THE LOST PEARL

OBNOXIOUS BULAB

Mr. Bulab neither had an oval head nor did he have little hair on his head. His hair was amazing. I needed that hair care routine because for a middle aged man, that hair can make you think he is in his late twenties if you looked at him from the back. Impressive!

Getting him here had been easy since he was human and hence we didn't need wolf's bane. We just tied his eyes shut, put a sack on his head and hauled him to the car like a sack of potatoes. It wasn't as exciting as it would have been k********g a wolf but I guess everyone needs a break from the thrill once in while. Except for the noise he was currently making, he was a rather acceptable guy. He was demanding an explanation and if it wasn't for my self control, I would have burst out laughing. His eyes were tied and so were his hands and legs. He was seated on a chair, all tied up in the middle of a warehouse outside the city with no idea what was happening and yet he dared be brave or was it desperation and helplessness. Maybe he was desperate and scared and figured masking it with some form of rebelliousness will prove he was not.

" What the hell do you use on your hair?" Amira blurted out

" Is that the voice of a young lady I hear? What has this generation come to. I don't have money to give you or anything so take your dirty selves elsewhere. I'm sure you are those homeless, dirty children begging for money each turn. Get a job will you?" Bulab said.

My eyebrows shot up. The three of us looked at each other. We were shocked by his train of thought since we expected him to at least think in the lines of business rivals and whatnot but he decided to take a swerve. I guess he is pestered by the children on the streets for that to become his first thought.

" Ah he thinks we are some poor, dirty kids. His statement astonishes me" Caleb said

"You love speaking ill about people to rich business men and destroying their source of living, don't you?" I asked

He raised his head as if to follow the direction of the voices. He suddenly started chuckling.

" Oh so you are some failure business men who couldn't do their work properly and got thrown in the shadows? So this is your pathetic attempt at a get back?" he asked.

Ah, he is one of those men who eliminate any person who comes between him and a business opportunity by speaking ill of them to customers, "Your manner of speech gives me an inkling of what kind of a man you are. Are you perhaps a dealer?" I asked, He nodded his head but the nod was not an affirmation to my question rather it looked like a contemplative nod.

"So you kids are interested in my goods, I seem to have been mistaken. Yes I am a dealer. Why, are you interested in buying anything? Although I doubt if you can afford anything, you ingrates. You are criminals and criminals are the dirt of society. I don't want to sell to you and I demand to be told why i was manhandled by people below me" he answered, more like spat.

For a middle aged man he sure talks a lot. We have been called dirty, homeless, poor and criminals all in one sitting. He was elevating our status with every statement he let out. He also believed in the societal hierarchy and judging from his tone of voice, he was on his way to the top but had not reached quite yet. Him saying that he wanted an explanation as to why he was manhandled by people below him tells you that he wouldn't have reacted too much if it was people above him. How pathetic.

"So you are those chauvinistic bastards who think they are above anyone they deem unworthy and don't care for behavior. We can pay for anything you sell, don't worry about that. The problem is, us "dirty, homeless ingrates" as you so delightfully put it did not manhandle you for a business dealing, Those are done in the office" I said.

"We are here rather to teach you a little virtue called respect and how to use it. Take it as mannerisms 101. Capiche?" Amira added.

I guess he was confused since he was not speaking anymore. He was too silent to pass as the same Bulab from a minute ago. His jaw was ticking and he was furrowing his eyebrows. He suddenly started thrashing in his seat in an angry manner and we gave him a moment. We watched him as it was not the first time a person behaved in this manner and as the good people we were, we usually gave them time to understand their situation or predicament. He thrashed around screaming "how dare you, little devils", "who do you think you are" and other things along the lines of "I will finish you once I get out of here. Do you know who I am?". All things we've heard like twenty times, nothing new. It took him a solid 10 minutes to get tired and stop his thrashing. What a strong middle aged man.

The idea of getting lessons on how to behave from ingrates must be a degrading and unacceptable notion to him. If he didn't want a lesson then he should have behaved like a proper businessman and not angered miss Genevieve. When he finally stopped thrashing, he was breathing heavily.

"If you don't want a couple of ingrates to haul you off next time then have some respect for your fellow businessmen especially the ladies. We want to be done with this "lesson" so if you would please stop your insistent talking and your obnoxious behavior, we could get on with it" Caleb said.

"I am not going to play along with this stupid behavior and time wasting act you little devils have got going on here. I refuse to engage in such" obnoxious Bulab spat.

"You realize that if you continue using this time to insult us rather than find out why you are here instead of any other place you'd rather be on this lovely Thursday night then you will spend the night here tied up to a chair with no idea where you are" Amira informed him.

"So as I said stop wasting both our time and let us do what we manhandled you for so that we can all go back to our comfy beds" Caleb added.

