Tender is the Flesh(47)

“What’s been going on with me is that you’re a hypocrite and your children are two little shits.”

He shocks himself with the insult. She opens her eyes and mouth, and for a few seconds doesn’t say anything.

“I understand you’re stressed because of Dad, but you can’t insult me like that, you’re in my house.”

“Can’t you see you’re incapable of thinking for yourself? The only thing you do is follow the norms imposed on you. Can’t you see that this whole thing is a superficial act? Are you even capable of feeling something, really feeling it? I mean, have you ever cared about Dad?”

“I think a farewell service was called for, don’t you? It’s the least we could do for him.”

“You don’t understand anything.”

He walks out of the kitchen and she follows behind, saying he can’t leave, what will people think, he can’t take the urn now, he could at least give her this, the house is full of Esteban’s colleagues and his boss is here, her own brother can’t embarrass her like this. He stops, grabs her by the arm and says into her ear, “If you keep fucking with me, I’ll tell everyone how you did nothing when it came to Dad, understood?” His sister looks at him in fear and takes a few steps back.

He opens the front door and leaves. She runs after him with the urn and reaches the car just before he gets in.

“Take the urn, Marquitos.”

For a few seconds, he looks at her in silence. Then he gets into the car and closes the door. His sister stands there not knowing what to do until she realizes she’s outdoors and doesn’t have an umbrella. She looks up at the sky in fear, covers her head with her hand and runs into the house.

He starts the car and drives away, but first he watches his sister enter the house holding an urn full of dirty sand from an abandoned zoo with no name.





18




He accelerates and heads home, turns on the radio.

That’s when his phone rings. It’s Mari. The call strikes him as odd because she knows he’s at his father’s farewell service. Mari knows this because she phoned to ask for permission to give his contacts to his sister, who wanted to invite them to the service. He of course said no and told Mari he didn’t want to see anyone he knew.

“Hi, Mari. What’s going on?”

“I need you to come to the plant now. I know it’s not the best timing, I apologize, but we’ve got a situation here that we can’t handle. I’m asking you to please come now.”

“Hold on, what happened?”

“I can’t explain, you’ll have to come see for yourself.”

“I’m not far, I was on my way home. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

He accelerates, thinks he’s never heard Mari sound so worried.

When he nears the plant, he sees what looks like a trailer truck in the distance. It’s stopped in the middle of the highway. When he’s a few metres away, he sees bloodstains on the pavement. When he gets closer still, he can’t believe his eyes.

A cage trailer has overturned on the side of the highway and been destroyed. The doors either got smashed on impact or were torn off. He sees Scavengers with machetes, sticks, knives, ropes, killing the heads that were being transported to the processing plant. He sees desperation and hunger, rabid madness and ingrained resentment, he sees murder, he sees a Scavenger cutting the arm off a live head, he sees another Scavenger running and trying to lasso an escaping head as though he were a calf, he sees women with babies on their backs wielding machetes, cutting off limbs, hands, feet, he sees the pavement covered in guts, he sees a boy who’s five or six dragging an arm. He accelerates when a Scavenger, his face wild and splattered with blood, yells something at him and raises a machete.

He feels the shards of stone in his chest move through his body. They burn, they’re candescent.

When he arrives, Mari, Krieg and several employees are outside the plant, watching the spectacle. Mari runs over and hugs him.

“I’m sorry, Marcos, I’m so sorry, but this is insane. Nothing like this has ever happened with the Scavengers.”

“Did the truck overturn on its own or did they do it?”

“We don’t know. But that isn’t the worst part.”

“What’s the worst part, Mari, what could be worse than this?”

“They attacked Luisito, the driver. He was injured and couldn’t get out in time. They killed him, Marcos, they killed him.”

Mari hugs him and doesn’t stop crying.

Krieg comes over and holds out his hand. “I’m sorry about your father. I apologize for calling you in like this.”

“It was the right thing to do.”

“Those degenerates killed Luisito.”

“The police will have to be called.”

“We’ll get to that. What we need to do now is find a way to stop those fuckers.”

“They have enough meat for weeks, if they want.”

“I told the workers to fire but not kill them, to scare them off.”

“And what happened?”

“Nothing. It’s like they’re in a trance. Like they’ve become these savage monsters.”

“Let’s talk in your office. But I’ll get some tea for Mari first.”