Page 114 of Why Cheese?
Or maybe it’s not them at all.
“Where did you find this?”
“Downstairs in that creepy cellar,” he says.
They found it.
They foundthem!
My heart pounding, I cradle the charcuterie board and rush into the shop. The crate’s been shoved to the side and the door’s tossed open. Who? I glare over my shoulder and catch the soap lady, Alva, meeting my eye. She told them. She told them about the mysterious men in the shop. Not just with me, but all those years back. She watched my uncle spend time with them. Spread those horrible rumors that trapped the guys, that banished me from the store, that isolated my uncle until his dying day.
She ruined everything.
“Violette,” my mother shouts to me.
I don’t even glance back as I dive down the ladder. Construction lights chase away every comforting shadow, blinding me.They’re still here. They’re where I left them. They have to be.
Blinking, I make my way to the table where Brie and Cheddy bent me over. Where I clung to Roq’s legs and Cam ate me out.
They’re not eaten. They can’t be. They’re safe. They’re here.
“They’re gone,” I whimper, staring at the long empty table.Maybe they fell.I plummet to my knees, scraping them on the cold stone. Only that weird box from the first night sits underneath. There’s nothing else…no one else here.
The cheese! Maybe they’re in one of the dumpsters or trucks.
I almost put the board down on the table, but it could be them. The Camembert doesn’t look too touched, he could be okay. And the Roquefort’s only got an edge cut off. Brie looks half gone and the Cheddar… I close my eyes, certain it’s not them. But still, I keep a tight grip on the board as I climb one-handed up the ladder.
“Put it back!” I shout.
“We are.”
“The cheese. All of it. Put it in the store, now!”
The men look at each other in concern. “But it’s on the truck in, ya know, garbage.”
“I don’t fucking care! Do it!”
They think I’m crazy, but it doesn’t matter. Everyone thinks I’m crazy. Everyone but them.
I fall to my ass, not even noticing the hit. All I can do is stare at the piece of slate holding what could have been my future. True to their word, the men dragged back in the cheese that was sitting in fetid garbage. If it’s one of them, they can be cleaned. They’ll be okay.
I just have to wait for nightfall, and everything will be fine. We can rebuild. Make more cheese. Be happy.
For once in my goddamn life, I can be happy.
“Violette, this is—”
“Leave.”
Her authoritarian footsteps falter. She pauses just at the door’s threshold as men try to get around her. “You’re upset. You’re lashing out and letting your emotions do the thinking for you. For now, it’s best if you—”
The tears dry. I lift my head so she can see. In a dead, dry tone, I tell my mother, “I never want to see you again.”
“Violette.”
“Leave, before I call the cops on the thief who broke into my store.”
She jerks like I slapped her face. Maybe she expected me to one day, maybe she was hoping for it. It’d be a great excuse for her to commit me. But I can’t be bothered. My hands are too busy holding the board to lash out at her.
