The shared living space of two college students was oddly quiet. The clink of Evie’s keys would have been alarming if there was anyone around who had not noticed her enter. But her roommate was well aware of Evie’s schedule, and would be more shocked if those keys hadn’t had sounded soon.

This silence was soon taken up by the rustling of bags and shifting of cans, the welcome sound of someone getting ready to make a meal. It was at this point Evie expected her roommate to make herself known, asking what was being made or starting up the paper shredder. And yet nothing else happened except the sound of pans scraping against each other. It would be tempting to say no one was in the living room if there wasn’t a tuft of curls poking over the top of the couch.

“What did I say about dying on the couch, Jules?” Evie finally asked, the quiet getting to her.

“You said not to get blood on the couch, nothing about just dying,” responded the girl, “though I’ve done neither if that’s your concern.”

“That’s good to know. Did you run out of paper finally? I would have collected some from class if you’d told me.”

“Oh I have plenty, I’m just taking a break. Did you make sure to do the same during lunch?”

“Yes I closed my journal while I ate for once, though it’s weird seeing you take a - oops.”

As Evie responded, the gas burner she was turning on lit more aggressively than she thought it would. At the sound of exclamation Jules turned around on the couch, looking over the back to make sure nothing caught on fire. When everything and everyone in the kitchen appeared to be normal, she sat back down, still facing Evie to watch her cook. It was only after turning on the next burner and filling a pot with water did Evie turn around to continue their conversation.

“How long is this break gonna be? Because I can only listen to myself think for so long.”

“Not much longer, it’s more fun to listen to you when I’m doing something.”

“Is that a dig at me?”

“I think it’s more targeted at my inability to sit still.”

“And yet you were still when I first came in. Why was that?” Evie asked, turning back to the stove upon hearing the boiling of water.

“Ah, I was just looking at what I found in the woods earlier.”

“And you weren’t gonna share? Rude.”

“Well you were very determined to get the food started and I’m not going to stop a free meal from being made. What are you making today?”

“Just pasta today. I’d go into more detail if I didn’t think you were deflecting.”

“Deflecting from what?”

“From whatever it is you found in the woods. You’re normally raving about everything you find, even if it’s the hundredth golf ball.”

“Eh, I just don’t feel like ranting today, you don’t have to worry about it.”

With that, Evie left her station and walked around to the arm of the couch, sitting to face Jules. Slowly reaching her hand out, Evie grabbed Jules' new possession. It was a bone, about the size of her forearm, but surely from a leg. It had scratches and stains, the green and brown markings traveling all along it. The girls’ eyes met, and the sound of bubbles from the kitchen got louder. 

“Listen it was just sitting there by its lonesome, I couldn’t just leave it. Besides there’s so many deer around I’m sure it’s just from one of them.” Jules finally explained, the pressure too much for her to handle.

“So you picked up a bone,” Evie started to explain, “having no idea whose it is, nor what it even belongs to, and brought it back here. What if it’s from a human?!”

“It’s too small to be a human.”

“You know people come in different sizes, right?”

“Definitely, absolutely. But, no matter what, it's fine.”

 “NO IT’S NOT, what if there’s a dead person in oUR BACKYARD! You don’t know what deer bones look like!”

“If you’re that worried, just look up pictures and compare. But I’m not parting with this bone.”

“Fine. Go drain the noodles and finish the pasta then.”

Both girls head back to the kitchen, Evie slinging her bag towards the couch. Meeting up with it, she grabs her computer and opens up another tab across her already full screen. The house is one again filled with the sound of cooking and typing. Eventually, the burner is turned off, and the pot of pasta is strained and moved to the back of the stove top. Jules cautiously takes steps towards the couch, barely picking up her feet and sitting softly down on the edge of the cushion.

“Sooo, whatcha find?” Jules asked with a meek smile.

“Pictures of bones which don’t match yours. Apparently no one has a clear picture of a deer skeleton anywhere accessible.” Evie replied with a groan, furiously scrolling the screen. “The best response I’ve gotten is to turn it into authorities for them to check it.”

