The Lake house

SEARCH PARTY

"And so that's how I got that tuna!", a man in his late thirties named Fred Greenwood, exclaimed loudly concluding another intriguing experience he had encountered with a boorish fisherman who wasn't ready to agree to sell his tuna fish to him after striking a bad deal with a sales agent from an Italian restaurant, one of the major restaurants in Summerville. The sales agent actually wanted a discount due to the fact that the fisherman's tuna was quite defective making it a less valuable in the market than the standard price for a normal tuna fish being sold generally in the city. The fisherman had greedily placed a high price tag above the standard price on the tuna fish despite the good advise of his close associates who also has fishing as their profession, to reduce the price for the defective tuna since it's sheerly unwise in their territory, to place a very high price for a fish of poor quality especially when it's suffering from a disease but he remained adamant and refused to listen to them. After he had caught the tuna using his old trawler, he had kept it in a separate aquarium of good quality inside his warehouse where some other varieties of high quality fish which he caught during each voyage at sea, are kept alive in four large aquarium but wasn't high enough to touch the roof. As time went by, the tuna began developing some symptoms of a strange illness maybe due to its poor environment which doesn't give it free space to swim around and because of insufficient food including vital nutrients needed to keep it alive for a long before sale. He actually paid many expert vets to treat the malady of the tuna but none of them succeeded in doing so and in order not to be at a loss if it eventually passes away, the fisherman decided to sell it but because of sheer avarice, he placed a very high price tag for a fish of low quality which drove many dealers who came to him requesting for his tuna since tuna fish had become scarce in city during the winter season. He was getting frustrated with the outcome of the price and was about giving up when an Italian restaurant contacted him through their sales agent who approached him to make a deal concerning the sea creature and made a negotiation in order to reduce the selling price to a lesser price which they are willing to pay for the tuna partly because of the poor quality of the tuna and partly because of his greediness of placing a very high price more than the standard price for a normal tuna in the city, where the supply of tuna has greatly hit rock bottom.

He deeply contemplated about the offer and decided to accept their offer by selling it at a discount after swallowing his pride in order to strike the deal as advised by his close friend but before the final proceedings of the deal were about to be concluded, Fred scared off the sales agent using illegal means which was quite unknown to anyone else including the listeners to his tale except himself and secretly approached the fisherman with a better offer for the tuna. Although the fisherman was indignant and quite furious with Fred for chasing away his last hope of selling the fish at a discount price which was fairly considerable to the standard price for every tuna sold in the city, he eventually agreed to the shrewd deal, Fred had offered him which entails treating the sick tuna as a bonus offer for chasing away the sales agent while he was promised to receive the payment according to the standard price for the tuna. The fisherman still agreed to sell it at the original price which was quite lower than the previous offer given by the sales agent of the Italian restaurant. After Fred had succeed in curing the strange malady of the tuna fish, he paid a considerable amount to the fisherman who was grateful for the deal but found it very strange that Fred knew the exact cure for the disease which was left untreated by expert veterans he had paid to treat the queer sickness of the tuna fish.

"May I ask you a question", Michael asked the talebearer after he had finished his intriguing tale, telling it to the enthralled teens about his experience last winter.

"Yeah, go ahead my good man or should I say, disc man", Fred replied with a joke which erupted wild laughter from the crowd around him who had patiently gathered to listen spellbound at him while the soft music continue to automatically rolled on in the background. Rose wasn't among them and had been staring at them from afar, at the bar but decided to join them to experience the fun.

"What kind of cure did you use for the tuna?", Michael asked taking a sip out of his small glass of red whiskey as he stood staring at the talebearer behind the enthralled crowd who peered at him totally captivated by his figure. The crowd had deserted the empty tables leaving them to gather around Fred when he began his tale even Max sat beside him to pour drinks for him on short glass using his bottle as if he were his master.

"There wasn't anything special about the cure..... All I did was to use an Algrot root a rare herb which is found in remote areas", He replied gulping down another small of his whiskey and peered directly to Michael who wasn't thrilled at him.

"Algrot root?! I haven't heard anything about that. How do you get it?", Amanda who was beside a guy in a huge black anorak from the crowd of onlookers who stood beside him while the some of them sat down on their seat close to their tables.

