A Proper Bone

I pushed past the front screen door and marched down the block to get away from the indoor nonsense. Right outside the butcher's back alley, a massive, clean beef marrow bone was lying right beside a wooden delivery pallet. Finally, something worth my time. I lunged forward, but this miserable plastic cone banged straight into the side of the wooden slat with a hollow, shuddering clatter. Typical. Grumbling under my breath, I tilted my neck sideways at an awkward angle until the rim cleared the timber. I clamped my jaws onto the thick knuckle and shoved it firmly under the pallet overhang where nobody else can reach it. Mine now.