Pt 5

“Ooh! Ooh!” Rosie bounced up and down, spotting her parents at a table very close to the public cooking area, dressed in very nice clothes and both sipping wine, chatting happily and laughing together clearly enjoying the date-night. “There’s my mum and dad! Can I go say hello?”

“Well we do have to go that way anyway,” the young woman chuckled, “so I guess it could be allowed! Just don’t take too long over it as we need to get you cooking pretty quickly!” As if on cue, a young man from the kitchen pushed a trolley past them on which was a large metal pot with a lid. “That will be the stew meat!” the woman informed the girls as he passed. Rosie looked at it was fascination, imagining how the finely-chopped pieces of delicious girl-meat would soon be swirling around her and how, some time after that, her own body would be cut into small chunks of meat and be added to the stew around another girl. “Does anyone else have anyone here they want to say goodbye to?”

“Nah!” Bobbi laughed, “My parents didn’t even drop me off, I had to come by bus! I bet they’re at home booking a holiday right now with the money they’re getting for me!” She did not seem at all upset by this. Rosie couldn’t help wishing they had a little longer to chat so she could find out why this girl had chosen to sign up. She seemed perfectly happy to be meat although not as excited as Rosie herself was. At least she did not seem reluctant – the idea of girls being pushed or pressured into being cooked always made Rosie feel a little sad and she wondered how she would feel to be cooked alongside a girl who would rather not be there.

“Fair enough!” the woman chuckled. “What about you?” She turned to Emma who was looking a little sad. “Is anyone here to watch you cook?”

“No,” she chubby blonde replied, “Mummy says she’s really proud of me but it would make her too sad to actually watch.”

“That’s not that uncommon,” the woman assured her kindly, “although often we do have families come especially to watch.” Rosie was looking around the dining hall and taking everything in. It was quite a thrill to realise that all the meat on the diners’ plates was from girls like her and her new friends. She looked over at the mermaids splashing around in their pool and thought how pretty they looked. She wondered how many of them would end up on the menu at some point and guessed it would be quite a few – she could not imagine how a girl could hang out here day after day, watching the endless parade of naked meat-girls led out, prepared, cooked and served without wanting to become one of them. Even if a girl were to sign up as a mermaid just because she liked showing off her athletic body and hated the idea of being cooked, her mind would be changed before too long!

“Hey there!” Rosie’s dad grinned as the small party approached their table, “Looks like we’ve come on the right night! This is some of the tastiest looking meat I’ve ever seen!” Rosie practically glowed and the other two looked proud to be described this way. For her part, Emma had been totally focussed on the fact of being cooked and had not really given a whole lot of thought to what was to happen afterwards but, hearing her meat complimented reminded her that, once she was cooked, people were actually going to be eating her body and it made her happy to think that they were looking forward to it – she always enjoyed making people happy!

Bobbi was currently the eldest of three sisters but had once been the middle child. When she was four years old, her eldest sister had been cooked at a family party. Two years later, her next sister had been very willingly sent to the butcher. Bobbie could remember distinctly how excited her big sister Danielle had been when the morning came, how the whole family had waiting in the front yard with the naked nine year old, waiting for the butcher’s van to come collect her and how happy she had looked climbing in the back. These memories, combined with the various cousins she had seen cooked or had participated in eating over the years meant that Bobbi had never really questioned the idea that she would one day be meat. She could not remember her parents ever telling her she had to or even bringing up the question with her. Whenever it had been talked about it had always been in terms of when and how, never if. To Bobbi, it was just something that happened to a girl sooner or later and she was neither especially excited about it nor in any way afraid. Always a remarkably practical-minded girl, Bobbi simply saw providing food for the diners there that night as a job she had agreed to do. Seeing the hungry way everyone, not just Rosie’s parents, were looking at her naked body gave her a great feeling of contentment.

“Thanks!” Rosie beamed at her parents. “I would hug you but I’m kinda covered in butter!”

“Don’t worry, sweetheart,” her mum smiled cheekily, “you can hug us from the inside once you’re in our bellies! This is Bobbi and Emma.” she introduced the other meat-girls. “We’re all about to get cooked together!”

“Well you’d better get on with it!” Rosie’s dad laughed. “We’re getting hungry here!”

“You’d better get some of those other girls as an appetiser!” Rosie suggested, pointing to the carvery where two girls, both roasted golden-brown – one from the spit and the other from the oven, were being placed on the serving station beneath the hot lights that would keep their meat warm while they were carved. “It’s going to be nearly an hour before we’re ready!”

“Good idea!” her mum chuckled. “I think if I had to wait another hour before any food, I’d start taking bites out of the table!”

“Make sure you save room for me, though!” Rosie added in an urgent tone.

“Oh don’t worry!” laughed her dad. “We will, I promise!”

“Come on, you three!” the young woman, smiling but with as firm tone, brought the conversation to a close. “Let’s get you cooking!”