Page 17 of Why Cheese?
“We were men,” Roq grumbles. “Proud, accomplished men who were cursed into this living hell of being a man by night and cheese by day. Why is this so difficult for you to understand?”
“It’s just…you’re all named after cheeses so… Oh, was that what cursed you?” Had they been turning into cheese since birth? A little wedge of Brie in a crib with a diaper? That sounds kinda adorable actually.
The lantern stops swinging. Roq tosses his head back, and I feel the others brace themselves behind me. Wincing, I bite my lip for the worst tongue-lashing of them all.
With a weary sigh, Roq says, “That isn’t why,” and begins walking.
“The—”
Two different hands press to my mouth to stop me from asking why. Both Cam and Cheddy hold fingers to their lips and shake their heads. I nod, telling them I understand. None of us want to anger the big blue cheese man.
Firelight bounces off the final brick wall as we reach the end of the basement. At last, Roq pauses and turns, the lantern swinging in his grip. “This is our greatest treasure.”
A brick wall?
“Close your eyes.”
“Uh…?” My entire body becomes blisteringly aware of the four imposing men looming around me.
“Cam?”
Shuffling breaks out behind me but I step away. “You don’t need to blindfold me. Here.” I place both of my palms over my eyes. A few things happen at once. I can see the lantern’s light swinging past my fingers and nothing more. Its cast reflects off of the bricks, then a small metal sound breaks the air followed by a longer one of dragging cement blocks. The once-strong lantern light fades.
A cold vastness stretches before me. I feel like a princess standing before the gaping maw of a dragon. My trembling fingers slip and hands clamp over the back of them.
“Not yet, my dear,” Cam whispers in my ear. “He’s quite protective of his stash.”
I can’t make out anything aside from the shuffle of clothing and feet. “All right,” Roq declares.
Cam pulls down my fingers. I blink rapidly, trying to focus on what’s before me. Where there had been a blank brick wall is now a second secret cellar crammed to the roof with cheese.
“Thirty-six-pound wheels of cheddar aged for over twenty years,” Roq declares with the first real smile I’ve seen on him. I know I should be looking at the huge stockpile of cheese, but I’m distracted by the appearance of two tiny dimples at the top of his smile lines.
“Wow. Let me at it!” Cheddy shouts.
At the last second, Roq snatches onto his naked shoulder and tugs him back. “The tasting wheel is over there.” He points to a much smaller chunk that’s been unwrapped from the cloth. A few slivers are already shaved off.
“I am impressed it’s still here,” Cam says. “I’d have expected Mateo to employ some dynamite or a team of mules to break inside.”
Roq raises his nose high. “He knew better.”
“Because nothing causes fear to swell in a man’s breast like four inert cheeses.” Cam sweeps a hand just above the wheels as he walks down one long row. “Three of us would make a decadent pasta sauce. Then the last would spoil it.”
“God’s wounds, Brie, you’ve got to try this!” Cheddy tosses a hunk of sawed-off cheddar at the man. He catches it and takes a small nibble.
“Mmm, yes. Very good. Thank you, Cheddy.”
“Cam?”
“I’ll enjoy the fruits of Roq’s arrogance later,” he calls back, already lost in the labyrinth of cheese.
Roq answers with a small grunt, but his focus is on the wheels. He tenderly checks the rinds of two on different shelves. “Twenty years. I’ve never had them age this long.”
“Aside from Marseilles,” Cheddy adds. He gulps the second the word leaves his mouth, but he’s too late. Roq spins on him with a venom that’d terrify a cobra. Both Cheddy and Brie refuse to meet his eyes and I do the same.
Whatever Marseilles means to all of them goes unexplained. What matters is that there are a lot of cheeses in the basement of an ex-cheese shop. How does this help me?
“I’m glad you still have your work.” I gesture toward the rack of wheels. “But I don’t know what to do with it.”
