{"id":44,"date":"2011-08-09T12:34:00","date_gmt":"2011-08-09T19:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jamesfunfer.com\/?p=44"},"modified":"2012-05-30T13:36:24","modified_gmt":"2012-05-30T20:36:24","slug":"the-fossil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jamesfunfer.com\/?p=44","title":{"rendered":"The Fossil"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span>\u201cIsn\u2019t this exciting?\u201d Charles asked as he clapped his hands.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Nev adjusted his glasses and studied the skeleton again. It was lying on the big medical slab that Charles had insisted be put in the middle of his office for new discoveries. Nev felt that it was Charles hogging all the glory, but he would never protest out loud about it.<\/p>\n

He could certainly see what Charles was getting at, though: there at the jaw, and again at the brow line it certainly looked like the skull of a hama. And yet, the torso frame was too small, the shoulders too narrow, the arms too short…there were still too many variables. Was it a malformed <\/i>hama? Had they found pieces of two <\/i>skeletons? It had certainly happened before, at least with some of the giant lizard fossils. If only they could find the back of the skull, and the rest<\/i> of the skeleton, even. Then they would know for sure.<\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201cPuzzling is the word I would use, Charles,\u201d Nev replied as he turned away from the bones. He dared not voice his deeper concern about the fossil. What on Earth will they do to us if we publish these findings as Charles suggests?<\/o:p><\/i><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/i>\u201cIt\u2019s not puzzling at all, Nev,\u201d Charles insisted. The squat, piebald man pulled up the sleeves of his scientist\u2019s frock and spun the globe on his desk around dramatically. He stopped it with both hands and pointed a meaty finger at the Straight of Daggers. \u201cWe know now that the straight used to be a land bridge between Borea and Saya…and we know that hama and humans settled on both continents eventually, possibly creating hybrid children, but considering the age of the fossil…\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/span>Charles didn\u2019t have to finish his sentence for Nev to see what was being implied. The skeleton was incredibly ancient; it was old enough even to suggest that humans and hama had a common ancestor…and it didn\u2019t look anything like a half-hama skeleton. The measurements were off in several places.<\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201cI <\/span>know, I\u2019m speechless too,\u201d Charles said, who was never <\/i>speechless. \u201cJust think of the publicity, the changes to the scientific community…\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/span>Nev pushed his glasses up his nose and stared out the office window at the museum courtyard. \u201cThink of the outcry, you mean. We could be talking about riots, Charles.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201cPshaw! Do you really think the world is still so uncivilized, Nev?\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201cPerhaps you\u2019ve never seen a hama ghetto, Charles. You might not realize just how…unliked they are by most people. And most view them as…well, somewhat less intelligent.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/span>Charles made a dismissive gesture. \u201cOh, nonsense. Remember Liu\u2019s article about five years back? \u2018The Unknown Language of the Hama\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/span>Nev sat down and stared at the skeleton. It seemed to be staring back at him.<\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201cYes, I remember. He died for publishing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201cNonsense, old Liu died of a heart attack.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201cAre you so blind, Charles?\u201d Nev exploded out of his chair. \u201cDo you think that the scientific community thinks the same way ordinary people do? Did you think the riots in the U.P. were coincidence? Somebody out there, or likely several government organizations, are trying to cover up anything that suggests a common link between us and the hama…or anything to even suggest that we are all on the same level. It goes against every religious teaching, every…\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/span>There was a knock at the door. Nev swallowed the last of his words. Charles jumped and made an awkward yelp. Was it the security guard?<\/i> Nobody else should have been at the museum so late.<\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201cWh…who is it?\u201d Charles asked after a moment.<\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201cNational Bureau of Investigation,\u201d said a muffled voice.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Nev\u2019s eyes widened. He pulled the canvas back over the bones before he went to the door. As soon as he opened it a crack, two large men in black suits muscled their way inside. One of them was carrying a body bag. Nev felt as though he were about to faint.<\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201cWh…can I help you?\u201d Nev asked. One of them unzipped the body bag and unceremoniously threw the canvas cloth atop the skeleton aside.<\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201cNBI,\u201d the other one said. \u201cThese remains are now a matter of national investigation.\u201d The men began to dump <\/i>the remains into the body bag. Nev couldn\u2019t believe how rough they were being with such a fragile fossil.<\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201cNow…now wait just a minute,\u201d Charles protested as he came out from behind his desk, \u201cthat fossil is my property!\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201cNot anymore it isn\u2019t,\u201d the more talkative man in black replied. \u201cNext time don\u2019t tell anybody about your findings.\u201d Nev could only imagine the number of people that Charles had telephoned in his excitement. \u201cBut if you want my opinion, you did the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/span>Red-faced, Charles ran up to the body bag and tried to snatch it out of the man\u2019s hands. The man in the suit let go and Charles fell to the floor with a muffled sob. The body bag flew against the desk. Nev winced as he heard bones rattling inside the bag. Charles grabbed the bag and hugged it protectively.<\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201cGet out! Get out of my office! These are my findings and you can\u2019t take them away from me! The world will know about this!\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201cNo they won\u2019t,\u201d the quiet one said. Nev realized a moment too late that there was a gun in the man\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Nev couldn\u2019t watch. The man in the suit shot Charles through<\/i> the body bag. Nev winced with every shot fired, even though there was a silencer on the gun. By the end, he found that he was on the floor, crying. He felt a shadow standing over him.<\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201cYou saw nothing today.\u201d He had the body bag slung over his shoulder. It was full of holes and slick with blood. \u201cIf you\u2019re smart, you\u2019ll let the security guard take the fall. If you\u2019re even smarter, the next time you find something like this <\/i>in the ground, you\u2019ll leave it there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIsn\u2019t this exciting?\u201d Charles asked as he clapped his hands. Nev adjusted his glasses and studied the skeleton again. It was lying on the big medical slab that Charles had insisted be put in the middle of his office for new discoveries. Nev felt that it was Charles hogging all the glory, but he would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-short-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamesfunfer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamesfunfer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamesfunfer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamesfunfer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamesfunfer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jamesfunfer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":225,"href":"https:\/\/jamesfunfer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions\/225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamesfunfer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamesfunfer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamesfunfer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}