Spotting Josh on the bench, the girls came over and deposited their prizes with him before running off again to try their luck at winning more. As he sat watching them, he thought how nice it was that they could still enjoy normal, age-appropriate Christmassy fun like this even ‘though the rest of Samantha’s life could be counted in days and Amelia’s entire focus for the months left to her was likely to be getting her meat to the best possible quality ready to be roasted. Right now, they were just two kids having fun.

Although he could not see them all the time, Josh was pleased to notice that they did not seem to be obsessively playing the same game over and over again in the hope of winning. Rather, they were trying a game then moving onto the next, clearly wanting to experience as many as possible. When the allotted time was nearly up, Josh gathered the small pile of plushies and other colourful prizes that seemed to have mysteriously accumulated next to him on the bench and went to meet the girls.

“I’m getting hungry!” Samantha observed. “And I bet they’re going to start spitting that other girl soon! Her friend must be done by now.” Amelia nodded emphatically.

“I could eat!” Josh grinned, rather excited by the prospect of a girl-meat roll. Giving up his trip to Sidney’s so the girls across the road could have a treat meant that he was yet to actually taste the food that he felt had come to dominate his life in the past few weeks! “Why don’t you two go get in the queue while I pop these out to the car?” he indicated the arm-full of toys which he still appeared to be carrying, “I’ll come find you in a few minutes. Remember where the cooking place was?” he asked, believing it would be pretty difficult to get lost. The girls assured him that they did and ran off in that direction while he took their loot out to the car.

When he rejoined them, they were part of a small but rapidly growing crowd, with people coming over once they realised that something was about to happen and others simply attracted by the fact that a crowd was forming a figuring that they must be there for a reason.

“Hey you two.” He stood behind them with a hand on each of their shoulders and kissed them both on the tops of their heads. Samantha reached up and put her hand on top of his own while Amelia slipped her arm around the top of his leg. “What did I miss?”

“Nothing yet!” Samantha assured him. “They’re just taking Georgie off the spit so the new girl can go on!”

“I see!” Josh nodded, watching with interest as what was left of the girl they had seen cooking earlier, now missing her entire rump and both thighs as well as both breasts and quite a lot of meat from elsewhere was transferred onto a stainless steel platter which was put on a table between the two roasting devices, presumably so the last meat could be efficiently stripped without drying out from over-cooking, the spit and various skewers pulled out of her. One of the young men who had lifted the occupied spit out of the device took it away and began to clean it while the other wheeled out what looked at first like a padded obelisk about five feet high but which they quickly realised was a bench like a low vaulting horse with wheels on the end so that it could easily be moved around upright rather than needing two people to carry it.