Noah by Susan Korman Read Free Book Online Page B

ice-covered rocks, screaming for help.
    She had also seen some people trying to swim toward the Ark, but the water was too rough and too cold. None ofthe swimmers had made it.
    She tried to talk to Noah again. “There must be something we can do to help those people. We could drag ropes for them.”
    “The people cannot all be soldiers from Tubal-cain’s army, Father,” Shem put in. “They are just people. And there is room aboard our Ark.”
    Noah sat down, staring forward. Ila could see his stubbornness in the set of his chin and the hardness of his eyes. He would never yield.
    Naameh begged him too. “Surely, Noah, we could take a handful of survivors aboard.”
    “There is no room for them,” he said resolutely.
    Finally, Ila whirled away from him, angry and upset. How could he show so little mercy? Was this really what the Creator wanted, what He had commanded?
    * * *
    Later, the family ate supper together, sitting on low cushions and rugs. But only Noah and Japheth could eat. Ila and the others left their plates untouched. Since they’d boarded the Ark, Ham had kept his distance from everyone, even Ila. She glanced at him now, worried about his state of mind. He looked brooding and angry and lately she had noticed he was behaving strangely – keeping to himself, staying in the shadows inside the Ark as if he were hiding something.
    Noah finally finished his meal and put down his plate. “Soon, everything we knew will be gone,” he told the family.“All that is left of Creation will lie within these walls. And outside, just the waters of chaos again.”
    He looked directly at Ham, who stared back with a stony expression.
    “You’re angry,” Noah said. “You judge me, Ham, as do the rest of you. Let me tell you a story,” he went on. “This is the first story my father ever told me. It is a story that I have told each of you.”
    He lifted the small tzohar lamp as he began. Ila said nothing, as did the others.
    “In the beginning, there was nothing.” Noah covered the lamp, plunging the room into darkness to show them.
    “Nothing but the silence of infinite darkness. But the breath of the Creator fluttered against the face of the void, whispering, ‘Let there be light.’
    “And light was. And it was good. The First Day,” he went on.
    “And the formless light took on substance and shape. A Second Day.
    “And our world was born. Our beautiful fragile home. A great warming light nurtured its days. And a lesser light ruled the nights. And there was evening and morning. Another day.
    “And the waters of the world gathered together. And in their midst emerged dry land.
    “Another day passed. And the ground put forth the growing things. A thick blanket of green, stretching across all Creation. And the waters too teemed with life. Great creaturesof the deep that are no more. And vast multitudes of fish some of which may still swim beneath these seas. And soon the sky was streaming with birds.
    “And there was evening. And morning. A Fifth Day. Now the whole world was full of living beings. Everything that creeps and crawls. And every beast that walks upon the ground. And it was good.”
    Ila’s eyes were closed as she listened to the familiar story. She didn’t want to listen to him somehow, but his words still seeped in. And now, amid all the suffering and terrible destruction she’d seen, the story sounded different to her.
    “It was all good,” Noah went on. “There was light and air and water and soil. All clean and unspoiled. There were plants and fish, fowl and beast. Each after their kind, all part of the greater whole. All in their place and all was in balance. It was paradise. A jewel in the Creator’s palm.
    “And then…”
    Ila opened her eyes.
    “And then the Creator made man. And by man’s side, the Creator made woman. He gave us a choice. Follow the temptation of darkness, or hold on to the blessing of light. Our birthright.
    “The man and woman ate from the forbidden fruit