Page 51 of But For You

“As God as my witness.” He grinned. “I had this one answer to a question on convergence⁠—”

“Explain to Jory what that is,” Denise interrupted her son.

“Mom, I’m sure Jory is well aware of what convergence is,” he said as he looked at me.

“I’m not though,” I told him. “Please explain.”

He smiled at me. “Convergence is when distantly related species have similar forms because they live in the same environment.”

“Oh, okay, so you were looking for examples of this.”

“Yes.”

“And you were what, unclear?”

“No, I was crystal clear. I told them that they didn’t have to use the examples I had given in class, that they could come up with their own.”

“Come up with or make up?”

“See, yeah, right there.” He spread his hands to illustrate the fact that he just didn’t get it. “That’s what happened. I said come up, and they heard go wild with ridiculous examples.”

“Did you get unicorns for an answer?” I teased him.

“No, but I did get fish and mermaids.”

I started chuckling.

“This is college, you understand.” He sounded pained. “I mean, come on.”

“That makes no sense.” Kola was frowning.

“No, it doesn’t.” Milt smiled over at Kola. “What would you have said?”

He thought for a minute. “Dolphins and sharks.”

His face broke into a wide smile. “You see, that’s a great answer, Kola. What made you think of that?”

“Well, they both have the same kind of bodies.”

“Very good.” His eyes lit up as he leaned on the table. “What’s an example of an amphibian?”

“A frog.”

Milt looked at me. “On the test I just gave, I got bat to that question.”

“Oh, you did not.” I laughed at him.

“And did you know that Procter & Gamble discovered the DNA molecule?”

“I thought it was Abercrombie & Fitch.” I baited him.

“Oh, you’re hysterical,” he said, smiling, before his face slowly started to change.

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t—there’s a guy coming over here, and he looks upset, and he’s really … big.”

I turned and saw Sam moving through the sea of tables. He looked dangerous, and the way his clothes clung to him made him seem like a mountain of hard muscle. His stare, currently focused on me, could and did frighten people who didn’t know him, as it looked cold and dead. But I knew better. I knew the intensity of the gaze was just him zeroed in on one particular thing.