The Magnolia Bones by Dawn Merriman

Author:Dawn Merriman [Merriman, Dawn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-11-16T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

GRIFFIN

The butchering flows easily. I first take off the legs at the hip, then the arms at the shoulders. When I do the pigs, I start with the internal organs, hanging them above the drain and cutting through the chest and belly. Once I get him down to a torso, I hang him the same way with Maude and Millie each helping hold a side.

“Lots of meat on this one,” Maude says, pinching his side.

“Don’t be crass,” Millie chides. “Have some respect for what we are doing here.”

For once, Maude doesn’t argue, just helps me remove the organs and drop them into a large tub that steams in the cool air of the butchery.

We work quietly together, each of us knows our rolls. A few hours later the skin has joined the organs in the tub and the meat is removed from the bones.

We are tired and our rain coats are stained red. I take the hose and rinse the blood from the floor down the drain.

“You’re lucky,” Maude tells me. “When we first started, we didn’t have this fancy butchery. We had to process them in that shed out by the back barn.” She tells me this every time. I listen as always, knowing it’s her way of dealing with what we just did. She may be tough, but there’s no way this lifestyle hasn’t taken a toll on her.

“I bet that was rough,” I say as I always do.

“Dad taught us well,” Millie says. “It was important, but it must be done correctly. Remember that one that tried to run and made it as far as the driveway?”

“Dad got him in the end. That one was a nasty man,” Maude gives an exaggerated shake. “I couldn’t wait until his time with us was up.”

I finish spraying the floor and let the women reminisce. This too is part of the ritual. I wonder who I’ll do that with once they are gone. Wendy flits through my mind. Could she possibly....

There’s no way. Maude and Millie made it very clear that this was a lonely way of life. One that couldn’t be taken up lightly.

I’ve crossed the line now and I’m all in. Someday soon, Wendy will leave Magnolia House and I’ll never see her again. It’s the way it has to be.

I finish washing down the floor and let Maude and Millie wash the saws and knives as I begin packaging the meat and storing it in the walk-in cooler.

Soon the butchery is gleaming and clean again. The only sign that anything happened here is the tub that I will feed to the pigs in a short while.

And the bones and head.

Tiny flecks of meat and cartilage cling to them. The eyes of the head are sunken and thankfully closed. I have a way of disposing of them too. A hammer and a bucket and some quickcrete and they will be tossed in the pond with the other buckets.

Millie is putting Tom’s clothes in a garbage bag. She peels off her bloodied jacket and adds it to the bag.

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