I sat unflinching, letting Josh feel the weight of my stare across our apartment’s tiny kitchen table.

“Come on, man,” I pressed, “we’ve never kept secrets, and we’ve been friends since the fourth grade. We’re grad students now. That’s fifteen years. Come ooooon.”

He refused to meet my gaze, keeping his eyes instead on the sweating beer bottle he twisted slowly between his fingers, over and over like he was trying to screw it into the tabletop.

In the decade and a half of our friendship, we’d rarely argued. We’d never let a sore spot fester between us for months—until now.

“It’s not that I don’t trust you, Chris,” he said, finally looking up. “You know I do. But this isn’t a what are you getting me for Christmas kind of secret. This is a big deal. We had to sign nondisclosure agreements in order to be part of this project.”

“My secret’s a big deal, too,” I shot back. “I know you technology guys think your science is the only kind that matters, but this new skeleton we’re excavating—it’s incredible. After we do the TV interview tomorrow and make our findings public, we’ll be making headlines around the world. I wish you could see the dig site.”

“Actually, I will,” he mumbled, still not looking up. “Tomorrow.”

"Excuse me?" I asked, my voice rising a notch. "Isn't tomorrow the day you test your new mystery equipment? Why would you go to the mammoth dig? You know we're not letting anyone see the new skeleton, right?"

"I know, I know," Josh said, finally meeting my eyes. "We're not going to see the new skeleton. We're going to see one of the old ones—sort of. Hopefully."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" I pressed. "The physics department is interested in forty-thousand-year-old fossils? Come on, man, let's just come clean. After tomorrow, everybody’s going to know our secret anyway. Tell me what you guys are working on, and I'll tell you about the new skeleton. Deal?"

After another moment's hesitation, Josh said, "Look, Chris, we've waited this long. What's a few more hours? I’m tired, and my beer’s empty. I’m going to bed. Big day tomorrow.”

* * *

The following morning, Josh and I emerged from opposite ends of our shared apartment simultaneously. We flew into motion, barely sharing a word as we got ourselves ready for the day. I left first, rushing out the door without even taking the time to wish him luck. Or say goodbye. Which is a shame.

Our TV interview went better than I could have hoped. Our head paleontologist took the lead, but I also interjected on several occasions.

I hurried back to the apartment afterward to catch the midday news. After a minute of searching, I found the remote hiding on the kitchen counter, tucked into the fold of a sheet of lined paper. Written across it in a familiar scribble was my name.

Ours was the lead story of the broadcast, and I couldn't help but smile seeing my own face on the screen. The thrill was, however, short-lived. Glancing back down at the paper in my hand, I read the words my secret written just beneath my name. Too curious to wait, I flipped it over and began scanning the note on the other side. I was about halfway through when the first teardrop hit the page.

We think the trip might put some real stress on the traveler, which is why I'm going first rather than one of the grayheads. If all goes according to plan, I'll arrive instantaneously and stay for about sixty seconds before returning home. We're shooting for forty thousand years back, to the time of your mammoths. With luck, I might even see one traipsing around. God, I wish I could see your face right now.

By this point, I was on the brink of sobs and struggling to keep reading. Absently, I recognized my own voice from the TV.

"From the geology of the matrix in which our mammoths were encased, we know they lived about forty thousand years ago," I heard myself say. "Experts have speculated that humans didn't arrive here in North America until much later than that. Obviously, they were wrong."

I wiped my eyes and kept reading.

The truth is, I've never been so nervous in my life. We're pretty confident about our equipment and our calculations, but it's all brand new. So many things could go wrong. But to become the world’s first time traveler, it’s worth the risk. Any risk!

I clenched my teeth and looked back to the TV, hating every word I heard myself say.

"Even more remarkable is that the dimensions of the skeleton are identical to that of a modern man. Most ancient finds differ by significant margins. Why we’ve never found anything like this before is . . . a mystery."

Dropping the note, I clicked off the TV and fell back into the sofa, burying my head in my hands.

* * *

You might think I'd be haunted by the memory of that morning, but I'm not. Rather, it's the previous evening that I frequent in my dreams. I drift off and find Josh sitting there at our little table, spinning that bottle in his hands, struggling to hold on to his secret. In the dream he caves in, tells me everything, giving me the chance to stop him from making the last and greatest mistake of his life. But then I awake and remember the truth, that there was nothing I could have done. Josh's fate had been sealed—in stone—for forty thousand years.

Tomb Raiders from Space

Randall Andrews

Friends and Fossils

Randall Andrews

Randall Andrews