Shelf Life by Robert Corbet

Author:Robert Corbet
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: FIC000000, book
ISBN: 9781741153187
Publisher: Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd
Published: 2004-05-31T16:00:00+00:00

AISLE

eight

FRESH MEAT

Jared and Dylan had gone into ‘Babe Alert’, following the platinum blonde at a not-so-discreet distance while pretending to stock the shelves. Her shorts were very short and her halter-neck top was chosen to show off her tan. She wore eyeliner like Cleopatra, pale pink lipstick and matching nail polish. In her knee-length boots, her denim cap and matching shoulder bag, she looked more like an MTV presenter than a supermarket shopper.

Rahel and Brian the meat manager stood watching from the butcher’s window at the back of the store.

‘Does she know she’s being tailed?’ asked Brian.

‘I’m sure she does,’ said Rahel.

‘Do you reckon she needs some assistance?’

Rahel looked at Brian’s apron. ‘You’d better wipe that blood off first.’

‘Look more sophisticated, you reckon?’ Brian raised one eyebrow.

Rahel tried to keep a straight face. ‘Definitely.’

Brian the meat manager was a man of few words. For twenty years he had worked in an abattoir, standing for eight hours a day up to his ankles in a river of blood and gore. Brian had slaughtered sheep, cows and pigs. He’d skinned them and trimmed the fat. He had disembowelled their carcasses and sorted the steaming organs with his bare hands. For half his life, Brian had cut, chopped and lifted meat. On his arms were scars from self-inflicted knife wounds. His back was gone, and most days it hurt just to sit. When Brian had asked Rahel if she was interested in taking the job, he didn’t beat around the bush.

‘Can you handle the smell?’ he asked.

‘I reckon I can,’ Rahel nodded.

Rahel had done her time on the registers. She was tired of the way the customers always looked at her headscarves and long dresses as if she was a slave from a Third World documentary.

‘There’s not a lot to it,’ he said. ‘Mostly, you’ll be weighing and pricing the meat.’

‘I’ll give it a go,’ she said.

Rahel went home that night intending to tell her father that she would be working with unblessed meat, including pork. She wasn’t actually butchering it, and her father was open-minded. Rahel hoped he would see it from her point of view.

Rahel helped her mother cook the evening meal. When the family had eaten, she washed the dishes, then helped her younger brothers with their homework. After the boys had finally gone to bed, Rahel sat down with her parents. But before she had a chance to speak, her father announced that he had some important news.

‘We’ve found you a husband,’ he said.

He opened his wallet and took out a passport photograph. The man in the small black-and-white picture looked nice enough, though perhaps not as handsome as Rahel might have hoped.

‘His name is Fadhil,’ said her mother. ‘His English is very good.’

‘He looks pretty serious,’ said Rahel.

Her father shrugged. ‘It is just a photograph.’

‘Will I get a chance to speak to him?’

‘Next month,’ said her father. ‘He is coming here.’

‘What? To stay?’

‘He has already bought the ticket,’ her mother nodded.

Rahel wondered if the ticket was one way or return.

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