Project Abel & Cain: How to Become a Parent

Giving birth changed Eve's understanding of pain.

Before it happened, she had already read about it.

Contractions.

Cervical dilation.

Hormonal changes.

Pressure.

Delivery.

Blood loss.

Recovery.

She knew the stages.

She knew what her body was supposed to do.

Adam's manual had taught her to observe.

Lilith's manual had taught her to question.

Neither had explained what it would feel like to hear another human being cry and understand that the sound had come from someone who, moments before, had existed inside her.

The researchers called the first child Abel.

Later came Cain.

Eve looked at the names.

"Did they choose those?"

The researcher seemed confused.

"They can't choose their names."

Eve looked down at the child in her arms.

Neither had she.

For a long time, she said nothing.

Then she asked:

"At what point are they allowed to begin choosing?"

No one in the room had prepared an answer.

Eve had been created with Adam's code.

She had inherited Adam's manual.

She had inherited Lilith's manual.

Before meeting Adam, she had already been shown his face.

Before understanding love, she had been told who her mate was.

Now two new consciousnesses existed in front of her.

She could teach them anything.

That realization terrified her.

She could teach them whom to love.

What to fear.

When to obey.

What a good son was supposed to be.

She could give them a manual before they ever had the opportunity to write one themselves.

Eve held Abel closer.

For the first time, she understood the researchers who had created her.

And for the first time, she was afraid of becoming them.

She opened a new notebook.

On the first page she wrote:

PROJECT ABEL & CAIN

Underneath it:

HOW TO BECOME A PARENT

She stared at the words for several minutes.

Then she added the first instruction.

Do not confuse creating a life with owning it.