Used to it...

We changed. We didn’t mean to. We didn’t want to. But we did. It got complicated, but I guess all things do when they change. But hey, you get used to it. You get used to anything if you’re hungry. It wasn’t that hard, after awhile. Just going to the store, filling your cart. all wrapped in plastic, clean, hygienic. In your fridge, it gleams under the electric light. That kind of pinkish grey. That mother-of-pearl patina. Take it out, fry it, dispose of the package. Then go to bed, fuck, sleep. Maybe toss and turn for awhile, at least I used to at first. But hey, you get used to it. Even the ones working the slaughterhouses got used to it. They get up in the morning, they kiss their wives and kids, and that’s where they go. And when they come back nothing’s changed.

When it all started we would grab them off the street. That wasn’t very smart. I mean, no one was ready, no one understood. It was all so disorganized. We were hungry, maybe scared sometimes. Some of us did OK. One of my friends from work, he used to tell me he went to Thailand. They didn’t care what you did with the product over there, as long as you paid them. Still, you know… It just wasn’t fair for the rest of us who couldn’t afford trips to Asia or Eastern Europe. I mean the poor got a right to eat, too. So we tried different solutions.

In Texas, they thought the Klansmen were acting out all of a sudden. Getting riled up or something. Alright, these guys already are a bit on the crazy side, but they were never that brave. Isolated families, they just disappeared. First time they caught someone though, it was a schoolteacher from Dallas, and he never wore a sheet in his life. Hey, what was he gonna do ? The Klan fellas, they never get caught. He probably thought they’d take the fall. So the DPD locked him up. Eventually, some guys calling themselves the Bloody Dragons of the KKK started writing to him, and actually helped him escape jail. After that, they and him got holed up in some hideout in the country. That was the last anyone heard of the guy, and of the Bloody Dragons. Can’t say I missed them. Other incidents happened.

The hunger made some of us pick the poor, the hunger made a few of us pick the rich. Takes one to catch one, they say… So you caught one of yours, whatever you were. You could go for the people closest to you, they never saw it coming : husband, wife, parents, kids, anything went back then. But you know, there are only so many spouses, parents, kids one can have. And besides, some didn’t like the idea when it was someone they knew : When they’re all gone, it gets lonely. But you get used to lonely too, I guess.

After awhile, we outnumbered them. Whatever it was that changed us, it worked better and better. And we realized we would have to aim for the long run. We couldn’t afford to lose them all. So we put them in camps. We pampered them, fed them, let them breed and get fat. As we watched them in their camps, we started to realize they weren’t that smart. In fact, they were kind of pathetic, actually. They were weak, and not very bright. They were no better than children, really. Pups. Once, they tried to escape, to revolt. So we took some of their privileges away. They weren’t allowed books anymore, or radio, or television. That was pretty dumb of them, revolting like that. And besides, thy had it better than some of us on the outside, having to work for a living. All they had to do was get fat. Some of them just stopped eating sometimes, so we force-fed them with tubes and proteins. They all got fat in the end.

These days, we don’t much think about them. We remember we have the Andersons coming to dinner that night so we go to the store. We buy the blister of premium female cerebellums, but the beasts they come from are nowhere in sight. We unwrap it, we sauté it, we eat it. And we go to bed. maybe we toss and turn for a moment, but not much anymore.