“Hey!” she smiled, finding the three young men in the equipment store exactly where she expected them to be – sat on pallets in the corner drinking coffee from mugs that had probably not been washed since Christmas. “Mind if I borrow Doug here for a bit?”

“Um… Am I in trouble?” the young man asked, aware of Mollie’s seniority to him and hoping that he had not done something or been perceived to have done something at the party on Saturday that would get him reprimanded.

“Not yet!” Mollie teased, sticking out her tongue playfully. “Although if I find out you’ve been showing these two pictures from Saturday, I might have to sign you up for the next charity barbecue!” She left the deliberate ambiguity of the threat hanging then giggled again. “Nah, I just think it would be good to have a guy in on my next assessment. You know how awkward meat-boys can be!” Doug nodded and gulped down the rest of his coffee then stood and reflexively smoothed out the front of his trousers. Although Mollie was now fully clothed, dressed almost identically to himself only with slightly tighter-fitting trousers, he could not shake the memory of how she had looked in the Sidney costume and the only way he could avoid mentally projecting that image onto her, he found, was to avoid looking directly at her.

“Want to go set the room up?” Mollie suggested. “Number two should be free. I’ll go fetch our piggy from reception!” Doug did as he was told and Mollie headed down the corridor to the front of the building, towards the door which led into the reception and waiting area. Her fellow senior caterer Maureen was walking the same way, going to collect a volunteer or two of her own, and they made pleasant small-talk as they walked, discussing how their weekend assignments had gone and how their weeks ahead were looking.

In reception, waiting with a mixture of nervousness and excitement, were two girls in their mid-teens who had apparently come together, a cute little blonde girl of around six or seven who was with a very pretty and youthful woman who could either have been her mum or her big sister and the young man that Mollie had come to collect. Although he was sitting down, Mollie judged that he was about the same height as her which was tall for a girl but a little below average for a man. He had light brown hair that was parted in the middle and cut short around the sides but left a little longer at the front so it flopped over his forehead a little. His skin was not dark but had a permanently tanned look to it that suggested some Mediterranean ancestry somewhere in the last couple of generations. He was wearing glasses and dressed in a light blue denim shirt and black work trousers.

“Carl Morelli?” Mollie called in his general direction. He looked up, smiled, then stood and offered his hand a little awkwardly as if he, quite reasonably in Mollie’s view, was unsure of the etiquette for such occasions. “Nice to meet you.” She smiled, shaking his hand and trying to put him a little more at ease. “I’m Mollie, one of the senior caterers here and I’m going to be running your assessment today. Have you given your form to Laura?” She looked over at the young woman at the reception desk who confirmed that he had and that all the relevant data had been entered into the system. “Great!” she smiled. “Follow me, please!”

As Maureen chatted to the women and the little girl who, from what Mollie could pick up were mother and daughter and wanted to volunteer as a combo package, much like the two sisters she would be seeing later, Mollie held the door to the corridor open and ushered her guest through.

“Have you ever visited a facility like this before?” she asked conversationally as they made their room towards Inspection Room 2. It was something of an unwritten rule never to ask a volunteer why they wanted to be eaten but Mollie was practised enough to be able to get a good idea of someone’s motivation based on other clues from things they said. Officially, it was enough to confirm that they understood what would happen to them at that they were willing to effectively sign away their human rights but, for her own peace of mind, Mollie liked to make sure that volunteers she processed were not acting out of grief or stress, or under pressure from others. She wanted to be confident that all the meat she served was a hundred percent willing and, hopefully, enthusiastic.


To be continued...