Competition Twenty-Two Shortlisted: For What We Are About To Receive by Kate Axeford

The table’s laid. Three squat tumblers filled with water. The stern tock of his grandfather clock provides the countdown. Seven strikes will equal ‘late.’

******A quease of grease follows him in from the kitchen where my mother cooks. He sees me. Scowls. Hefts himself into a protesting chair. Coarse. Ginger. His sausage fingers unfold a napkin. A shaft of sunlight halos the hairs.

******The meat is served after we’ve prayed. Tonight, liver, dishwater grey.

******Tock. Tock. Tock. Tock

******I fiddle with peas. Bury it with mash. Drown it under a slick of gravy. A scene rehearsed so many times. We both know where it leads.

******‘Eat your meat, boy,’  the butcher growls. His wife – my mother – sits silent as a ghost.

******The meat’s tough as boots. Tough as leather. Tough as belts. Tougher than the runt who dares turn a nose up at food he’s paid for, food he’s slaughtered.

******So this time he spits.

******‘Eat your meat, your mother cooked it.’

******A warning spat, like water hitting fat in a pan.

******Our standoff’s broken by noisy mewling. Expectant. Demanding. Betraying the secrets of my propped open window, next-door’s kitten slinks around the table, miaowing for prizes filched from his fridge.

******A boxer’s reaction. A butcher’s mitt. Grabbed, that scrag of fur and skin. She blinks as she swings in front of me.

******‘Or does Fancy-boy fancy a more tender cut?’

******Prayers are never answered here, and there’s no bolt of lightning, just eyes rolling back. His cheeks drain from puce to pale. And I am truly thankful when he drops the kitten, clutches his heart. Gasping, rasping, he fights for air.

******It’s too late for him when the clock strikes eight. My mother and I sit silently. Eyes open. Hands clasped. We savour the sweetness of just desserts.

Kate Axeford (she/ hers) is a social worker who lives in Brighton and loves the sea. She’s made appearances in Brilliant Flash Fiction, Bending Genres, Ellipsis Zine, Janus Lit, NFFD Anthology and Splonk and has been Shortlisted for Bridport and Longlisted for Bath Flash Fiction Award.

Find her @KateAxeford  / @kateaxeford.bsky.social

Image by Roland Steinmann from Pixabay

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