In Their Bones

Afterwards, Ned and Alice recalled the details of those encounters in the entrance hall of London’s Natural History Museum: what was said, what was seen, and what shadows were thrown by the gigantic dinosaur skeleton that loomed over everything. Studying ancient life allowed them to understand how an epoch had ended. They were relieved to say goodbye to those old bones, and to move on.

1.

As Nick took a step back, the stranger bumped into him. They faced each other below Dippy the Diplodocus, the dinosaur’s vertebrae curving above them like an arch in a Gothic cathedral.

‘So sorry,’ he said in an automatically English way.

‘Don’t worry.'

He had left an impression: a sturdy body, a slight male warmth. Her mouth formed a weak and superficial smile.

She has nice eyes, he thought, but has she been crying? Her brown hair is pulled back too tightly into a ponytail, her thin shoulders are hunched. Something is up. He had a sense that she wanted to have her own private moment with Dippy. Many people assumed the dinosaur was there just for them, their own special skeleton.

She repeated, ‘Don’t worry,’ as if on automatic, then walked on.

At her usual spot beneath the dinosaur, Alice opened her bag and took out the drawing. Nick caught the flash of white paper as she kneeled on the floor. He drew closer, but not too close, and made out a red crayon outline with a long neck and a tail, the work of a child. Alice positioned her mobile. It was important to get the angle just right, the way Sally liked it best, so that the tail appeared to curl protectively around the childish scrawl. All she wanted to do now was breathe—in and out, in and out—her usual routine when things got to be too much to bear.

As she headed to the exit, Alice glimpsed blue-shirt-man out of the corner of her eye. He was doodling something, comparing his notebook page with Dippy. Strange, she thought, a grown man drawing a dinosaur. I guess he must be an art student, with an interest in bones, or dead things.

2.

On her next visit a month later, Alice noticed blue-shirt-man standing by the wall. She studied him: bushy beard, oddly reassuring paunch, forties perhaps. A man that women didn’t notice until they wanted someone they could trust. She slipped past him to her usual place by Dippy’s tail.

Nick observed her without making his interest obvious. As he drew closer to the kneeling woman, he noticed the tiny bumps where her vertebrae pushed upwards beneath pearly skin. That was the problem with his line of work. It made you see everything from the perspective of bones. He wondered if she was upset this time as she placed another drawing on the floor. He had a sudden instinct that she was in trouble.

‘Beg your pardon, ma’am.’

Alice turned. ‘Sorry?’

Goodness, he thought, she’s like a panicked bird, frantic, protective, ready to fight. Like a pterodactyl. What’s upsetting her? Oh Lord, she is crying. He took a packet of tissues from his pocket and handed it silently to her.

‘Thank you,’ she said, then began to shake.

‘Why don’t you come and sit over here and tell me all about it,’ he said, putting an arm beneath her elbow, helping her up and guiding her to a bench.

‘May I?’

She nodded, and he sat down beside her. He waited, conten to sit beside this woman. Her breathing slowed alongside his. Blue-shirt-man had brown eyes and was bigger than she remembered. He smelled nice, like books.

‘It’s my daughter, Sally. She’s four, going on a few millennia. This is where we used to come before—’

‘Before?’

‘She got ill. Leukaemia. She’s on the list for a bone marrow transplant. I come here and put her latest picture out and then take a photo with Dippy. He’s her dinosaur, you see. Her father’s not around, so it’s as if… Dippy looks after her.’ She blew her nose. ‘Sorry.’

‘Would you like me to take the pic?’

‘Yes please,’ she said, and handed him her phone.

He walked towards Dippy’s tail and called out, ‘Here?’

Alice waved him over to the left and then gave a thumbs-up sign. It’s nice to have a guy looking after me, she thought, even for a moment. Their hands touched fleetingly as he returned the drawing. She noticed long fingers, strong knuckles.

‘I’m Alice. I’m a teacher. Biology.’

‘Nick,’ he said. ‘Paleontologist.’

‘So, we have something in common. We both know about how creatures are put together.’

‘Yes,’ he said. ‘You OK now?’

‘Yes,’ she said. Much better, thanks.’

‘I’d better get back to work.’

‘Me too. I’m late for the hospital.’

Glad he didn’t ask for my phone number, she thought.

Damn, he thought. I should have asked for her number.

3.

