Noah Read Free Page A

are good memories
, Ila thought.
I will keep my mind full of them.
    Soon she rolled over to look at Naameh and the baby again. Japheth was very tiny, with dark eyes and wisps of hair. Ila liked to watch him kick his legs.
    Naameh saw her watching and flashed Ila a smile.
    Ila smiled back.
As Naameh says, someday I will be strong again
, she thought.
    And perhaps then she could find ways to pay back this loving family who had rescued her.
    * * *
    “Father!” Ham had been playing with Og for a few hours, darting in and out of the giant’s legs, when he spotted Noah and Shem approaching the camp. Ham ran to Noah and hugged him.
    Ila sat up. She felt relieved to see the two of them back safely from Methuselah’s mountain.
    “We have much to talk of,” Noah began. “Let us eat and rest first and then we will tell you about Grandfather.” He gave Ila a smile. “Our new daughter looks well rested and healthier. Naameh, you are a skillful nurse.”
    Later inside the tent, Ila waited for Noah and Naameh with Shem and Ham. Shem showed her some games the boys liked to play with string. And then she watched the brothers wrestle. Shem was clearly bigger and stronger, but Ila could not help feeling impressed with Ham’s persistence.
    Ham doesn’t give up easily
, she observed.
Perhaps someday he will even be able to overpower Shem.
    Soon Noah and Naameh came in with baby Japheth.
    Noah settled himself on the floor. “My grandfather, Methuselah, lives,” he began. “He’s helped me to see what we’re here to do.”
    “I fell asleep during our visit,” Shem announced. “But guess what… I like berries and so does Grandfather!” He glanced shyly at Ila. “And I told him about you and how we found you.”
    Ila flushed. That made her happy for some reason.
    Noah began telling his story. She had much to learn about him; he confused her sometimes.
    “Men are going to be punished for what they’ve done to this world,” Noah was saying now. “There will be terrible destruction—not from fire but from water. But our family has been chosen for a great task. We have been chosen to save the innocent.”
    “The innocent?” Shem echoed. “What do you mean?”
    Ila was glad to see that Ham, and even Shem, were perplexed too.
    “The animals,” Noah explained.
    “Why are they innocent?” Ham wanted to know. “I don’t understand.”
    “Adam and Eve sinned, and they were cast out of Paradise,” Ila blurted out. “But the animals live still as they did in the Garden. That’s why they are innocent and man is not!”
    “Good, Ila!” Noah smiled at her and Ila flushed, happy that she had pleased him and knew something that the boys did not. “We need to save enough of the animals to start again,” Noah went on.
    “But what of us?” asked Ham. “What will happen to our family?”
    “Well…” Noah looked thoughtful for a moment. “I suppose we get to start again too. We get to start again in a new and better world. But first we have to build.”
    “Build what?” Shem asked.
    Ila was curious too.
    “Methuselah gave me a seed,” Noah explained. “It’s from the Garden of Eden.” They all hurried after Noah as he stepped outside the tent. He pulled a brown seed from a small pouch in his pocket and then bent down and planted it in the earth.
    He turned to face them. “A great flood is coming. The waters of the heavens will meet the waters of the earth,” he said gravely. “So we must build a vessel to survive the storm. We must build an ark.”
    An ark?
thought Ila.
An ark to hold all those animals?
It would have to be enormous!
    She glanced at Shem, who was grinning at his father’s words.
    She knew why. Part of what Noah was saying, like the violent storm, sounded very frightening. But another part of his story sounded very exciting—like a brand-new adventure.
    * * *
    “You’re a traitor!” a voice snarled. “You’ve been helping them!”
    Sometime before dawn, loud voices and sounds woke Ila. She