You Are What You Eat

Brandon’s vegetarian sister, Reeana, had always warned him against the harming of animals for food, but she’d grown near insufferable since he’d gotten a job at a cattle slaughterhouse about a mile outside town. It was a job, after all, and he had two children to feed, regardless of whether they ate meat or not. Reeana had no right to get all high and mighty about the job he worked. It wasn’t his fault the tire and auto parts place had shut down and he hadn’t been offered a position in the big cooperation that bought them out. Big companies were moving in everywhere, and the little mom and pop shop just couldn’t compete. He was a man; he had to do what he had to, regardless of what his holier than thou sister said about it.

He probably wouldn’t have been thinking about his sister that cold, early December evening had he not had a rather unpleasant conversation with her that morning. He had stayed late to ensure a faulty freezer that had been repaired just a half hour ago was going to be fit for the job. The beef stored in that particular freezer wasn’t their most pricey, but losing it due to someone being too lazy to stay a few hours and make sure the freezer was truly repaired was unnecessary and detrimental to the company, at least in Brandon’s opinion. But then again, since the loss of his last job, he’d been a bit more keen on his work than before.
The slaughter house was empty now that all the workers had gone home, and an eerie hush had fallen over the warehouse, making every breath of wind stand out. Meat hooks, knives, and other tools of the trade hung sinisterly in the shadows as he made his way to the freezer in question. He was suddenly very sorry the freezer repair man hadn’t come earlier in the day so he might not have had to stay after closing time to monitor the freezer. He knew was just being stupid; nothing was wrong, except maybe for the fact he and Kay, his wife and avid horror movie fan, had watched one too many low budget monster flicks last Halloween season and his imagination was now making him pay a few months later.

Shaking himself mentally, he opened the freezer door and walked across the room to the thermostat, taking care to make sure the freezer door was unlocked, so he wouldn’t lock himself in the freezer. After ascertaining that the thermostat displayed the correct temperature, he walked towards the door, but not before hearing an ominous click, telling him the door had locked itself. Of course! The door was one of the auto locking ones; workers always left it open when they had to go inside! Brandon swore as he checked the door; there was going to be no way of getting out of this one. Quite suddenly, he saw what he’d been hoping for: a safety mechanism! There was a key hole on the inside of the walk in freezer, to prevent something like this from happening. He had the key to in his pocket! He was going to be alright, and he thought it was quite time to go home.

Shaking off the physical and emotional chill of the freezer, he walked toward his office, glad he’d gotten out of his close shave. What Brandon was not counting on was a meat hook, suspended on an electrical system of wires that moved meat around the warehouse, to come speeding down of its own accord and impaling him straight through the chest. It did not kill him instantly, but it must have punctured a lung because he found it hard to get enough air to talk or scream in pain and fear. All he could do was dangle helplessly and watch as the floor grew redder and redder with his own blood.
Brandon couldn’t help but realize he was strung up exactly like a side of beef. The irony of it all, he thought as his vision began to fade and pain began to deaden, was the last thing his sister had said to him was “You are what you eat”.