The White of a Cow's Eye

"What?" Ray shrugged. "No. No. On the contrary, extraordinary news. Extraordinarily good news. Mr. Stavano is still alive. My old boss. Maybe I can get my old job back with a bit of wishful thinking."

Ray's father snorted and mumbled under his breath: "who would want to work there?"

Ray told him it was not that bad.

"You're famous now, aren't ya?" His father said with some sarcasm. Or was it envy? Ray didn't reply. He folded the note in his pocket and hurried down the street.

***

It took thirty five minutes for the bus to pull up outside the hospital where Mr. Stavano had been admitted. Ray ignored the lift and made for the stairs, keen to discover for himself just how alive the old man really was. They met at the top of the second floor. Stavano was dressed neatly, and was very much alive as their sudden clash of eyes brought a flood of affection between them.

"Ray, my friend! How you do? You look like shit warmed up."

"Mr. Stavano!" Ray exclaimed. "I thought you were dead!"

Stavano tugged at his own cheek. "Feel my skin, boy, do I feel dead to you? Ah, but if I had to spend another day in bloody hospital."

"Well, what are you doing?"

"I am going home."

A young nurse who was standing next to the old man, smiled at Ray, and said; "He has made a near complete recovery."

"I thought he was dead." Ray said again.

"Ah bullshit, Ray" Stavano scoffed. "Anyway, how is shop? Aren't you supposed to be working? I hope you keeping Paris in line."

Ray told him it was Paris who said he was dead.

"That bloody bastard!" Stavano spat out a pale globe of phlegm. It missed one of Ray's shoes by a millimetre. "Here, get in." The four of them eased into the elevator. There was an elderly woman already in the lift. She looked closer to death than Stavano. She smelt closer to death, too. Her eyes were red and bulging and her body shivered under her stained and faded pink terry towelling nightgown. Her skin was clammy and grey. She reminded Ray of a cat his mother used to have, because they shared the same colouring. It looked better on the cat. Ray also said Paris put himself in charge and sacked him.

"So where you work?"

"I am shovelling manure in the horse yards."

"Mate, you not any more. You back to work for me."

It was the sort of thing Ray had hoped Stavano was going to say, but at the same time, he knew he could never go back there.

"I ...I can't" Ray began. "There are complications."

Stavano frowned. "You get your job back. You don't want it?"

"It's not that," Ray said.

"I give you pay rise."

"It's not the money."

"So what? I make you foreman and I give Paris the arse."

Ray turned paler than the old woman. "Oh no, I could never do that."

"So you want more? Tell me what you want and I give it to you."

Blood, thought Ray. Give me more blood so that I can finish my damned book. As if reading his mind, Stavano exclaimed. "I give you more cows!"

The door of the lift separated and Ray found himself seated in a taxi bound for the abattoirs. The lure of blood overshot any sensibility that had been in his mind a few moments earlier.

***