Down to the Bone (3 page)

Homo habilis!
She almost shouted. There was the jock, a pile of books in his muscled arms, dimpled chin on the top volume. Damn. She’d forgotten how good he looked. No. That was a lie. She hadn’t forgotten. In fact, she’d been drifting to sleep imagining that body stripped and lying beside her. She’d daydreamed about those large hands fondling her ass while she got to explore that hard, handsome chest.

“May I sit?” he asked again. His expression wasn’t nearly so confrontational this time around. In fact, he almost seemed nervous.

Liddy adjusted her glasses. “Sure.” She forced her gaze back down to the pages of her book as he sunk into a chair.

“Skulls again, huh?” He set out his texts.

Liddy stiffened. The caveman
remembered
what she’d been studying? “As you can see.”

“Whose skulls are they?”

“Genus Homo.”

“You’re studying gays?”

Oh please, his brain couldn’t be that small she thought, even as she caught the glimmer in his eye and knew he was trying to joke with her. A poor joke, but he was trying and that earned him points. Maybe she’d upgrade him from habilis to erectus.

“Hominids,” she affirmed.

He hesitated, as if searching his own internal dictionary for the word. “So we evolved from those?”

“Some of them.”

“What about the others?”

Reasonable question. Liddy smiled at him, and was captured by the smile he offered back. It was irresistibly boyish. Shit. She put him another notch up the ladder. He was beginning to look intelligent.

“You know those pictures of evolution where you see the monkey slowly straightening up and losing its hair until he’s a man? Okay, now imagine one of those middle ape types having three or four brothers. And they each develop their own, parallel evolutionary line.”

“Okay.” He seemed to be listening.

“But one stops at hairy-nearly-upright ape stage. And another stops at half-hairy stage. And another gets all the way to looking very much like that human being, but shorter and thicker with a really heavy brow and jaw. And another one gets all the way but shrinks, becomes dwarf-like.”

“You mean, like those Hobbit guys they found on that island?” He brightened.

“Homo floresiensis.”
she nodded. By Jove! The jock apparently watched the science channel. She tapped at the skull pictures. “Genus Homo. Our cousins who died out. Dead end, they call it. Concurrent with us or our ape-like forefathers, but they just didn’t last.”

“Survival of the strongest.”

“Fittest!” she corrected. “Get it right. Strength wise, neither you nor any other homo sapiens has ever matched a Neanderthal. They’ve found bones from that hominid with breaks similar to those of rodeo riders, implying that they wrestled big and heavy animals. But they still died out twenty-nine thousand years ago—although research says they live on in us. Interbreeding was possible and happened. Meanwhile, Homo floresiensis—if theories on them are correct—were the size of children, perfectly suited to their island environment and its dwarf elephants; they didn’t need to be big and strong, they needed to be small. They survived up till thirteen thousand years ago and, supposedly, the only reason they aren’t around today is because a nearby volcano erupted and killed them all.”

He looked oddly stunned, as if she’d switched on a light bulb in that dim brain of his. No, she chided herself. Not dim at all. That was becoming quite clear.

“So.” He licked his lips. “These dead end cousins of ours...they lived or died for all sorts of reasons, like there not being enough of them to continue the species when disaster struck?”

“Or because they weren’t suited to their environment, whatever that was.”

Now he was looking troubled. Liddy checked the time on her phone. She had to get going. She started to pack up.

“How long....” the jock said, then paused. “How long did some of these other humans survive?”

Fuck me
, Liddy thought. He might be a homo sapien after all. “Difficult to say. We know approximately when they lived, but for how many thousands or millions of years...sometimes we haven’t enough evidence to tell.”

“How old are we?”

“Us moderns? A point of debate, but the oldest fossils we’ve found are a hundred and sixty thousand years old.”

“So, some of those other hominids may have lasted as long as we have?”

Oh, the wheels were turning now. She could practically see them. She knew exactly what he was thinking and the strangest thing of all was that it stimulated her more than his powerful muscles and masculine fragrance. There was nothing as sexy as a brain coming to life.

“Longer,” she agreed. “Homo habilis lasted for half-a-million years at least.”

“So we...haven’t really proven that we’re the fittest to survive,” he concluded. Thought that up all by himself, she mused proudly. Who would have imagined?

