The Trashman by William Alan Webb

Author:William Alan Webb [Webb, William Alan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hit World Press
Published: 2021-01-11T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

At some point during my ordeal, the day’s fantastic events had transformed from bad dreams or drug-induced psychosis to reality. However absurd they might have seemed when I woke up that morning in Jamaica, or likely the previous morning now, my mind now accepted them as facts.

The path I followed back up to the living quarters seemed more direct than the one we’d taken down, but exhaustion dragged at my body unlike anything I’d ever known, worse even than when I’d gotten cut off from my unit in Pakistan and went four days without sleep. When I pushed through the door to the living quarters, Ribaldo and Jürgen glanced up from the dining room table with obvious surprise.

“Dear god, Steed,” Ribaldo said, “are you done then?”

I rested on the back of the couch. The air smelled of something deliciously meaty.

“I think so.” It was all I had the energy to say.

“No one has ever discovered the Balance that quickly,” Jürgen said.

“No, they have not.” Ribaldo’s tone now held something new: respect.

“Ribaldo took six hours,” Jürgen said, smiling at his brother. “I did it in four and a half.”

To me, it felt like I had been in there for a week.

“How long…for me?”

“Under ninety minutes.”

“Huh.”

“Now I understand why the assistant director let you walk the path so early and with no preparation. Truth be told, I never expected to see you alive again.”

“I killed her.” My voice sounded dull in my ears.

“Her?”

“Cynthia. I stabbed her in the heart. She died in my arms.”

“We’re not supposed to discuss our journey to discovery, Steed. But if it makes you feel better, the assistant director is alive and well. We just spoke to her moments ago.”

The day’s experiences all ran together, making it hard to decipher reality from delusion, but the heartache I’d felt when I killed Cynthia still hurt.

“That’s impossible,” I said, “I had her blood all over me.” Yet even as I said it, my mind told me that Ribaldo was telling the truth, and it did so in a way that I’d never before experienced, a statement of fact rather than a feeling. And apparently, he noticed a change come over my face with the realization.

“Yes, Steed, you have indeed discovered the Balance. Eat something now, then rest. Tomorrow we shall go over what it means. Merkus!”

Merkus scuttled in with that peculiar knuckle-walking gait of his, carrying a large silver tray laden with food in one hand.

“I suppose you’ll be wanting Pansette de Gerzat, too, will you?” he said.

“What is it?”

“Sheep guts,” Merkus said.

Ignoring him, Ribaldo cleared his throat. “Merkus is a bit judgmental when it comes to French cuisine. Pansette de Gerzat is a specialty of the French town of the same name and evolved as did most French offal dishes, as cheap animal cuts that poor people learned to make delicious. The dish consists of minced lamb stomach enveloped in the reticulum along with onions, salt, and pepper. The recipe Merkus follows adds pork intestines for tenderness. It is tied with string and then cooked in a broth made from fresh herbs and vegetables.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.