Every morning, as soon as the neighborhood butcher shop opened, an elderly woman named Lidia would hurry in and ask for the same thing: sixty kilos of beef. Ovidiu, the butcher, had known her for years as a humble woman who only bought small portions for her own table. Seeing her now counting crumpled bills with trembling hands and carrying heavy bags left him perplexed.
The first time, Lidia explained that her son had come to visit and was preparing a big family meal. Ovidiu nodded, but that same afternoon he learned something that chilled him to the bone: Lidia’s son had died years before. Who was all that meat for, then?
Increasingly Strange Behavior
The next day, the old woman returned and again asked for sixty kilos. And the next. And the next. She avoided conversation, refused any help, and looked over her shoulder before leaving the shop, as if she were afraid of being followed. Ovidiu decided to find out what was going on and one morning followed her at a distance.
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