A/N: I was just wondering one day how Adam and his family handled the death of Abel. I wanted the focus to be on the burial itself, not on the murder of Abel. Tell me what you think; comments are really helpful. I wanted this to be a flash fiction piece, though I'm open to shortening even more or lengthening it, depending on how people perceive the theme of the story.


The First Burial

"What do we do with his body?" a son asked.

They all looked at the first deceased man, their heads bowed, their faces wet with tears. After a while, everyone looked to Adam and his wife who stood holding each other as they wept for their murdered son.

"I shall inquire after the Lord," Adam replied.

He kissed his wife and walked to his tent. Nobody disturbed him, and they went about their business leaving the body wrapped in saturated blankets.

It wasn't until the next morning that Adam came from his tent and gathered his family around him. The stench of the body reached them, even from so far away. The women held their wraps to their noses while the men breathed through their mouths. The children grabbed their mothers' skirts. When everyone had gathered, Adam cleared his throat.

"I have been instructed to bury him in the ground."

Some of the women gasped.

"In the ground?! So that we may walk over him? How is that proper?" Everyone had questions about the procedure, but Adam raised his authoritative hand and commanded silence.

"Think not that the Lord has the greatest perspective? Are we to tell him that such a thing is wrong to us while right to Him?"

Nobody responded, so Adam continued.

"His body and soul are separated. Someday, his body will be one with the earth. It will disappear forever. Our bodies are not immortal things; have I not explained my transgression?"

Eve wept, and Adam gestured for her to come to him.

"Adam," she began in a quivering tone, "how can I walk this earth and wonder where I step? My son will be in the ground; what can we do?"

"We shall make a sort of monument above him," he responded soberly. "He shall not be forgotten by this world."

The family accepted this plan and began making preparations. The men used bowls to carve into the earth, while the women covered Adam's son in beautiful furs. Eve, meanwhile, took her smallest daughters and wandered into the woods with them. Adam wondered what she had to do there.

When everything was ready, Adam called his family together, though Eve did not come right away. As the clouds were gathering into bloated dark forms, Adam hastily began with a prayer. Afterward, the men gingerly lowered the body into the spacious hole. The sky began spitting, so Adam began filling the grave with his sons. The women watched and wept, wondering when the process would feel right as God had deemed it. Adam looked over his shoulder often, wondering when his wife would make her appearance.

He was finally buried, and the men began piling round stones they had collected over the mound. It was then that Eve appeared from the woods with her daughters, and when Adam saw their forms and their gifts, he finally wept like the women.

The flowers were from her garden. She softly commanded her daughters to spread them around the grave as they saw fit. As the colors speckled the area, the burial seemed to make sense to everyone. It was no longer unfit for their brother; it was beautiful, it was right.