And the man gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for the Earthling there was not found a help meet for him. - Genesis 2:20

I woke from dreams of clay. When I opened my eyes I knew somehow that everything before me was new: the orchard, the springs, the date palms. I knew that I was new.

I pressed my palms into the soil. I knew that the earth was my mother, the source from which I had sprung. I could see when I touched her that we matched, she and I: the deep brown of fertile riverside soil. I thanked her, and then I pushed myself to my feet. I wanted to explore.

I walked among the trees, trailing my fingertips along their bark, admiring the almond flowers and the tiny insects which flitted between the blossoms.

And then I realized someone was watching me.

Across the grove was another one like me. He was tall, dark-skinned, and slender, with wild hair and dark eyes which matched mine. He appeared in the shadows as day began to give way to evening and the stars began to move in their appointed paths across heaven's dome.

He offered me fruit, but I had eaten. We stared at each other a while. He was pleasing to the eye, and his interest was gratifying. What can I say: it seemed like a good idea at the time. So I found a patch of soft-looking grass and sat down, leaning back and bracing myself on one arm.

The man came to me instantly. I liked his smile. We kissed for a long time, and my arousal grew. So did his, and it wasn't long before we were rubbing against each other in the grass, gasping into each others' necks.

Is this the way I'd behave now with a man I'd only just met? Of course not. But things were different then. We were in the Garden. Everything we were doing felt right, because it was right. It was what we were there for.

And then I went to climb atop him, because that was what my pleasure demanded, and he pushed me away.

"You can't do that," the man said. The first words we'd ever spoken to one another. His voice was a low baritone.

"Why not?" I asked. I licked my lips. I wanted to be kissing again.

"I have to be on top. God made me first," he said. I thought he was kidding, and I laughed, but he just gaped at me. When I realized he was serious, a little niggling voice in the back of my mind reminded me that I had no idea who this guy was. Maybe he wasn't all that.

But I wanted him to be. So I tried again.

"We're made from the same earth," I pointed out, touching his chest lightly and then my own. Our skin matched perfectly, and our hair, and our eyes. We looked like twins. "We're equals."

"Come on," he wheedled. "Lie back. You'll enjoy this, I promise." He grinned and his teeth flashed bright in the growing darkness of twilight.

And the hell of it was, I knew I would enjoy it. It would be great. We were made for each other.

But that was the thing. We were made for each other, mutually. Weren't we?

"What if I said no?" I asked, and the look in his eyes told me everything I needed to know.

I felt a pang of regret as I pushed myself to standing, but once I was on my feet the gentle air blew around my hips and I knew I was doing the right thing. I spoke the Name of my Maker, and the ground receded from beneath my feet.

That's how it all started. But nobody asked me for my version when they finally wrote the stories down. And some of the stories just make me roll my eyes. No, I'm not the husk of evil which coalesced around the primordial light on the first day of creation. No, the Holy Blessed One didn't create the two of us -- the other earthling and me -- back-to-back, an accidental chimera which needed the divine knife to turn us into two. I wasn't even the other earthling's first wife, though that version comes closest to the truth. I was his first fling, but I refused to be his first lay.

Because I wasn't born, I didn't die. Or maybe the Holy One of Blessing just forgot about me. Either way, I'm still around. I spend my days flying around the world, visiting women in childbirth -- not to curse them or their offspring, but to offer a hand to squeeze, an empathetic shoulder, because I've been there plenty of times, and contractions are a bitch.

Somehow the men in the room never even seem to see me. Their loss. You see me, don't you? Sit down, pour yourself a drink; I have stories to tell.

"She said, 'I will not lie below,' and he said, 'I will not lie beneath you, but only on top. For you are fit only to be in the bottom position, while I am to be the superior one.' Lilith responded, 'We are equal to each other inasmuch as we were both created from the earth.' But they would not listen to one another. When Lilith saw this, she pronounced the Ineffable Name and flew away into the air." - Second Alphabet of Ben-Sira

The End