Full Moon over Noah's Ark by Rick Antonson

Author:Rick Antonson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2016-03-08T05:00:00+00:00

Last camp: Our guide, along with a horseman and a young packer, attends to the sheep meat cooking atop the fire the evening we returned to Base Camp.

Niecit came from behind the cook tent, his bloodied hands carrying a wooden platter laden with freshly butchered sheep parts. He kneeled by the fire and set the inverted metal bowl on the heated rocks, its arch heating quickly into a grill. Onto this he placed slices of sheep that sizzled and turned quickly from blood red to gravy gray. The fat crackled. The older boy, fresh from patting down the horses and having them lick his hands, helped the butcher by grabbing meat with those very same hands and placing it on the metal. Without any self-consciousness, he wiped his hands under his nose in a swipe of an itch, then picked up a piece of partly cooked meat and turned it. Over my shoulder I heard, “It’s enough to create irritable bowel syndrome.”

“I’ll cook mine right over here,” I said, choosing three pieces off the butcher’s platter and laying them across a heated rock that had been left outside the grill. “I’ll watch these ones,” I added, making sure everyone heard. I reached into the nearby pail to wash off the blood, a last attempt at sanitation—I’d have to rely on the beer to cleanse my gullet.

Niecit chanted as he orchestrated the meal.

The swigging of beer, the mountain setting, the cool evening air, and the warmth of the fire brought everyone close. After a while it no longer mattered which hands picked and moved the meat, lifted it for inspection, or palmed it against a stick for display. In the end we were all happy to eat very well-done mutton.

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