Always Eat Your Meat

Chapter 4

   The red numbers blared 4:30 A.M.

   I wasn't quite used to getting up this early, but since my shift at the diner started at 6 A.M. I had to give myself enough time to get ready and drive out to the diner.

  Eventually, I aroused out of my cozy, warm bed and repeated my daily routine, which this time I completed slightly out of order, due to the exhausting early hours of the morning.

  It was about 5:15 A.M. by the time I drove my Maverick back out into the thirsty Mojave Desert.

  As I vigorously tried to keep my mind from drifting, I gazed out the window as the sun kissed the top of the mountains, forming a breathtaking sunrise, that temporarily hindered my line of vision.

  A few minutes later, I pulled into the gravelly parking lot of Earl's Fresh Eats and strolled up to the seemingly empty building.

  I pushed open the squeaky door and unconfidently chanted, "Hello? Earl and Susan it's Valerie."

"Hmm...that's odd. Maybe they aren't here yet. They told me to be here at 6 A.M. right?" I shook my head puzzled.

"Bang, bang, bang!" I heard the sound of a possibly sharp object whacking at something intensely. A cold shiver ran through my veins because I thought I was all alone. 

"Hello?" I asked the motionless air once again as I followed the sound of the noise into the dreary kitchen, illuminated only by a few flickering LED lights.

"Bang, bang, bang!" I cautiously turned the corner with my heart racing in my throat, my hands dripping with sweat; when I halted dead in my tracks.

  There, hovering over a stainless steel table, was Earl with a meat cleaver, chopping flesh in a heaping pool of crimson, red blood.

  I desperately clutched the wall, trying not to pass out from the metallic smell of blood, when I finally floated back to reality, I nervously spoke, "Ohh,..Earl...umm...I thought no one was...here...I heard a sound...and I followed it in here."

   After what seemed like eternity, Earl looked up from his trance like manner with a devilish glare in his eyes.

  "Oh, hello Valerie." He responded, resorting back to his kind self. "I didn't mean to frighten you. I was just preparing the meat for today's menu."

   He gently put down the knife caked with blood.

  "I do this every morning before my employees arrive, although they never seem to be able to stay for long." He chuckled at his own joke while gesturing to the chopped flesh. "But eventually I hope you can take over for me one day because I'm not getting any younger."

  Still trying to grasp my thoughts as I stared at the gruesome scene, which I knew couldn't possibly be animal meat. It just couldn't, but to calm my fears, I took a deep breath and replied, "Umm...yeah...maybe one day you could...teach me." I replied attempting to muster up a laugh.

"That's my girl. Now let's get you your uniform which is hanging over on that hanger by the cleaning supplies, and then you can start taking orders once the customers arrive. It's almost 7 A.M."

  After informing me on my daily duties, he transformed back into his alter ego chopping maliciously at the meat.

  "Okay...thank you." I half mindly mumbled through the loud chopping as I walked over to where my uniform which consisted of a knee length dress, apron, and a pair of black and white saddle shoes, and exited the kitchen into the bathroom lit only by a foggy light to change out of my sweaty clothes.

   As I began taking off my shirt in the confined, musty bathroom stall, I knew that Earl and possibly Susan were hiding something. Something horrid.

   I kept playing back in my mind the bloody chunks of flesh lying on the table, and the more I obsessed over it, the more I was convinced it was a human. I kept trying to deny it, thinking it was only my paranoia talking, but I just couldn't do it.

  "I'll just call the cops after my shift is over to clarify that nothing suspicious is going on." I whispered to myself, tying the apron around my waist.

  "It's probably just a cow anyways. Just keep your calm Valerie. Don't panic."

   Once I finished dressing, I examined myself in the greasy mirror and awkwardly walked over to the office to place my bag of clothes in a secluded corner in the room.

   Now the hard part was pretending that I was suspicious of nothing until the day was over.

  "Ughhh...here goes nothing." I uttered as I put on an artificial smile entering the eerie diner.