Lucifer made us breakfast of pumpkin soup and oven baked pumpkin nuts from the Halloween lantern we had carved for our tiny Colonial house's battered porch. Mine was Sailor Moon. Lucifer's was Dr. Frank n Furter.
He kept obsessively smoothing his claws, expectant.
"Can I read your Paradise Lost paper to get my mind off this damn Masquerade Ball?" Lu asked, begging.
I blushed, fishing it out of my bag… "I made it about Forbidden Knowledge in general, and how since Neolithic times, people like Eve created civilization by seeking out the gods."
Lucifer smiled. "Yes. However did you know. I know it will be a pleasure to read!"
He read it aloud:
"We used to think agriculture gave rise to cities and later to writing, art, and religion. Now the world's oldest temple suggests the urge to worship sparked civilization." - National Geographic
"This is the first human-built holy place."
-Smithsonian Magazine