It looked like he finally understood insulting us and acting all high and mighty wouldn't get him out of here since he had no reply for their suggestions unlike all the other times he had insulting replies ready for us. If he was a dealer, then that means I am right in thinking that he was trying to pitch a business dealing across. Miss Genevieve also works as a dealer and maybe he was trying to take out competition but in doing so, he nearly ruined her business and that's why she sought vengeance.

"We are going to ask you some questions and if you refuse to answer, we will dip your head in a bucket of water, upside down with your legs tied to a crane" I told him. I had seen this method in an anime I was watching and in the anime, it worked so well I had wanted to try it out.

He suddenly whipped his head up and if the cloth that was inhibiting his eyesight was removed, he would have been looking straight at me. What an interesting guy. A breathless "what?" escaped him and it seemed like he finally realized who was in charge.

"It's not like you have a choice. You are the one tied to a chair and we are the ones doing the standing so get ready. There are a few questions and don't even think about lying" Amira stated.

"Shall we get started?" Caleb asked and Bulab nodded his head. He finally understood he was wasting time. We would take turns asking the questions and so Amira started.

"You said you are a dealer. What do you deal with mostly?" she asked.

"Land" Bulab answered.

"You attended a party last week where there were a lot of business moguls, didn't you?" I asked.

"Yes I did. I went to strike a deal and sell my lands to them" he answered.

"Why would you think they wanted your lands anyway?" Caleb asked.

"I overheard their conversation and my land fit the description of what they were interested in" he replied.

"Did you get the deal?" I asked.

"Yes"

"By which means. Was it fair or did you have to crush somebody" Amira asked.

"What do you mean by that, of course it was fair. If they liked my lands better than the other lands proposed to them, then that's not my fault is it?" he said.

"So you compared your land to the other lands proposed to them in order to get the deal instead of explaining to them the benefits of using your land" Caleb stated.

"I explained the benefits" he answered.

He did not deny the fact that he had compared his lands to the other lands and I'm not talking about healthy comparison but the other type of comparison. That right there was a fallacy. He was defending himself by insulting the other dealers. Whenever someone tries to pass the blame to another person in order to defend themselves then one should always know that there is a problem. Guilty people tend to put other people in a position where they are misunderstood and we sometimes fall in to the trap and start thinking "what if". What this chauvinistic pig had done and is still doing is known as red herring fallacy and if we were shallow minded people, we would be nodding our heads right now like members of parliament approving a statement by the president.

"Oh so you did it and you have the guts to praise your land. This sort of behavior should be eradicated in the business industry. You hold yourself with such high status and yet your behavior is as rotten as the sewer" Amira said.

" What was the description of the land the business men wanted. What type of land was it?" I asked

" Why would I tell you that? You might be other dealers trying to steal my clients" he retorted.

I face palmed. It surprises me that the thought came to him after an hour of being in our presence. After telling us how he conducted business, the type of land required should not be a big deal. Normal people would not disclose how they do their business but we all know Bulab here seems a bit abnormal. Like all business men, he had pride in himself and did not see what he is doing wrong or he did see but decided to ignore that guilty feeling of wronging others . Theft was like murder, hard on you the first time and your conscience will gnaw at you trying to rip you apart but when you start ignoring the feeling and continue with the misadventures, then the feeling will turn in to a little prickle of a needle overtime. Bulab here places himself on a high radar yet if realization were to hit him, he would realize that the dirty, homeless children he so despised were better than him. Unlike him, they get their daily bread fairly even if it's by begging and they don't steal from people, some of them anyways despite being looked at with disgust.

Funny isn't it? how the poor defenseless children are looked at with disdain and disgust by the same people who are making a filth of society, but such is the law of the land.

"If you don't answer the question, we can always use the bucket" Caleb informed him.

"You wouldn't dare" he said. What a charmer.

Amira walked towards the table near the racks on which boxes of goods were placed. A bucket of water was placed on the table and she carried the water back to where we stood. She stood in front of Bulab and poured the water over his head, he splattered and started shaking vigorously. The air was cold adding to being splashed with cold water, I'm sure he is going to freeze if he doesn't stop testing us and just comply.

"Answer the question before we bring out the crane. What type of land did they want?" Caleb warned. He wanted to be done with this immediately. Caleb hates people who are the likes of Bulab.

"They were speaking of land favourable for growing a certain type of flower" he answered.

"What type of flower?" Amira asked. She was a flower expert and hence knew all things flower related and whenever people spoke of flowers, she was ready to scrutinize the flower like a chef would the dishes of his employees. I was the same only I knew everything about gemstones.

" I don't remember clearly but it started with an "a" and the name reminded me of a panther" he answered in a rather dull tone

He was annoyed with us and slightly angry but he was still defenseless so all he could use to show his feelings was his voice. Amira started walking around the area we stood with a contemplative expression. You could see the wheels in her head turning as she furrowed her eyebrows and made her lips a straight line. Suddenly, she stopped and faced us

"Agapanthus!" she exclaimed

"Agapanthus?" Caleb and I repeated the word, looking at each other puzzled

She nodded her head rather aggressively. But the question remained

Why Agapanthus?