately aware that
this eminently good reason would be unacceptable to the
advancing mob who, crying out in all the languages under
the sun, were poised to steal the saddlebags and make mincemeat
of him. He didn't need his rider to dig in his heels,
but set off at a lively trot which, given his asinine nature,
became an even more unexpected gallop, for donkeys may
be reliable beasts, but they are not noted for their speed.
The assailants had to resign themselves to seeing him disappear
in a cloud of dust, which would have another important consequence, that of
transporting cain and his mount
into
another future present in that same place, free of any
of the lord's bold rivals, who were about to be scattered
throughout the world because they no longer had a common
language to bind them together. Imposing, majestic, the
tower was still visible on the far horizon, and although unfinished,
it nonetheless looked set to defy the centuries and
the millennia, then, suddenly, one moment it was there and
the next it wasn't. The lord was carrying out his threat,
which
was to send a great wind that would
not leave stone on
stone
or brick on brick. Cain was too far away to feel the
violence of the hurricane blown from the mouth of the
lord or the roar of the walls toppling one after the other,
the pillars, the arcades, the vaults, the buttresses, and so
the
tower appeared to collapse in
silence, like a house of cards,
until
all that remained was a vast cloud of dust that rose
up to the sky and obscured the sun. Many years later, people
would say that a meteorite had fallen there, a celestial
body,
of the many that wander about in
space, but that isn't true,
it
was the tower of babel, which the lord, out of pride, would
not allow to be completed. The history of mankind is the
history of our misunderstandings with god, for he doesn't
understand us, and we don't understand him.

It was written
on the tablets of fate that cain would meet
abraham again. One day, on yet another of those sudden
time-travelling shifts from present to present, now forwards,
now backwards, cain found himself at the hottest hour of
the day outside a tent near the oaks of mamre. He thought
he had caught sight of an old man who vaguely reminded
him of someone he knew. In order to be sure, he called at
the door of the tent and abraham appeared. Are you looking
for someone, he asked, Well, yes and no, I was just passing
through, when it seemed to me that I recognised you, and
I was right, I'm cain, how is your son isaac, You're
mistaken,
the only son I have is called
ishmael, not isaac, and ishmael
is
the child I had by my slave hagar. Cain's sharp wits, accustomed to such
situations, immediately came into play, this
game of alternative presents had once again manipulated
time and shown him what would happen at a later date
before it actually did, which, put in simpler, more explicit
terms means that isaac had not yet been born. I don't recall
ever having seen you before, said abraham, but come in,
make yourself at home, I'll get a servant to bring you water
to wash your feet and give you some bread for the journey,

First, I must
tend to the needs of my donkey, Take him over
to those oak trees, where you'll find hay and straw and a
drinking trough full of fresh water. Cain did as abraham
suggested and, tethering the donkey in the shade, he removed
the saddle to give the animal some relief from the heat. Then
he felt the almost empty saddlebags and wondered what he
could do to remedy what was fast becoming an alarming
lack of food. Abraham's words had given him new hope,
but man cannot live by bread alone, especially one who has
grown used to gastronomic delicacies far above his original
station and social class. Leaving the donkey to enjoy the
most basic of country pleasures, water, shade and plentiful
food, cain returned to the tent, called out to announce his
presence and then went in. He saw at once that some kind
of meeting was going on, to which, of course, he had not
been invited. Abraham was in conversation with three men,
who had apparently arrived in the meantime. Cain made as
if to withdraw discreetly, but abraham said, Don't leave, sit
down, you are all my guests, and now, if you'll permit me,
I must go and give my orders. He went into a room in the
back of the tent and said to sarah, his wife, Quick, knead
three measures of the best flour and make a few loaves. Then
he went to the area where the cattle were kept and brought
in a plump young calf, which he handed over to a servant
to be slaughtered and cooked. When all this had been done,
he served his guests the veal that had been prepared, saying
to cain, Join us under the trees. And as if that were not
generosity enough, he served them butter and milk as well.
Then the men asked, Where is sarah, and abraham replied,

