The Octopus Curry
The Octopus Curry – A Saturn Herald Short Story by Penny Nair Price
Liz and Roger worked together and were great comrades in the office – Roger had had his eye on her for some time but he was strapped for cash and when Friday evening came, another colleague – Chris invited him to eat locally to the office as a treat. Liz said her goodbyes and went on her way for the weekend.
The chosen restaurant was on the first floor. Roger took his rucksack with him, found a space for it, and the two colleagues sat down to a wonderful Chinese feast.
After Chris paid and he and Roger began to leave, Chris waited outside the restaurant on the ground floor and Roger went to use the conveniences then descended into the empty groundfloor lobby – empty except for a huge chest freezer. Roger noticed it had a broken padlock and opened it, after seeing Chris was looking the other way and was on his mobile. Inside he saw a big bag of some unidentifiable food which seemed a bit like fish, amongst lots of bags of frozen vegetables and spring rolls! He hurriedly grabbed it and shuvved it into his rucksack. Chris was still looking the other way and was just finishing his phonecall. Roger nervously exited to catch up with Chris, his heart in his mouth with guilt at his cunning theft, something which imbibing red wine had hastened him to do.
Before they parted, Chris said to Roger, “Well if you really fancy Liz at the office, why don’t you invite her for a meal? We’ve just been chatting and she’s free tomorrow night – you could have her over to your new expensive apartment that’s breaking the bank!” “Ok will do Chris – I’ll rustle something up for her!” When he got on the bus, Roger phoned Liz and invited her to his place the following evening.
Knowing that Liz loved fish, Roger made her an octopus curry out of the stolen bag which when defrosted, he found to be full of mini octopi. Liz loved it and went into verbal rhapsodies over the meal, and afterwards the twosome watched a romantic movie with a second bottle of the two bottles of red wine Liz had come to the meal with.
Liz was a bit of a naughty girl. Next week came and one evening when Roger had gone to Birmingham for a conference which lasted two days, Chris suggested the two of them go and eat out. She fancied both Chris andRoger and didknow Chris had a casual girlfriend.
“I’ve a discount through my phone company for the Chinese down the road, so we could go there after work. What do you think?”
“Seems like a plan. Let’s go. Let me know when you’ve finished work as I finish at six.”
“I tell you what. You go to the restaurant and get a table and I’ll meet you there about 6.30. OK?”
“Sure” declared Liz.
She found a table in the first floor restaurant and started looking through the menu, enjoying a nice bottle of lager to refresh her. Looking at the list of fish dishes she noticed that they had octopus curry on there and remembering her scrumptious Saturday evening meal with Roger, she decided that when Chris arrived that’s what she would have!
Chris arrived with a big smile on his face and joined Liz at the table.
The Chinese waiter brought him a beer over which he had ordered as he entered the eaterie.
“Are you ready to order?” he asked.
“I will have my usual – pork and duck with rice – and you, Liz?”
“Oh – I’m so happy – I’ve seen a wonderful dish on the menu that says its new – octopus curry – I’ll have that pretty please!” she declared all smiles.
“Oh dear” said the waiter. “I need to tell you something about the octopus curry! Well – we had our fridge freezer broken into and by the time we got a new lock for it the bag of octopus had been stolen. I remember now – it was stolen last Friday Chris – when you came with your friend, Roger!”
“Oh gosh!” Liz’s face went into a grimace of surprise, remembering the Octopus curry Roger had cooked her the Saturday before.
“Whats the problem?” ventured Chris, slightly perturbed.
“Oh nothing – was just looking forward to having that dish that’s all.”
Liz moved uneasily in her seat and fiddled with the cutlery.
“Well, our suppliers have had it ordered from them but they haven’t delivered so maybe next time? The prawn and scallop curry is very nice though.”
“Ok I’ll have that instead then please.”
When the evening concluded, Chris and Liz left together and Liz paused for a moment at the bottom of the stairs in the lobby to view the freezer which had a fresh padlock on it.
“So THIS is where the bag of octopi was stolen is it?”
“It must be yes” murmured Chris laconically. “Why?”…he asked and he began to shrug.
“Oh – well. Next time we come, hopefully they will be re-stocked. Meanwhile I’ll just ask Roger to cook me another octopus curry as good as the one I had last Saturday shall I? Yes I think I will talk to Roger about another scrumptious octopus curry – I’ve just developed a taste for a little chat”.
Chris could feel the colour rise in his cheeks as he went for the tube. He must keep an eye on that Roger – he was a sly one and no denying it! But now at least if Chris’s current casual girlfriend left him, he knew exactly what to rustle up for the cheeky two- timing Liz on a “great” night in! He just had to work out where to ?”buy” the octopi!