A month later, Nick clicked on his laser pointer to check the hanging point measurements once more. As he walked to the side of the hall for a different view, he noticed Alice standing beneath where the dinosaur tail used to be. Oh God, she doesn’t know. I’d better explain.

‘Alice? I’m so sorry. We packed Dippy up yesterday.’

‘But you can’t do that.’ She put her hands protectively over the drawing and hissed, ‘You can’t. I promised her I’d get her a last picture of Dippy, for good luck.’

‘What do I do now?’

‘Coffee and cake always help. I can take a short break. My treat.’

She nodded mutely. They walked downstairs to the basement café, where they both picked the same thing: a slice of carrot cake and a mug of Earl Grey tea.

‘Is Sally OK?’

‘We’ve got a bone marrow match.

‘That sounds like good news. What happens next?’

‘We cross our fingers that they can replace her useless bone marrow with something better.’

Alice nibbled a few crumbs and watched Nick cleared his plate.

‘No Mrs. Palaeontologist at home to feed you, then?’

‘Nope. She left me for a marketing executive. More exciting, I guess.’

‘Silly woman. Swapping vertebrae for, well, taglines.’

‘I did warn her that bones were a steadier bet, but she fell in love with his non-existent sense of humour. And his fancy car.’

‘Bones are more reliable,’ said Alice.

For a moment she imagined running her fingers under his blue shirt, catching the hard lines of his ribs beneath the soft padding of flesh.

‘Listen, I’ve an idea,’ said Nick. Dippy’s tail is packed up in the basement. If you give me the drawing, I can leave it inside the box. He can take it with him to his new home.’

Alice smiled. This is a good guy, she thought, and a kind one and…

‘Sally will love that.’

‘I’ll need your number so I can send you the pictures.’

She pushed her plate towards him, and said, ‘Finish this first.’

Bingo, he thought, as he finished off her carrot cake. She’s got lovely eyes and as for the structure of her orbital sockets… quite special.

4.

Nick wore a new navy cardigan that toned with his blue shirt. Alice had tonged her hair into soft curls. The palaeontologist and the teacher stood side by side in Hintze Hall below the new exhibit suspended on steel cables from the ceiling.

‘Hope is 25.2 metres head-to-tail,’ said Nick. ‘The bones are real, and it took ages to get them up there.’

A five-year-old girl in a yellow cardigan ran over to them and all three gazed up at the skeleton of a juvenile blue whale.

‘I love her,’ said Sally. ‘I’m going to run all the way to her head. Watch me, Mummy.’

She skipped off with her crayons and paper, blond pigtails flying.

‘She shouldn’t really be running in a museum,’ said Alice.

‘Probably not, but I won’t report her. What’s the latest?’ said Nick.

‘The transplant has taken well. She’s got a good chance of making it.’

‘That’s great, really great.’

‘Can’t believe that Dippy was a fake.’

‘Resin models look just like the real thing.’

‘I should have picked up earlier that something was wrong with Sally. There were things I missed—her bones seemed perfect, but they didn’t work properly.’

‘Well, at least the news now is good. We have hope, and we have Hope.’

They laughed at his silly joke.

‘How did Hope die?’ said Alice.

‘She was stranded far from home, all alone.’

‘It’s not good to be on your own.’

‘No, it’s not. But you have to find the right match.’

‘So, in a way, Hope should never die.’

‘To this palaeontologist, Hope springs eternal,’ he said, taking a small bow.

Sally skipped back and handed over her drawing. ‘Look, Mummy.’

Outlined in green crayon was an oddly shaped creature with an orange smile and a pink heart.

‘Not bad,’ said Alice.

‘She could do with some lessons in whale anatomy,’ said Nick.

‘Perhaps you can run her through the basics?’

‘Happy to do that. By the way, I’ve brought extra tuna sandwiches, if you’d like to share.’

‘Calcium is good,’ said Alice. ‘Builds osteoblasts.’

‘Increases mineralisation, and you can carbon date it.’

‘I love tuna,’ chimed in Sally. ‘Does Hope eat tuna?’

‘No, she eats krill,’ said Alice.

‘What’s krill, Nick?’

‘Better ask your mother. She’s the biologist.’

Swinging the little girl between them, Nick and Alice headed towards the exit, for it was time to go. Barely a romance yet, nothing perfect or even agreed, but a promising start. They felt it in their bones.