She is in the
tent. That was when one of the three men said,
I will return to your house within a year and, at the
appointed
time, your wife will give birth to
a son. That will be isaac,
said
cain in a low voice, so low that no one seemed to hear.
Now abraham and sarah were well on in years, and she was
no longer of child-bearing age. That is why she laughed and
thought, How could I possibly have that pleasure again now
that my husband and I are old and weary. The man asked
abraham, Why did sarah laugh, believing that she cannot
have a son at her age, when nothing is too hard for the lord.
And he repeated what he had said before, I will return to
your house within a year and, at the appointed time, your
wife will give birth to a son. When she heard this, sarah was
afraid and denied that she had laughed, but the man said,
Nay, but you did laugh. At that moment, everyone realised
that the third man present was the lord god in person. We
forgot to mention that, before going into the tent, cain
had pulled the edge of his turban low over his forehead to
hide the mark from curious eyes, especially from the lord,
whom he immediately recognised, and so when the lord
asked if his name was cain, he answered, Yes, it is, but I'm
not that cain.

Faced by this
none too clever evasion, one would have
expected
the lord to have insisted and for cain to end up
confessing that he was indeed the same cain who had
murdered his brother abel and therefore been condemned
for ever to be a wanderer and a fugitive, but the lord had
more urgent and important things to deal with than finding
out the true identity of a somewhat suspicious stranger.

