The Evolution of Ethan Poe by Robin Reardon

Author:Robin Reardon [Reardon, Robin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: MM, romance, Fiction, GLBT, Gay, Realistic
ISBN: 9780758246806
Google: i5xx7u65lq4C
Amazon: B004SIDTR6
Publisher: Kensington Books
Published: 2011-07-31T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

This is the week. The week for origin of the species. I remember when Etta had asked me over lunch at the Bingham diner about what we were studying in Biology, Sylvia had talked only about Darwin’s life by that point. Now, it seems, we’re plunging ahead. The class is mostly silent as Sylvia tells us what chapter to open our books to, because she gives not only the chapter number but also the title, which includes the word evolution.

For a while, silence rules, except for Sylvia’s lecture. It’s like no one wants to say anything about this topic, and I’m guessing it’s because anyone who speaks will be seen as being on one side of the issue or the other, and most of us aren’t ready to do that yet. Hanging in the air for me are images of Sylvia’s mangled Darwin fish, the sit-in at Coffin’s, and Sylvia’s stone-shattered windows. And I wonder whether anyone in here, or any of their parents, could be responsible for the threats Etta’s getting.

It becomes evident to me now why Sylvia hadn’t just gone through the book in order. Before she started down the origin of the species path, she made sure she had presented us with a picture of nature’s diversity without any particular order to it. Now she’s ready to reorder it, pulling in stuff she’s already gone over about a number of species so that we can see a progression from the earliest fossils to man.

Every so often I steal looks at some of the other kids in class. Most of them seem like they’re trying not to make it obvious whether they’re buying into the science or are thinking evil things about it, but there are a few kids who are not hiding their perspectives. And the facial expression and body language of each of these kids tell which perspective it is.

It isn’t until close to the end of class that someone—Jorja, of course—has the guts or whatever to challenge what she’s heard. Kyle would have been proud of her. “Everything you’ve said makes no sense if you take the most important thing out of the picture.”

Sylvia, like she doesn’t know what Jorja’s going to say, asks, “What’s that, Jorja?”

“If you don’t have God watching over this process, bringing intelligence into it, all you’ve got is some weird idea that fish chose to go blind so they could live in an underground cave where there’s no light. They’re not going to do that.”

“That’s putting the cart before the horse, actually,” Sylvia says. “What happens in cases like that is that the fish who don’t rely on vision survive when they end up in total darkness, where sighted predators can’t find them. They’re genetically blind, and because they stay alive, that’s the genetic material that they pass on to their offspring.”

Jorja doesn’t wait to be recognized again. “That’s crazy! It would take forever for genetic traits to become standard if they’re only good in total darkness.”

“Don’t forget that

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