“Taking over the planet is no mean feat,” she said, gathering up her stuff. He rose with her. Very civilized. “But being the most popular kid in the schoolyard is no guarantee that you’re going to make it to adulthood. And time-wise, our species is still in day care.”

He looked thoughtful at that.

“Nice talking with you,” she said, and strangely, meant it.

She felt him at her back, still standing and watching as she headed down the stairs. It made her shiver with pleasure. Back at her apartment, Liddy welcomed the Prehistory Anthropology Club for their bi-weekly meeting. Her mind, however, was not with her peers as they munched on nachos and argued mitochondria-DNA and genetic drift. The discussion, Neanderthal-Sapien interbreeding and the resulting genetics of modern man, reminded her of the discussion she’d just had in the library and made her wonder about the feasibility of a geek-jock relationship. After much internal debate she concluded that it would never happen.

He finally saw her outside of the library. She was in the dining area of the Student Union, eating a sandwich and reading a book, of course. She was wearing a black tee and he could just barely see the skull tattoo on her shoulder. Worn, hip-hugger jeans flattered her  thick  hips and thighs.

Jarrett, standing with a tray between his hands, wondered if he ought to approach her. There was no one else at the table, but maybe she was waiting for someone. Or maybe she was studying and really didn’t want to be disturbed.

“Can I join you?” He wasn’t even aware that he’d wandered over to her table, just that he was suddenly there and had to ask.

Her eyes came up behind those square glasses and he quailed. They demanded to know if he was smart enough, worthy enough to disturb her deep and penetrating thoughts. Thoughts that traveled back to the dawn of time and understood the mechanisms of creation and transformation. Jarrett had never felt so inadequate or daunted. He hesitated, ready to apologize and retreat.

“Of course,” she said, and with a blink, her gaze warmed and glowed. He felt absurdly relieved.

“I don’t think I ever introduced myself.” He set the tray down across from her. “I’m Jarrett. Jet for short.” He offered his hand.

“Liddy.” Her hand was tiny in his monstrous paw, but cool and firm. He was a little sorry when it left his grip. “Jet because you’re fast?”

“Naw.” He smiled. “It’s because my kid brother couldn’t pronounce ‘Jarrett’ when he was two years old. Just ‘Jet.’ ”

“Cute,” she approved, then with a raised brow, “Um, hungry?”

He had loaded his tray with a pair of roast beef hoagies still steaming hot, a huge pile of fries, an equally large pile of onion rings, a plate of coleslaw, four bananas, two big bottles of water, three pint cartons of milk and a slice of chocolate cake.

“This is nothing. When I was living at home, my dad had to restock the refrigerator every other day. I’d polish off a dozen eggs for breakfast.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah, I know. I might not be as strong as a Neanderthal, but I’ve got a primitive appetite.” He grinned and dug in.

Liddy wasn’t quite sure what to say to that…provocative statement. She was still coming to terms with Jarrett’s appearance at her table, and the fact that he’d asked to join her. He must have thought her a moron for the way she’d stared at him, as if he’d just dropped out of a tree. But it was so different to see him outside of the library, here amid the chatter of dishes and voices. He seemed at ease, not hemmed in by the shelves and the solitude.

She watched him chow down on one of his hoagies. The French rolls were as long as her arm and stuffed with meat, cheese and sautéed peppers. A couple of bites could have filled her up. Obviously, his bulk and muscles needed more fuel. She could not get over the size of him and she felt herself going embarrassingly weak with desire. Was there some way to get him naked? Maybe if she waved her peanut butter and jelly sandwich under his nose and offered to exchange bites for articles of clothing?

“Haven’t seen you in a while,” she ventured.

“Out of state game.” He finished off the hoagie, then tore open packets of ketchup. He squeezed copious amounts over his fries.

“Did you see it?”

Liddy flushed. She actually had watched the game, searching for Jarrett in particular. She hadn’t, however, known his name or position, and so all she’d seen were men in helmets smashing into one another. After a while she’d shut off the television.

“Um, not really. We lost, didn’t we?”

“Yeah,” he sighed. “We shouldn’t have. A few bad plays and fumbles. Coach was pissed. But we’ll win the next one. Some of our new guys are really good. During the third quarter, offense actually used the old wishbone formation and Delarose—” He paused and she knew that her expression had gone blank. “You don’t know what I’m talking about, do you?”

Liddy shook her head and attempted to match his previous tone. “I’m a bit of a primitive myself when it comes to sports.”