For in heaven,
whence he had come only moments before,
he
had heard numerous complaints about the crimes against
nature committed in the nearby cities of sodom and
gomorrah. As the impartial judge he had always prided
himself on being, although it must be said that there have
been no shortage of actions on his part to show exactly the
opposite, he had come down to earth in order to find out
the truth of the matter. This is why he was now travelling
to sodom, accompanied by abraham and by cain, who had
asked, as a curious tourist, if he could come along too. The
men with the lord, who were clearly his angel companions,
had gone on ahead. Then abraham asked the lord three
questions, Will you destroy the innocent along with the
guilty, what if there are fifty innocent people in the city,
will you also destroy them and not spare the whole city for
the sake of those fifty innocent souls. And he went on,
saying, You cannot do such a thing, lord, you cannot slay
the innocent along with the guilty, if you do, it will seem,
in everyone's eyes, that being innocent and guilty are one
and the same, and you, who are the judge of all the earth,
must be just in your sentences. To which the lord responded,
If I find in the city of sodom fifty innocent people, I will
spare the whole city for their sake. Encouraged and full of
hope, abraham went on, Since I have taken the liberty of
speaking so freely to the lord, I who am nothing but dust
and ashes, allow me one more question, what if there are
not quite fifty innocent people, but only forty-five, will
you
destroy the whole city for the lack
of five. The lord answered,
If
I find forty-five innocent people there, I will not destroy
the city. Abraham decided to strike again while the iron
was hot, What if there are only forty innocent people, to
which the lord answered, For the sake of those forty people,
I will not destroy the city, And what if there are only
thirty,
For the sake of those thirty, I
will not destroy the city, And
what
if there are only twenty, For the sake of those twenty,
I will not destroy the city. Then abraham went further,
Please don't be angry with me if I ask one further thing,
Speak, said the lord, What if there are only ten innocent
people, and the lord answered, For the sake of those ten, I
will not destroy the city. Having thus responded to
abraham's questions, the lord withdrew, and abraham,
accompanied by cain, returned to the tent. Nothing more
was said of isaac, the son yet to be born. When they reached
the oaks of mamre, abraham went into his tent and re-
emerged shortly afterwards with the promised loaves. Cain
stopped saddling up his donkey in order to thank abraham
for this generous gift, and asked, How do you think the
lord is going to count the ten innocent people, who,
assuming they exist, will prevent the destruction of sodom,
do you think he will go from door to door, asking fathers
and their male descendants about their sexual proclivities
and appetites, The lord doesn't need to do that, he only has
to look down on the city from above to know what is going
on, answered abraham, Do you mean that the lord made
that agreement with you for no reason other than to please
you, cain asked again, The lord gave his word, Well, as sure
as my name is cain, although admittedly I have also been
known as abel, I'm not convinced, I reckon that, regardless
of whether there are innocent people living there or not,
sodom will still be destroyed, possibly tonight, Yes, that's
possible, and not only sodom either, but gomorrah and two
or three other cities of the plain, where sexual customs have
become equally lax, with men going with men and women
being left to one side, Aren't you worried about what might
happen to those two men who came with the lord, They
weren't men, they were angels, for I know them well, Angels
without wings, They won't need wings if they need to escape,
Well, if the men of sodom lay hands or indeed anything
else on them, I don't think they'll care a jot whether
they're
angels or not, and the lord will be
most displeased, if I
were
you, I would go to the city to see what's happened,
they won't harm you, Yes, you're right, I'll go, but I would
feel safer if you came with me, one and a half men are
better than one, But we're two, not one and a half, Oh, I'm
only half a man now, cain, In that case, let's go, and if
they
attack us, I could probably
despatch two or three of them
with
the knife I have under my tunic, otherwise, we'll just
have to hope that the lord will provide. Then abraham
summoned a servant and ordered him to take cain's donkey
to the stables. And he said to cain, If you have no plans
that require you to leave today, I will offer you my hospitality
for the night as a small recompense for being kind
enough to accompany me, If it is in my power, I hope to
be able to do you more favours in the future, said cain, but
abraham could not grasp the meaning that lay behind those
mysterious words. They set off to the city, and abraham
said, Let us go first to the house of my nephew lot, son of
my brother haran, he will tell us what has been going on.
The sun had already set when they reached sodom, but it
was still light. They saw a huge rowdy crowd gathered
outside lot's house, We want to see the men you took into
your house, bring them out to us, that we may know them,
and they pounded on the door, threatening to break it down.
Abraham said, Come with me, there's another entrance at
the back. They entered just as lot, barricaded in behind his
front door, was saying, Please, my friends, do not commit
such a crime, I have two unmarried daughters, you can do
what you like with them, but do not harm these men who
sought shelter in my house. The crowd outside continued
shouting furiously, but suddenly their cries became lamentations
and tears, I'm blind, I'm blind, they were all saying
and asking, Where is the door, there was a door here and
now it's gone. To save his angels from being brutally raped,
a fate worse than death according to those who know, the
lord blinded all the men of sodom without exception, which
proves that there could not have been even ten innocent
men in the whole city. In the house, the visitors were saying
to lot, Leave this place along with all the members of your
family, your sons, daughters, sons-in-law, and everything
else you have in the city, because we have come here to
destroy it. Lot went out and warned his future sons-in-law,
but they did not believe him and laughed at what they
judged to be a joke. It was dawn when the messengers of
the lord said again to lot, Take your wife and your two
remaining daughters and leave the city if you do not wish
to be punished as well, for while that is not the lord's
will,
it is exactly what will happen if
you do not obey. Then,
without
waiting for an answer, they took him, his wife and
his daughters by the hand and led them out of the city.
Abraham and cain went with them, although not into the
mountains which is where lot and his family would have
gone had they followed the angel's advice, for lot asked
instead to be allowed to stay in a small town, almost a
village, called zoar. Go, said the messengers, but do not
look
back. Lot entered the town when the
sun was coming up.
Then
the lord rained down fire and brimstone upon sodom
and upon gomorrah and razed both to the ground,
destroying all the inhabitants and everything that grew
there. Wherever you looked, you could see only ruins, ashes
and charred bodies. As for lot's wife, she disobeyed the
order not to look back and was transformed into a pillar
of salt. No one has ever been able to understand why she
was punished in that way, for it is only natural to want to
know what is going on behind you. It's possible that the
lord wanted to punish curiosity as if it were a mortal sin,
but that doesn't say much for his intelligence either, just
look at what happened with the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, if eve hadn't given adam some of the fruit
to eat, if she hadn't eaten it herself, they would still be
in
the garden of eden, and we know how
boring that was. On
the
way back, they happened to stop for a moment on the
road where abraham had spoken to the lord, and cain said,
There's an idea I can't get out of my head, What's that,
asked abraham, There must have been innocent people in
sodom and in the other cities that were burned, If so, the
lord would have kept the promise he made to me to save
their lives, What about the children, said cain, surely the
children were innocent, Oh my god, murmured abraham
and his voice was like a groan, Yes, your god perhaps, but
not theirs.