Before the Horns - A Bob Velseb Story

Chapter 23

On her way to work, Charlie blew into her hands in an attempt to fend off the cold. She'd left early in order to meet the truck at the store before her manager had a chance to. The driver would park and leave the truck for a few hours to be unloaded before returning to take it back, so it was a perfect opportunity to sneak on. Gripping the bag she had slung over her shoulder, Charlie silently hoped she'd have enough time for this to go smoothly. If she didn't have time to get the goods onto the truck, she'd just make sure to pretend she'd taken them off during unloading. 

When Charlie made it to Boys & Grills, the truck still hadn't arrived yet. Luckily neither had the butcher or John, though the two likely wouldn't have shown up an hour and a half early for work anyways. Readjusting the cold-bag of goods, she pulled out her phone to review the plan for herself. Charlie was almost excited, enthralled by the adrenaline associated with the hunt of 'extended measures'. This is what she lived for, and why she'd joined in the first place. Getting caught would quickly put her out of her profession, but the risk was what made working for the others so much fun.

She stood at the entrance of the little butcher shop for maybe thirty minutes before the delivery hauler rolled into the alley behind Boys & Grills. She went to go meet the driver around back, still holding her bag tightly. 

Out from the cab of the large refrigerated truck stepped a particularly rough looking man, who was covered in all sorts of tattoos and body hair. He was muscular and bald headed, and his face was covered in a scruffy beard that hung down to his collarbone. 

"This load for Velseb?" he asked in a gruff, husky voice.

"Yes sir, it is," Sarah answered, striding over to meet him.

"Wouldja know where ta find 'im?" The man's words hung together ask he spoke, nearly sounding like every sentence was a single word.

"He won't be here for a while, but he sent me to sign for the shipment. I'm the assistant manager," Charlie informed him.

With a grunt, he nodded and handed her the clipboard to sign off on. "Just put yer name there, it don't matter how ya write it," he instructed, leaning over her shoulder and pointing out the signature line.

Charlie quickly read over the delivery form and signed it 'Sarah Whitlock' in big curly letters. Handing back the clip board, she shifted her weight from foot to foot as he glanced over the signature. The delivery man gave another blunt nod before opening the trailer for her. 

Charlie stepped up onto the floor of the container, looking around the at the contents. It was already chilly enough out as it was, so the icy blast coming from the cooled trailer didn't help the situation much. Chill bumps rose all over her arms, but she ignored them. The space wasn't completely filled, as Boys & Grills was a relatively small establishment, and the trailer was pretty large anyways. There were a few pallets of different products towards the back of the trailer, but there were also a couple boxes of other commodities. She looked through the boxes to find one labeled as pork. 

She waited until she knew the cab had driven off before taking the box in her hands. Using a pocket knife, she sliced through the tape and removed a few packages of pork. Charlie then pulled the goods out of her bag, and observed them. The meat was expertly packaged, and looked realistic enough to have come from an actual grocery store. It was perfect to replace what she'd taken out. Next she pulled a roll of packing tape out of the bag to tape the box back shut to hide that it had ever been opened.

Charlie grabbed the excess, stuffed it in her bag, and leapt from the risen platform of the trailer. Carefully, she slid the duffle under the dumpster to grab later. There was no reason to waste food that was completely fine for consumption, so she and the others decided they'd donate it to a food bank later. After all, they weren't monsters.

Dusting herself off, Charlie returned to the trailer to pull the door halfway closed. She had to cover her tracks someway. With a yawn, she returned to the entrance of Boys & Grills to wait for John and her manager. 

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Just before opening, the butcher finally arrived. He was huffing and puffing, and stopped in front of the little shop, doubling forward at the waist.

"I'm here!" he panted, "I'm here, I'm not late! Gah!" He stayed leant forward onto his knees for a while longer than Charlie would have hoped, gasping for breath.

"Is everything alright, sir?" Sarah asked, putting on her usual façade.

Her manager coughed huskily before replying, "Yeah, I'm all good, my alarm just never went off. I've been awake maybe twenty minutes at best, I had to run the whole way here so I's still be on time." Still panting a little, he unlocked the door for Sarah with a shaky hand. "Man I'm outta shape," he muttered under his breath, earning a silent chortle from Sarah.

She entered the shop behind the owner of the place, letting him flip on the lights as per usual. The two went to retrieve their uniforms and waited around in the storefront for John. He took a while to show up, but not too much longer than when the three had agreed to meet. 

The teen strode in the door swiftly, a paper cup of coffee in hand. He rushed to getting his apron on, and met his coworkers at the booth they were sitting in. "Bob, hey, sorry I didn't make it on time. My alarm never went off and then the coffee maker broke. I'm here though," he apologized, taking a short sip from his disposable mug.

"Ah, it's alright kiddo. We weren't gonna start without ya, and I was late too. Musta been some power outage that knocked our alarms out last night," the butcher consoled John. Charlie smirked fondly upon hearing the success of her handiwork. "Plus, ya ain't too late, we were probably gonna sit about for a bit before we got started. It's a pretty big shipment so it's gonna take some time and man power."

Sarah and John nodded in understanding. The three sat while John finished his coffee before heading out to the back to unload the truck. It took nearly two hours to unload everything, not including unpacking. Thank goodness it was chilly out, or the work would have been much harder. Sure it hurt more if they hit their hand on something, but at least they weren't working in a scorching heat.

Once everything was inside, it was time to get the real work done. The three moved packaged meat and other goods efficiently around the stock room, placing them where they belonged and removing products that could no longer be sold. What couldn't be sold Charlie had convinced her manager to donate to a food bank or kitchen. 

John searched through boxes and did his best to help, but still wasn't quite familiar with the stock room. The butcher helped with what he could, but John eventually just got put to unloading boxes for Sarah and their manager to sort.

They'd almost finished the shipment when the butcher made a confused noise. "Huh, I never ordered this," he mumbled. 

The hair on Charlie's neck stood on end in anticipation. She'd surely been caught. Find a way out. Find a way out.

"What do you mean? What didn't you order?" John asked, causing Charlie's stomach to do a somersault.

"This pork. Never heard of this cut before either, must be exotic," the butcher explained.

"I would assume so. Maybe the shipping company put it in on accident? Or sometimes if you order something and a company doesn't have it they'll substitute," Sarah suggested, trying to recover quickly.

"I guess so. What is it anyway?" John asked, peering over the much taller shoulder of his manager.

"Long," the manager replied, "It's just weird 'cause I've never seen it before."

"I'm sure it'll be fine. Just put something 'limited time' on the board, it'll sell," John shrugged. The two glossed over the meat, leaving to find a place it could go for the time being.

Charlie let out the breath she'd been holding onto. Oh boy, did she love it when things went her way.