Once everyone had enjoyed their fill of lobster, the children were sent to play once more and the parents either joined in or stood around with more drinks while Melanie and half her team cleared off the table where the cakes and other sweet treats had been served earlier and prepared it for the next meal and the other half supervised the cooking area.

The mostly-stripped skeletons of the lobster girls were broken apart and the bones, some of which still had scraps of meat clinging to them, were added to the soup in which Tania was relaxing, drowsy now from the heat but still alive for the moment. To her amusement, Melanie noticed that several of the children seemed to be re-enacting the beheading, taking it in turns to kneel down in front of each other and using one of the croquet flamingos as the axe! Fortunately they were not hitting each other too hard as a heavy blow across the back of the neck could still cause significant injury, even paralysis, but it seemed that several of the parents were keeping a close eye to stop things getting out of hand.

When the table was cleared off and the china soup bowls and plates with the playing-card pattern around the edge and cutlery with a heart motif that Melanie had been particularly proud of hunting down had been laid out along with the hotplates for the vegetables which would be brought out when the rest was ready to serve, she went to check on the other half of her team.

She found that Gemma’s body had been completely parted out, some parts such as the thighs and buttocks wrapped in foil for cooking, wrapped with honey glaze and seasoning which would infuse into the meat as it baked, and others cut into steaks or chops perfect for individual grilling. As a special treat for the birthday girl, the performer’s plump fillet had been cut into a heart shape which would be served to her on a special dish all by itself. Feeling more and more relieved with each part of the even which went well, Melanie declared herself happy with the butchering and told them to put the larger, foil-wrapped pieces in the coals to bake but to wait for her word before putting the smaller pieces onto the grill.

“How are you doing in there?” she smiled gently at Tania, the way a friendly nurse might ask a sick child. The green, bald-headed girl smiled back a little weakly and nodded, not feeling up to talking any more. “I think it’s time to let you bleed out, okay?” Melanie explained, picking up a small but very sharp knife and setting it on the edge of the pot. “Your heat will be beating pretty slowly by now anyway so it’s not going to be anything spectacular like Gemma.” Tania nodded, showing that she understood.

“First I need to put the hooks in your back so we can get you out, okay?” Melanie showed her the large, very sharp meat-hooks on the ends of lengths of steel rope, just like the ones Gemma’s carcass had been hung from for butchering, the ends of the ropes coiled up on the ground behind the pot. “Lean forward for me.” She gently guided the half-concious cast-member with a hand on her shoulder, pushing her so that her face came close to the bubbling surface of the broth. She then pinched some of the flesh on Tania’s left shoulder and pushed the hook through. Although a much slower process than the deep-frying, the boiling soup had turned Tania’s skin fairly numb and she barely felt anything apart from a little pressure and the first hook was pushed through her skin and then the second through her right shoulder. “Good girl.” Melanie cooed, gently guiding her back upright and picking up the knife. “Just need your hand now.” Careful of the boiling liquid in which it was submerged, Melanie pushed on the underside of Tania’s upper arm, encouraging her to lift it, and the sweet young performer cooperated, lifting her hand out of the water so that Melanie could take hold of her wrist and make a long, deep cut from the heel of her hand half way up her fore-arm then let it drop back into the soup as the blood oozed out. “Sleep well, little turtle!” She gave her a kiss on the top of her bald head then left her to fade away in peace.

After ten minutes, Melanie returned with two of her co-workers and one of the trolleys the lobsters had been served on, the top now cleared off and wiped down. There was no sign of Tania any more above the surface but, with Melanie’s supervision, the men pulled on the ropes and heaved her limp body up and out onto the trolley. The expression on her face was peaceful. Serene. She had clearly drifted off very content, probably dreaming of what lovely soup she would make for the children. Her flesh, still retaining the dye and most of the paint, was soft, almost puffy, as if the meat was loose on her bones. This was just as it should be and the men quickly set to work cutting her into small cubes. There was no concern about presentation this time, these were not cuts to be served on a plate. The purpose was to strip her meat and make the pieces small enough so that the Mock Turtle and oyster soup would be ready to serve at the same time as the Alice meat. As with the lobsters, the inedible viscera were put aside but the edible organs were chopped up along with the rest of the meat to go back into the pot.

Once they had finished their work, the chunks of Tania-meat were returned to the pot along with her bones so that their marrow could enrich the broth. Even her skull, the meat of her face cut away, eyeballs popped out and tongue removed and cut to small pieces, went back in. Diced vegetables that had been prepared earlier were then added and one of the workers was assigned to keep stirring the pot while the other went to help with the grilling.

Eventually, it was time for the main meal! Strawberry’s throne had been moved back to the head of the table and at least some of the parents had made a valiant effort to make their children look respectable again before they took their seats, although everyone understood that the most important thing was that they had fun! Dishes of hot vegetables were put on the table, interspersed with platters of grilled Gemma steaks and the four larger pieces which Melanie made a show of carving into slices. Having been transferred into a number of smaller, more manageable tureens so that more people could be served at once, the soup was brought around and decanted into the bowls.

Before everyone was invited to start eating, however, a special silver salver was brought out, covered by a dome, and placed in front of the birthday girl. She gasped in delight when the lid was lifted and she saw, artfully displayed on a bed of spinach and rocket leaves with diced red onion, Gemma’s heart-shaped fillet, lightly grilled and looked delicious! Instead of reaching for her knife and fork, Strawberry picked it up with her fingers, rolled the fairly flat meat into a sausage shape and took a big bite!

“Oh wow!” she exclaimed. “She’s even tastier than the lobster!” Two more bites and the prime cut of Alice in Wonderland was nothing but a yummy memory. “Tuck in!” Strawberry instructed her friends with enthusiasm and they did not need telling twice!

As Melanie and her team hovered around the table, helping the children to serve themselves from the various platters, cutting the meat up smaller when needed and fetching extra soup if asked, one of the parents who had been standing near by watching indulgently as the little ones enjoyed themselves approached her. He looked familiar, like he might be an actor she had seen in one or two films, or perhaps someone who was on the news sometimes, like a politician, but Melanie had never been too good at recognising people out of context.

“Hi!” He smiled, holding out his hand. “I’m Martin. I understand you organised all of this?” He gestured around at the happy children and the party in general.

“That’s right!” Melanie smiled, shaking his hand politely. “With the help of my team of course. I hope you and your family are having a good time?”

“Oh definitely!” He grinned. “In fact, I wanted to ask if you’re taking booking next Spring? My son is obsessed with Peter Pan and he’d love a party like this!”

“I’m sure we can work something out!” Melanie assured him warmly. “Here,” she fetched a card from her inside pocket, “take this and either call me or send me an email and we can get the ball rolling. Once I find out about your requirements, I’ll make enquiries and find out what we can do for you.” The man seemed very pleased to hear this and accepted her card gratefully. They chatted for a few minutes longer, mostly about Melanie’s professional background and how long she had been with the company then he went to check on his son.

This was far from the only such enquiry Melanie received over the next couple of hours and, when it eventually came time to leave, Lance Miller thanked her personally with a hug and handed her a thick envelope stuffed with cash, a tip, he explained, to be shared between her team. At Strawberry’s request, Gemma’s pretty head was left in the garden near an ant’s nest one of the grounds-keepers pointed out. It would be interesting for her, everyone thought, to see how the ants worked over the next week or so to clean the skull then, once the meat was gone, it could be taken inside as an ornament and happy memento of a magical day!


The End