Butchered Love: A JeremyCooks Fairy Tale. Part 2

Illustration by Jeremy Salamon

 Food is not only something we create or eat but it is a way to share stories. When  I was a little thing, my parents used to read me bed time stories. Some from books and others made up from their minds. The sense of adventure, thrill, mystery, triumphant  love, and morals ensured great dreams. In the story below I share those theme’s, reminding others that good can still prevail even in our darkest hours. Fairly tales are not just for bedtime anymore but to be served at the table as well.

................The suitors of Tulia's were being fashioned into ground meat. He stumbled back onto himself in disbelief. The butcher appeared at the table hacking away. He sang ....

" Like good love, meat is divine. 

Like good meat, love is hard to find.        

"But no daughter of mine will ever marry

 nor wary of  loves true crimes. 

But why should such meat go to waste? 

Because it's taste is that of fresh love, red as a rose, 

beating with blood,and always butchered with love."

    Tullia's suitors were being crafted into a variety of sausages, pâtés, and cured meats by a large grinder. It was death by charcuterie! Like a coward, Niccolo started for the woods when suddenly it had occurred to him that he must fight for his one true love, Tullia. Back at the butchers home Niccolo climbed the balcony to her room. He quietly knocked on her door. Surprised to find him there, Tullia immediately questioned his presence.
 

"But you must believe me my sweet Tulip" cried Niccolo. After explaining what he had just witnessed.
" We cannot be together if you make such false accusations of my father" said Tullia.
" If you don't believe me then take a look for yourself".
" My father has forbid me from entering his shop after hours"
" If you love me you will look" said Niccolo.
 

 For the first time Tullia learned to truly love and trust someone other then her father. She decided that her love for Niccolo was undeniably genuine and so she tiptoed her way down the steps to her fathers shop. She peered through the window and with such disbelief at the such a sight cried out for her father. She burst through the door with the stench of human flesh penetrating her senses. Her fathers crimes had made sense to her now. The disappearance of her suitors, the tale about the witch in the forest and her fathers lost love had merged together like a good sausage.  The thought of it all had overwhelmed poor Tullia and she grew faint. The butcher turned around to find the astonished Tullia falling into his human "mix". Niccolo (who stood just behind her) sprang to her rescue but fell to his doomed fate alongside his one true love.  It all had happened so quick that the butcher suddenly dropped to the floor and began to weep the sudden loss of his daughter. The butcher had no time to waste and must now clean up the mess he had created before the towns people noticed Tullia and Niccolo's absence.
    In the morning the shop had been empty, it was if nothing had occurred the night before. Out in the street a large table had been constructed  which was topped with bowls of raw meat, mead and crusty bread. The residents of Gorgewick were confused because they were used to such lavish preparations. They converged to the table to enjoy the butchers display anyways. Together they smeared the bread with raw meat and took just one bite. As they ate something occurred within the minds and stomachs of the towns people. Passion had surged through their bones and the thought of love filled them up quicker then the meat itself. Someone called out " this is the loveliest meat I have ever tasted, praise the butcher of Gorgewick for such a simple approach to display his work!". A woman had cried out" it's almost as sweet as a tulip". Little did they know where the  loveliest of meats had come from.   

   The butcher sat in his home alone. He ate the meat and drank his tears, for this batch had been the worse he had ever tasted and the last he would ever make. This was because Tullia and Niccolo had achieved what the butcher tried so hard to prevent, true love. By trying so hard to hinder the past he lost the only other love of his life. Tullia and Nicollo were now intertwined, together at last, and happily ever after.

Keep on Cooking!!!