A priest walked

Back at the house, Emma and Delphine sat silently for a time, hunched under the soft coverings that Kim had wrapped around them.

‘My stomach feels odd,’ said Delphine. ‘I think I need further nourishment.’

‘We have to get used to regulating this for ourselves, now we don’t have the tubes. Kim keeps food in that room,’ she indicated the kitchen. ‘Let’s go and see what we can find.’

‘She said we had to stay here and rest.’

’Correct,’ said Emma. ‘But she didn’t say we couldn’t go into another room. The only rule was not to answer the phone or open the door to anyone. I think she meant the door to the outside, not internal doors into other rooms.’

Delphine look doubtful, but her stomach gave another pronounced growling rumble, so she followed Emma into the kitchen.

The light in the fridge entranced Emma. 

‘How does that work?’ she wondered, opening and closing the fridge door for the sixth or seventh time.

‘We can work that out later. For now, please look to see what there is inside, that we can eat?’

Emma pulled out bowls and boxes and inspected them. ‘There’s a carton of Strozzapreti here, mixed with tomato sauce, prawns, basil and garlic.’

‘Strozzapreti? What is that?’

Emma scrutinised the tub. ‘The label says When the Papal States took over Emilia-Romagna, a region of northern Italy, the church confiscated meat, milk and eggs from farmers. The wives had to make pasta without eggs. They named the result ‘strozzapreti’ or ‘priest stranglers’ because they hoped if a priest walked to their house for Sunday lunch it would choke them. Didacticism on a food label, that’s interesting. Perhaps all packaging carries a food’s etiology?’

‘Is it safe for us to eat?’

‘As we’re not Italian priests, I imagine so,’ said Emma. She lifted the lid and sniffed. ‘Smells delicious, I’m going to try it.’

They put together a meal of bread and pasta and some cheese. They considered the bowl of bananas but after taking a bite from one end of an unpeeled fruit, Delphine discarded it in distaste.

‘Maybe you are supposed to heat it?’ She spat the brown fibrous end into her hand and looked at it dubiously. ‘I’ll ask Kim when she returns. There’s so much to learn, we need access to a digital source.’

‘I don’t understand why we can’t even connect to Xavier since they left.’

 ‘Perhaps he has blocked the signal somehow - to prevent discovery by - them.’ Delphine shuddered.

They both froze as they heard noises outside the house.