There’s this other place that is neither heaven nor earth but which you might find in the car park of the third busiest KFC in Melbourne, waiting for your son to finish his shift. A bin beside the car is overflowing with all the packaging that comes with fast food, not to mention the remains of poor dead chooks whose life it is hard to imagine. I wouldn’t like to have my mortal remains end up in the hands of my son, whose job it is to powder the pieces in flour and then add the eleven secret herbs and spices. Nor would I want my bones to fall out of a bin and into the path of the passing trucks which make up most of the traffic at this ungodly hour. The origin of those chickens is, like the list of original herbs and spices, closely guarded. The KFC website uses the word ‘ethical’ but never ‘free-range.’ Ethical can mean just about anything: ethics is increasingly a branch of marketing and risk management. Jacob says he figured out the secret herbs on his first shift. Six lots of salt and five lots of pepper, he says.
The history of spirituality loves secrets. They haven’t helped much, tending to separate those in the know from those outside it. Mystery is a different idea. Secrets are locked doors, places to hide. Mystery is a blanket on a cold night, a place of comfort and surrender. There is a blanket in the back of our car where our dog usually sits. As the rain starts, I pull it round me.
A young worker emerges to empty the bin and drags a jacket out of the rubbish, looks at it and decides it is not worth saving. Perhaps the previous owner got grease on it. I have wondered if the junk food industry is sponsored by dry cleaners. One of the mysteries about KFC is how Colonel Sanders, who was a cook, never a colonel, managed to keep his white suit in such pristine condition. The answer is that he didn’t appear in the suit until the business had been running for 20 years. By that stage he had doubtless moved from the kitchen to the office.
Jacob texts me to say he has been asked to help clean up and will be another hour. He has an assessment at school tomorrow so I will wait.