Short Story Saturday: Beauty

BEAUTY

I look at the tub, I'm going to need two more bucketfuls to fill it. I grab the five-gallon bucket, make my way out the door, and down the hallway. I stop by the living room.

“Hey, Dylan?”

“Hmm, whatcha need?” he says, looking up from the TV.

“I'm going to need you to get a hold of Josh, see if he has any more bath supplies in stock. We're low.”

“You're low? You know, that shit's expensive. When you gonna start paying for it?”

“Honey, I pay for it every night I take my clothes off for you. Now, just do it before Tuesday,” I say menacingly.

“Yeah, yeah. Anything to keep that skin of yours soft and wrinkle free.” He turns back to face the TV again.

I walk out of the living room and to the garage where a fifty-five-gallon drum sits. I dip the bucket into the drum and fill it. I heft it into the sink, wash off the sides, and wipe it clean. I make my way back to the bathroom, being careful not to slosh the contents onto the floor along my way. After dumping it into the tub, I go back to the garage for the last bucketful.

When the tub has the last bit dumped into it, I set the bucket in the separate shower and disrobe. I take a moment to look into the full-length mirror, running my hands over my skin. It is soft. It's also flawless. I thank the baths. They proved themselves, over the last several years, over any beauty product I could buy from any store, and I've tried them all.

I put my left leg in first followed soon by the right. This stirs up an eloquent bouquet of fragrance. True, I used to gag at the smell when I first started the regimen, but now, I don't think I could live without it. It's an odor I've found myself to have grown quite fond of.

I slide down carefully into the tub. It's a bit slimy, but that, too, I got used to after a while. It's warm. That always surprises me, but I know now that it's the energy expelled from the bacteria as they aid in the decomposition process.

When I'm comfortable and submerged up to my neck, I work at pushing away the chunks that haven't completely decomposed. Bits of liver and heart. Small lengths of intestines. I grab something that's slightly larger than usual and pull it out of the grayish-brown sludge. It looks to be an entire kidney. Josh must have missed chopping it up during processing.

Josh the butcher, what a miraculous man. I wonder sometimes how he came up with the idea of selling the unwanted organs as a beauty treatment. It was only after I'd overheard a conversation at the butcher shop that I realized the organ slurry was mostly human, but it didn't shy me away from it. Matter of fact, it only made me more interested in Josh.

I've often thought about leaving Dylan for Josh, but I know what happened to his last lover. With that thought, I toss the kidney toward my feet, and I feel it settle next to my calf.

I'll sit and soak for an hour and a half, maybe two, before rinsing off in the shower. But for now, I think about how refreshed I'll feel afterward. I smear a layer on my face and neck, and I breathe in and close my eyes, letting my skin soak in the goodness of my treatment.