William lunged forward and grabbed the freezer door. With more effort than he would have thought necessary he pulled the big metal door open. Tara was standing in the freezer entry way with a huge chunk of meat. It looked like a whole skinned pig.
“It’s a boar. Now, help me drag this thing over to the big counter over there.” She jerked her hair forward and to the side to indicate the direction of the counter.
William was a little slow and looked at Tara cross ways. How did she know what I was thinking? He didn’t have time to ask right then as he had to grab the other side of the slab of pork as Tara swung it at him. He caught it and immediately wished he hadn’t. First thing was the stubs that used to be legs were as smooth as the obsidian that made up the buildings in the city so he had almost no grip. Second, he didn’t have any gloves on and the frozen pork was like trying to handle dry ice. He almost let go of the thing.
Tara nodded her head as William slowly backed up toward the counter. His hands felt like there were needles digging into them. The sub-freezing sensation that had wrapped around his hands was now starting to flow up his arms. His hands didn’t go numb though. The side of Pork was too cold for that. The cold dug deeper and more painfully into his skin as he gritted his teeth against it. The counter wasn’t too far away he just had to get this thing there.
After a couple more steps he nodded at Tara and they both in a heave tossed the dead animal onto the counter. The frozen slab of flesh slid and rattled to a stop as it hit the wall. William nearly doubled over as he jammed his hands into his arm pits trying to warm them. The only thing was the sudden warmth of his tired sweaty body turned the ice needles in his hands to spiked drill bits. He pulled his hands out from his body but the pain persisted. There was no quick ease for his suffering. He looked at his red hands as it seemed like his own body had turned against him. Pain throbbed in his fingers and palm as another pain shot through his hand up into his arms. All he could do was shake them stupidly trying to get blood flow back into them and stop those sanity crushing needles of pain.
Wiping her brow with her arm she smiled at him, “Thanks, Will. I couldn’t have gotten that thing over here by myself.” William looked down to see that she was wearing gloves. He looked at his own angry red hands and then back at Tara’s glove covered hands, and back to his own again. The display had the desired effect. Tara looked up at him, “What do you expect me to do about it. You’re the idiot that handled frozen meat with no gloves on.”
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William stood there staring at her and blinked twice. He ran his hands through his hair. Scratching his scalp he turned toward the frozen hunk of flesh, “What are we going to do about that? It’ll take forever for it to thaw.”
Tara replied, “It’s a good thing that that’s for dinner then, huh? Now go and cut some bacon strips, please? The meat’s already on the meat slicer over there.” She said as she pointed to a stainless steel industrial meat slicer at the end of the counter.
Tara walked back to the freezer door that she had exited and closed it. Then she threw her gloves down on a shelf next to the freezer. She started to walk back down the long corridor that William had used earlier. She stopped and half turned to face him, “I wouldn’t handle deep frozen foods with my bare hands in the future if I were you. That’s a good way to get frostbite.” Smiling slyly at him she turned and disappeared down the corridor.
William turned to the meat slicer. I never had to worry about frozen dead animals back in my forest. Of course, he was a little more civilized now than he had been back there in his burrow. Life seemed to be a lot less stressful though. Sighing he started working the slicer and producing long strips of raw bacon.
When the chunk of meat had been sliced into strips, he washed his hands and wiped his hands on a hand towel as he looked around for Tara. He backed away from the counter and looked down the corridor to see Tara walking towards him. Does she just know what I’m thinking? He knew that that was crazy but it seemed like Tara knew what he wanted or what he was going to say before he said it.
Tara walked up to him looking at his pile of strips of bacon under the slicer, “Yup, that’s pretty much what I expected.” She patted him on the shoulder, “Good job on the bacon.” William shrugged his shoulders. Tara grabbed some plastic gloves out of a box on a nearby shelf. Slipping them on, she grabbed a tray and scooped up the raw strips of meat and plopped it on the large tray.
“Will, go give that to whoever is on the grill.” Tara pointed the way and William carried the tray to the massive griddle that he had passed upon entering the kitchen.
There was nobody on the griddle and the thing was still ice cold. He looked behind him and to the left and right. There was nobody there and the harsh noise of the morning seemed to have subsided as well. Looking around once he shrugged his shoulders and turned one of the knobs on the side of the thing. He heard the familiar ignition of gas and looked under the griddle surface. He smiled as blue flames reached up and licked at the thick metal. Nodding his head he laid the strips of bacon out on the griddle. Soon the bacon began to bubble and darken as the blood and fat was cooked off of the meat. The most amazingly rich smell washed over him as steam rose and enveloped him. Hot grease popped and stung his hand but he didn’t mind so much. It had been so long since he had the pleasure of cooking bacon.