adoration - alan garvey.doc

8/14/2019 ADORATION - Alan Garvey.DOC

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Adoration

The vat bubbled and boiled, clouding the air. It was about

fifteen feet in length, but thin, less than a foot wide and two

feet deep. Oil and fat crusted the inside walls yellow.

Successive fries tidemarked each other. Gloopy batter was

poured from coffee pot sized ugs by soldiers into the vat. It

could not be poured from on high, they had to take care not to

burn themselves on the scalding sides. !roplets of oil could fly

up, splashing and splattering faces. Too many learnt this the

hard way. If one was lucky, pockmarks, some lost their sight.

"raetoria stood in a #uiet corner of the room by a locked

bookcase. $er hair hung down in matted strands that caressedher cheeks. She looked at the soldiers bustling about, bumping

into one another sporadically. %n officer reprimanded them for

their haste. &Slow down,' he said, pushing the air apart with

his hands. &Slow down. %ll good things will happen in time.'

$e was unarmed. $is troops carried the weapons necessary for

the operation. Two short, crystalline daggers hung by their

thighs. The sheaths were strapped shut.

(orkscrewing a curl of hair round her right inde)

finger, she watched. *imping like a lame dog, the officer

moved amidst his troops, directing and reassuring them in their

efforts. (rossing her vision suddenly, sometimes they would

startle her. Then she would remember her black spot. $ow

could she forget it+ %ppearing two weeks ago during a tennis


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match, she thought it a piece of dust at first. !amp, folded

tissue paper couldnt remove it in the washroom. -ow half her

left eye had been eclipsed. Specialist advice would have been

resorted to immediately under ordinary circumstances.

She turned to the bookcase, drawn to her reflection in the

shatterproof glass. The homespun, unise) garment shielding

her finely built figure filled her with disgust. She had scratched

her skin red and tender into a map of the ast Indies all over

her body. Originally a dull white, the garment had grown its

own tones. Sweat, urine and faeces patterned it at this stage /

almost a fashion among the men and women in the holding

pen. Thirty people were crammed into a space of twenty by

twenty feet with a ceiling so low the tallest was unable to stand

upright. 0ept there a week and a half, no toilet facilities were

offered. Odours mingled in an unholy alliance assaulting the

nostrils. The first three days saw one corner being used torelieve themselves in. %fter that, nobody bothered anymore,

soiling the floor where they sat.


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!uring the fourth day, eight or nine men huddled in the

toilet corner. They muttered, glancing over their shoulders.

%cting as one they seized two nearby women, proceeding to

rape them in turn. The rest of the faction, circling their

comrades formed a ring. (lenching fists, they slit their eyes

against everyone else in the pen. 1omit was added to the list

of materials carpeting the concrete. 2ost turned away, none

spoke out.

The guard stationed outside got up from his seat. $e

strolled out though the door. 3laked red paint dropped to the

floor every time the door was slammed. $e returned moments

later with a female officer. $er long, straight, brown hair was

tied back. %s she strode across the floor it swung from side to

side. Stopping five paces from the bars, vertical iron crossed at

regular intervals, she watched the pantos performance. 4ith a

barely perceptible shake of her head, noticeable only by theponytail rubbing her back, she #uit the basement. The door

banged behind her. Satisfied, the rapists tossed

the two women back to the others. The guard pressed a buzzer

beneath his desk.

% few minutes later the cook walked in wheeling a steel

meal trolley. It was laden with plastic bowls, cups, two buckets

of water and a large aluminium tureen. 5illows of steam rose

as it entered the room. "ushing the trolley close to the bars, he

began to ladle food into the bowls. The guard scooped water

from the buckets into the cups, filling them all. %sked to step

back against the wall, the prisoners came forward one by one

to receive their rations. The food was simple fare. "asta,chopped tomatoes, cheese and onions flavoured with a few


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herbs. $ealthy but tasty. "lacing a bowl on the desk the cook

pulled a oint from behind his right ear. $e lit it, inhaling

deeply. %fter smoking a few drags, it was handed to the guard.

!inner was put aside temporarily. They volleyed it back and

forth in sluggish lullaby serves, mumbling and giggling

occasionally while the culprits fed.

The hot food burnt "raetorias fingers, badly in need of a

manicure. 6sing her tongue she cleaned the bowl. mpty

containers were left on the ground outside the bars. The cook

collected these while they stood back against the wall.

verything replaced on the trolley7 he pushed towards the door.

Twisting the handle downwards, he left, closing it carefully.


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&"lease let me go8 "lease8' 9ipped from her reverie,

"raetoria heard teenage cries. *ong red hair made it difficult to

determine the se). 5ut with the absence of breasts she felt

sure of her guess. She udged him to be in his late teens. $ard

to see with the grime covering his face. She was left with only

intuition as a guide, for reason was long gone. She did possess

a crumb of consolation. She was the only one who remained

unviolated. 4hen the rapists grabbed her, they looked into her

black eye. They didnt like what they saw so she was thrown to

the ground in contempt.

Soldiers held the screaming teen fast, one on each arm.

%nother unstrapped his daggers delicately, almost reverently.

3rom listening to snatches of conversation, "raetoria picked up

scraps of information. The troops knew how to use the

weapons, but only the officers understood them. -ever having

seen the blades in use, she was curiously eager to receive apractical demonstration.

&4e love you and forgive you,' the soldier whispered as

he lunged towards the youth. % knife was plunged into the

boys heart, twisted counter:clockwise between two ribs. 2outh

and eyes shrieked simultaneously. The restrainers rela)ed

their grips and let go. Immobile as a street light in a gentle

breeze, the boy swayed ever so slightly. Scything his strokes

the soldier began to section him. It was similar to a butcher

carving a carcass. 2edusaed, "raetoria couldnt help but stare.

-o blood issued from the wounds. -o body parts dropped to

the ground. They hovered in mid:air, suspended an inch from

the point of separation. % brief minute later he bore aremarkable resemblance to an e)ploded ;! diagram. Severing


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the laryn) cut short the screams. The soldier took him by a

hand and dragged him over to the vat. 4hipping the blade

from the ribcage, he dropped his eyes while the teen collapsed

into his component pieces. They were picked up and dropped

cautiously into the globs of batter, sizzling away.

adoration - alan garvey.doc

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