Putting the liver aside for the moment, Laura fetched another medium-sized platter like the one Josh had put Samantha’s carved meat onto at dinner. She then fetched a selection of knives from the drawer and carefully peeled the foil covering away from her daughter’s carcass. The meat had cooled now, perfect to start stripping from the bones, and Laura and Gram chatted happily as they set to work.

The meat from Samantha’s arms came off in long slices, a process made even easier when Gram realised that the shoulder joints were quite easy to break and pulled the folded turkey wings away from the rest of the carcass.

“What are we doing with the hands?” she asked, waving playfully at her daughter with Samantha’s severed left hand from which some of the meat from the palm had been pulled away, revealing the long, thin bones inside. Remembering how much they had enjoyed the roasted girl’s toes at Sidney’s, Ella and Caroline had asked Josh to cut Samantha’s off for them at dinner and had agreed that they were even tastier than those at the restaurant, but her fingers had been left untouched, the only damage to Samantha’s hands coming from when they had been pulled away from her shoulders.

“We could make a soup with some of the scrappy bits and put them in there?” Laura suggested. “We didn’t end up using all the veggies so we’ve got plenty to bulk it out with!”

“Good idea!” Gram smiled, thinking of the youngsters all playing outside in the snow in their birthday suits, keeping warm through energetic activity, but sure to welcome a warming mug of Samantha soup when they came back in. “I’ll get started on that, shall I?” Laura agreed and Gram filled a saucepan with water, dropped in both hands and some of the stock cubes that Laura had brought for the gravy then set it to boil. She then set to work peeling and chopping some potatoes, carrots and onions, cutting them into very small pieces, then these too went into the pot.

When she got back to the prep table, Gram found Laura trying to break off Samantha’s leg the way she had seen her do with the arms. This proved a little tricker but, working together, they were able to dislodge it. They did the same with her other, leaving the turkey looking like one of the crowns from the butcher, although with the head still attached.

“Might as well put the rest of the feet in the soup too.” Laura suggested, cutting the flesh around the heel then breaking off what remained of Samantha’s left foot. Suspecting that Laura, despite all that had taken place that day, might still be a little squeamish about stripping away the rest of her daughter’s face, Gram left her working on the legs and set to work on Samantha’s head. First, she cut around the hair-line and peeled the pretty, golden hair away like a wig, leaving the top of the skull exposed. She had heard that the hair of meat-girls could be donated to other kids going through chemotherapy and she was sure that this was something Samantha would have wanted. Wanting to get on with the job at hand for the moment, she found a carrier bag and put the scalp inside, deciding that she could find out how to go about donating it later once she had cleared the idea with her daughter and son-in-law.

Samantha’s ears and nose went straight into the soup, as did most of the rest of the skin that covered her face. The only part Gram thought succulent enough to put on the platter was her remaining cheek. Putting down her knife and taking a firm grip on the mostly-stripped skull with both hands, she jerked it roughly to the left then to the right before it came away with a very satisfying snap.

“Into the pot?” she asked, holding the skull up like a trophy and feeling Samantha’s brain, which had shrunk somewhat doing cooking, rolling around inside it.

“Go for it!” Laura chuckled, snapping off Samantha’s remaining ribs one by one to make the left-over stuffing easier to scoop out. “Maybe we can make some sort of ornament out of it later? See if Amanda and Rob want to paint it like one of those… what are they called? Like they have in Mexico for Day of The Dead?”

“Sounds like a fun activity!” Gram grinned, dropping the skull into the soup pot with a dull plop. With all the usable meat recovered from the front of Samantha’s body and her limbs, they rolled the torso onto its front and began to strip her virtually untouched back.

“Wow, some good meat here!” Laura observed as she cut thick strips of back bacon from just above the curve of Samantha’s rump. Her shoulder-blades were also peeled and her back ribs broken off. By the time they were finished, the pile of very appetising-looking sliced meat on the platter looked like not only plenty for the evening meal, especially when paired with Emily’s ham, but probably enough to provide a week’s-worth of sandwiches! On the side of the platter was the remaining stuffing that had been baked inside Samantha, squashed together into a reasonably neat block and, after fishing around among the bones and scraps, the women added the last few Emily sausages and meatballs to the platter of sliced Samantha.

Any bones that were small enough went directly into the soup while the last scraps of meat were scraped off the larger ones before they were dropped into one of the green recycling bags to be taken out in the morning. The platter on which the turkey had been served was then put on the side along with the roasting pan and other dirty dishes, the platter of meat was covered over with foil and put into the fridge and, with the possible exception of the skull which sat at the bottom of the soup pot, its nutrients and remaining meat being drawn into the nourishing, warming broth, there was nothing left that could be confidently identified as having ever been Samantha.

“How long do you think it needs?” Laura asked, looking at the bubbling soup pot. Gram sniffed it then tasted a little on a wooden spoon.

“About another half an hour of simmering, I’d say.” she concluded. “Maybe forty minutes.” She put a glass lid on the pan.

“Good!” Laura smiled. “Sounds about right. Then we can have some fun with the last playlist Sammie made! She’s labelled it Dance Party.” Leaving the soup on a low heat on the stove, they headed out to see what was going on in the yard.

What they found appeared to be a high-spirited battle in full swing! Having given up on trying to make a domed igloo, the men had simply built the walls up higher to create a sort of fortress which they were currently defending from the marauding horde of naked children, including one naked teenager who seemed to be very much enjoying the opportunity to just be a big kid rather than having to act mature and grown up, who were apparently attempting to take the white tower by force armed with snowballs. Every so often, the men would launch a counter attack and the kids would scatter, shrieking with laughter and taking cover behind the snowmen. Gramps and Miranda seemed to be remaining neutral, apparently responsible for arming both sides, providing huge piles of snowballs for anyone to make use of.

Quickly fetching her the camera, Laura switched it to action shot mode and did her best to capture the epic battle, thinking that it would make a fun slide-show and was a part of the evening that everyone involved would love to look back on. Fortunately, as brutal as the conflict seemed to have become, the only real casualties appeared to be the snowmen, most of whom had been decapitated by rogue snowballs or knocked over entirely in the heat of battle!

Finally, without anyone seeming to actually give the order or even discussing a strategy amongst themselves, the children launched a full on attack against the five foot high tower from all sides, screaming like berserkers, charging at it as fast as they were able thought the deep snow and slamming their bodies into it causing it to collapse onto its four builders who emerged from the wreckage looking rather like the Ghostbusters after their battle against Mr Staypuft!

“Victory is ours!” Amanda declared loudly and the others roared in triumph.

“Come on, you bunch of barbarians!” Laura chuckled. “Time to come inside and warm up! We have soup!”

“Victory soup!” Amanda, who appeared to have become the leader of the younger tribe roared in triumph to the joyous approval of her rather pale and pink army. “The nectar of champions!”

“Well I hope you’ll share some with your vanquished foes too?” Laura chuckled as she and Gram ushered everyone inside to the warm hall and handed out towels.


To be continued...