"It's quite rare and expensive to obtain. It will require your whole fortune to purchase it", He answered peering at the pretty lady who asked and poured a red wine into her glass which she receives in awe and fascination. She broadly grinned and returned back to position beside him.

"Where can it be obtain?", Max curiously asked looking at him strangely.

"There are some things that you don't need to know and some things not meant to heard", He replied swirling his drink and gazing at Michael in a strange way which made Michael walked away towards the bar. A guy in grey T-shirt was about to asked him what his confused statement actually meant when Jake suddenly intruded into the party panting heavily beside the bar which caught everyone's attention. They were totally bereft of words when they saw him colided with the counter but wasn't severely hurt since he managed to safeguard his body from the hard impact with the counter using his two hands. Rose instantly went to his aid while Michael held him standing upright and took him to a seat in front the counter while the others stare transfixed with shock at him.

"Is everything alright at the camp? Is Stacy alright?", Tell me now!", Rose queried vehemently trying to figure out what made him to suddenly dash into as if being chased by somebody.

"Yes.. but.. the others..are... never mind that. Do you have a tennoy or something?", Jake asked Michael as he tried to steady his harsh breathe. He had decided to run to the party in haste, trotting through the dark bushes in order to make up for time before the campers decided to return back to the party.

"No..I don't but I have a huh.. microphone. Can you use that?", Michael replied trying to placate his heavy panting. Jake got up after relaxing his tensed nerves and was about to head towards Michael's van when Michael held him on the shoulder and whispered to his ear. "And before I show, tell me what's chasing you", He muttered softly which wasn't heard by the others except for Rose who stood behind him. Michael was looking for a chance to get away from the party and had been totally isolated inside the party ever since the teenagers including the pretty girls started listening to exciting tales of the man in sky blue and black shorts.

"Nothing...man. I just decided to run to the party but I have something urgent to tell everyone, so let me go and fetch the microphone", Jake mumbled in reply to his question.

"The microphone isn't in the van but behind the disc jockey", Michael said and left his shoulder. Then he stride forward to their midst and shouted aloud attracting everyone in the party, " Everyone! Listen up! Jake has something to tell you all. Maybe it's time for the campers to retire back to the their camp leaving the guest to stay". Jake had walked over to the disc jockey and picked up the microphone from the large wired table while the others except the guests moaned in disappointment of being robbed their pleasure at the party. Jake beckoned to Michael to help him stop the music which he did finally laying the loud music to rest allowing total silence in the camp which descended upon them immediately after the music had died down. Jake clear his dry throat and lift up the mic below his mouth.

"Hello everyone, there's been huh... sudden change of plans tonight over a sudden occurrence at the camp which I will inform you right now at this very moment. When I took Leo back to the camp earlier, I found out that the camp was totally empty with no one else is present in the camp except Leo. I guess the others is currently missing especially Stanley and Stacy whom we all saw leaving the party earlier during the slow dance after a rigorous search around the camp for them but I found none. And worse, the store house was broken into by an unknown intruder which i believe must be Stanley but his whereabouts and that of the others including my brother, is currently unknown right now. So I want the party right now to stop so that we can share ourselves into two groups, one which will be led by Michael to search for the missing campers and the other group be led by Rose to put things in order inside the store house.....", Jake was about to conclud when a voice of man interrupted him.

"Hey! Who among us will be able to join the first group?!", The voice asked which attracted everyone's attention including Jake who paused for awhile.

"Hold on and let me finish relaying the plan right now", Jake replied with the microphone, and continued, "the first group will be only capable males here while the second will be fragile females who can't join the search. Females who volunteered to partake with the first group should know that we aren't responsible for your safety in case you are left behind in the dark bushes. So I advised those that could assist us in taking care of the arrangements of the party right now should began doing so in order to conduct the search throughout the beach areas and the forests and further instructions concerning the areas meant to curb so that we can search for them will be given after the party", Jake concluded and dropped the microphone while Michael began to enlist capable teenagers to form the first group in order to hasten the arrangements after helping Max including few individuals to arrange few things in the empty party. Rose including the rest of the female teenagers completed the minor arrangements in party and set forth to camp after Jake had given the keys to the store house in order for them to arrange the storage room leaving the others behind to prepare for imminent departure to look for the missing campers.