George Flint loved to eat. Each day at noon he closed his camera shop for
two hours and went home for a big lunch his wife Mina cooked for him. George
was a bully, and Mina was a timid woman who did everything he asked because
she was afraid of him.
On his way home for lunch one day, George stopped at the butcher shop and
bought a pound of liver. He loved liver. He would have Mina cook it for
dinner that night. Despite all his complaints about her, she was a very
good cook.
While George ate his lunch, Mina told him that a rich old woman in town
had died. Her body was in the church next door. It was in an open coffin.
Anyone who wanted to see her could. As usual, George was not interested
in what she had to say. "I've got to go back to work," he told her.
After he left, Mina began to cook the liver. She added vegetables and spices
and simmered it all afternoon, just the way George liked it. When she thought
it was done, she cut off a small piece and tasted it. It was delicious,
the best she had ever made. She ate a second piece. Then a third. It was
so good, she could not stop eating it.
It was only when the liver was all gone that she thought of George. He
would be coming home soon. What would he do when he found that she had
eaten all of the liver? Some men would laugh - but not George. He would
be angry and mean, and she did not want to face that again. But where could
she get another piece of liver that late in the day.
Then she remembered the old woman lying in the church next door waiting
to be buried....
George said he had never had a better dinner. "Have some liver, Mina,"
he said. "It's just delicious."
"I'm not hungry,"
she said. "You finish it."
That night, after George had fallen asleep, Mina sat in bed trying to read.
But all she could think about was what she had done. Then she thought she
heard the woman's voice.
"Who has my liver?" it asked.
"Who has it?"
Was it her imagination? Was she dreaming?
Now the voice was closer. "Who has my liver?" it asked. "Who has it?"
Mina wanted to run. "No, no," she whispered.
"I don't have it. I don't
have your liver."
Now the voice was right next to her. "Who has my liver?" it asked. "Who
has it?"
Mina froze with terror. She pointed to George. "He does," she said.
"He has it!"
Suddenly the light went out - and George screamed, and screamed.