“Nope. This one is mine.”

“That’s what I thought. Any suggestions then?”

Moving to sit more on the couch, Jules took the laptop to look through things herself. A few web pages later she finally looked up with an idea.

“Don’t you have a friend who’s a park ranger?”

Evie looked up with a blink before grabbing her bag and making a call. The first rings went unanswered. Hanging up the voicemail, she called again, both girls leaning closer into the phone as if they could intimidate the call into being picked up. But once again the voicemail picked up. Luckily though, before Evie could call once again, the call was returned.

“Moby! I have a question for you.” Evie stated, leaning back onto her armrest.

“What is it?” a very disgruntled voice asked on the other side of the call.

“Jules found a bone in the woods and thought it was a brilliant idea to bring it home without knowing what it’s from.”

“Listen, I’m about to go in a dead zone so send me a photo and I’ll get back to you later,”

“No, I need to know if I have a human bone in my house right now.”

“Fine then, the best way to check is to see if it’s porous. If it is then it’s just a deer. Check the ends for any spots that are broken open or break one yourself.”

“There’s no openings.”

“And we are not breaking my bone!” Jules added in hurriedly.

“I mean, they are less dense than – if that helps,” Moby explained as his signal started to break up. “But it’s still –or reliable. – really dense liquid and do– bone get wet, it’ll snap. I’ll get yo – just send me a – and I’ll che – busy now, bye.”

With that, the call hung up leaving the girls in silence. Jumping over the back of the couch, Jules rushes over to the hanging cabinet, grabbing salt and cling wrap. It wasn’t until the bone was fully wrapped and the pasta was being dumped into another container that Evie realized what was happening.

“You are NOT using our cooking ware,” Evie half yelled, quickly standing up.

“We don’t have any other container big enough so it’ll do,” Jules tried to justify, now placing the pot in the sink and turning on the tap.

“We don’t even know how much salt we would need!” 

The pot was half way filled.

“It’s fine.”

The pot was now safely on the ground.

“And on the tile, do not.”

There was a small fight over the salt, resulting in half of its contents spilling out, most of which went in the pot. Taking advantage of the situation, Jules snatched the salt and dumped more in, hoping it would be enough to make it float.

“What,” Jules tried to justify to her glaring roommate, “the salt was already in there.”

“What are we comparing the bones density to,” Evie was nearly at a whisper “and what are we going to do with, essentially, HALF A GALLON OF SALTWATER.”

“I can just use it for my next round of paper, the old water is getting weird.”

Evie started to pace back and forth, muttering about human bones and salt, grabbing a dustpan once she calmed down more. Sweeping up the salt, she made dead eye contact with Jules who was sitting on the ground in front of the pot smiling up at the agitated girl. Finding she’d done an adequate job sweeping, Evie dumped the floor salt into the pot and sat down across in front of it. Jules, smiling even more, jumped up to grab her bone from the counter, promptly kicking the pot.

Splashing half the water directly onto her sitting roommate.

“Give me the bone,” the voice from the floor said.

“Can I still do the test first?”

“I don’t know. Give me the bone first.”

The girls stared at each other, the only thing in the room daring to make noise being the water still in the pot. Jules stretched out her arm, offering the bone while still staying as far away from Evie as possible. Once in grabbing distance, Evie took it, stood up, dropped it into the pot, and walked away. Jules watched until her now soaked roommate was in the bathroom, and crouched down in front of the pot which now held a sunken bone. She picked it up and unwrapped it, a small piece of it landing back into the pot. Scooping it out, she saw it came from the end of the bone. The inside layer was now exposed, showing its composition.

Evie walked back out of the bathroom having changed out of her wet clothes and now in gym shorts and a towel, with another one under her arm. She threw the extra one down where she had been sitting previously, and made her way to the couch. Drying the floor with the fresh towel, Jules eventually spoke up.

“Well good news.”

…

“The bone’s very porous.”