The pool of blood under the metal butcher’s block is the only physical reminder left of her. A sigh escapes my lips. In the end, she had died too quickly for my liking. Thankfully, her pleading whimpers and terrified shrieks still echo around in my playroom, much like a soothing, background music.

I’ve already cleaned the fully tiled walls with a pressure-washer. My hooks, tongs, boning knives, even my favorite mandolin for my work on the skin of the extremities, are all meticulously clean. I’ve cleared the floor drain of any leftover hairs, bone fragments and other bodily remains.

Feeling increasingly satisfied, I can’t help but hum the opening lines of my favorite song by ‘The Temptations’. My humming quickly turns into giddy singing: “I’ve got sunshine,… on a cloudy day….” The familiar tingling in my body starts, and before I know it, I am performing the ‘Temptation Walk’, swaying to the tune of this song that I know so well from my youth.

My dad and I would dance to this song in our living room, every time after he had told me, with wide-open sparkling eyes, that another one of the many ‘auntie’s’ he brought home wouldn’t be visiting us anymore.

He was the one who taught me that expressing my interest in a girl with a well-timed reference to this timeless classic song would almost always make her let her guard down.

All set! I’m ready to hit the bars tonight. I can’t wait to meet my next girl and, soon, welcome her into my playroom.

^{Join our WhatsApp Community for updates on new posts!}

^{Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash}