Black Market Merchant

Chapter 160: Fishy Fishy (2)
”Fish fry?” Tayvon said questioningly. ”What’s that supposed to be?”

”It’s like a big picnic where friends and families get together to enjoy eating fish. It’s kind of self-explanatory.” Lisa said grabbing a fish that had come out of the net and tried flopping towards the water. Slapping a heavy palm on it she continued, ”First, we need to get these fish taken care of. The meat will spoil soon after the fish die, and we don’t have any freezers to store them. Cooking them will make them last a bit longer.”

”Wow, you guys caught so many! I was getting worried I might not have a full meal for a long time. I can’t imagine how you all can go so long without a proper meal! Or even just eating a small handful once or twice a day is just too cruel.” Sadie called out to them as she made her way daintily across the riverbank rocks. ”And you are right, Lisa, we do need a freezer!”

”Ah, that would nice. Saving meat for a later meal.” Tayvon answered giving a sigh. ”Our parents talked about how food was kept cold and that it could last for weeks. I guess that since we don’t have electricity running from the dam just yet there’s no other way to preserve these fish.”

”There could be a way.” Willis remarked. ”I have seen crewmen from merchant vessels eating something called ’canned smoked fish’. The hunters do something similar with deer meat to, but it is too expensive for me to buy. So, I never tried it.”

Lisa tapped her chin in though while speaking. ”Interesting, now that you say that Willis, we could try smoking these fish. I have never done it myself, but my uncle worked at a Smoked Salmon factory. I might be able to recall what they did, and we could replicate it.”

”Oh, that might be fun to try.” Tayvon said picking up a fist sized catfish. ”I might not look like the type, but I love to cook.”

Lisa then shook off her thoughts of smoking fish and looked at Sadie. Sadie was admiring a large carp Tayvon was pulling out from the halfway submerged net. ”Sadie, can you go get the others? They should be at either the dam or if they are still in the market area, bring them back here to carry all these fish.”

”Awe, I was having fun watching, but ok.” Sadie replied tentatively poking at Tayvon’s carp’s side. It wriggled furiously at her provocation and splattered slimy river water all across her mouth and shirt! Sadie squeaked in response, ”Eww!”

The three other laughed hardly as Sadie quickly backed away from being hit by the fish and wiped at the slime on her face. Even though she was embarrassed, Sadie was also holding back an annoyed chuckle. ”That was so gross! I’m going now. I’ve had enough of fish until it’s time to eat!”

With saying that, Sadie quickly turned away in a huff and started for the dock. The others had calmed down from laughing now and went back to keeping anymore fish from escaping.

”Tayvon, help me get a small pool dug into the bank. For now, we can keep the fish alive long enough in the water without losing them.” Lisa said getting up. She then placed a heavy rock on one end of the net to keep the fish from rolling the net back into the water. ”Willis, keep those fish in check for now.”

”You got it, boss!” Willis replied as he lunged at a bluegill squeezing out from a hole in the netting. Unfortunately, it escaped and instantly disappeared into the murky river. Grumbling to himself, Willis looked over the huge net and another small fish escaped into the water with a resounding splash. ”I guess this is going to be harder than I thought.”

After an hour when by did Sadie finally return and with her were the other three volunteers. Unfortunately, they were still carrying everything the set out with from before. However, that didn’t matter at this time. Cloths can be sold at any time.

“How many fish did you guys catch?” Henry asked while jumping down from the dock.

Lisa proudly pointed at a water hole that her and Tayvon had dugout in the meantime. Nearly all the fish they managed to catch were in there. ”Take a look for yourself. We hit the jackpot!”

After Wayne, Eva and Henry got over their excitement, Lisa explained their next step. ”As you guys can see this hole is too small and the fish to many. We need to cook as many of these as possible tonight and eat them. So, Wayne, go get the ERM guys working on the road and get them to meet up at the Powerhouse for the fish fry.”

”I won’t wait a second longer, because I know they will be thrilled to join us.” Wayne said shouting over his shoulder. He was already jogging off excitedly before Lisa had even finished speaking.

”Tell them to bring firewood too!” Lisa shouted. Wayne waved backwards, signaling he heard her, hopefully.

“As for the rest of us, we got to carry and prepare these fish. I’ll carry a load of fish and the net back up to the dam.” Lisa explained while shouldering the nets box. They had rerolled the net after finishing the hole and Lisa was pleased to see that it had taken nearly no damage so far. ”All of you will probably make a few trips to carry all the fish. Sadie and Eva, you guys know how to prepare fish, right?”

”Of course.” Sadie replied giving a nod. ”I learned how in Home Cooking class.”

”I do too.” Eva added.

”Good, as soon as you get up there get to work.” Lisa replied. ”Use whatever you need.”

”You’re not helping us?” Eva asked.

”Not at first.” Lisa said turning towards the water hole. ”I am going to get a few more people to join us for this fish fry.”

”Oh, you mean like Hanna, John and the others.” Sadie guessed. ”That would be a great idea.”

”Yes, them. But Hanna’s friends and their families too if I can.” Lisa said picking up a three-pronged stick. She started grabbing a few fish that were struggling at the waters top and collected them first. She then stuck the stick through their gill openings and stacked each one on top the other. This made carrying multiple fish much easier.

Sadie and the others followed Lisa’s lead, but Sadie looked a bit confused by what Lisa had said. ”Why would we invite Hanna’s friends’ families? We never met them before, and we don’t have any reason to share.”

”Yes, we never met them, but this is a good opportunity.” Lisa answered while putting the last fish on her stick. ”The children told me about some of the things that the parents do here in town. If I plan on taking over things here and providing electric power the town, making connections now would be a smart move. Investing in relationships is a good way to keep customers and potential partners.”

Sadie seemed to be satisfied by her answer. ”That makes sense. You sure think ahead when it comes to getting money making chances.”

”That might be true, but also because being greedy never helped anyone before. I am sure everyone in town is hungry. If this town is to get fixed, we all need to pitch in.” Lisa said with a slightly serious tone. Then she and Tayvon had already finished collecting what they could and turned to go. ”See you all in a little bit!”

Sadie watched her go curiously and Eva leaned over to her to speak. ”Lisa seems really motivated to help everyone out. If I recall, she is not even from around here. Do you know why she’s so keen on helping us?”

”Not really.” Sadie said shaking her head ‘no’ before going back to helping collect fish. ”Lisa is a strange person. She is far too strong and seems to have a goal in mind, though simply making money to be rich doesn’t sound right. I think she has a mysterious plan, and we just haven’t been told what it is yet.”

”Hmm, well, as long as it benefits us and everyone is happy, I’ll gladly go along with her plan.” Eva said excitedly.

”I agree with Eva.” Willis said holding four heavy laden sticks of fish. ”Ever since we volunteered to help her, things have only gotten better for us. It’s also clear to see that with electricity soon coming to town, the possibilities are limitless!”

”I too want to see what she really is up to.” Henry said getting up from the water hole holding two sticks of fish in one hand. In the other hand was a massive wriggling catfish that was nearly as long as his own arm.

”It seems we all are in agreement.” Sadie said holding her meager single stick of heavy fish. ”We help Lisa out until we know more.”

…

Lisa hurried away from the powerhouse towards the quiet cul-de-sac. Daylight was not going to last more than three hours and she didn’t want to inconvenience everyone by keeping them up late. When she arrived, Lisa found Benny sitting in his chair on his front porch keeping an eye on everything as usual.

Benny, after hearing her offer to join in with the fish fry, was absolutely ecstatic. Opportunities like this were rare and even more so from a friend. Benny quickly told Lisa where the others were working and that he would go tell Hanna and her friends playing by the creek about the meal himself.

In less than an hour there was a large crowd of people gathered in the cul-de-sac. All the residents of the cul-de-sac were present and ready to go. The rest were all some of Hanna’s friends’ families; Clair, Sorra, Malik, Fred, Rachel, Derrick, Jillian, Tilly, and Chase’s parent were the ones present.

”Are you really going to be inviting us out for free food? Or is this just some scam?” A very tall, thickly statured man with a big black beard asked.

Taking one look at him, Lisa could guess that it was probably Fred’s father, they looked just alike. Lisa smiled pleasantly and replied. ”Yes, I am inviting you all for free.”

Lisa then went on to introduce herself and explain the situation. In her introduction, Lisa mentioned that she was a merchant working on getting the town rebuilt. This raised some skeptical looks, but no one questioned her outright. She also left out the part about electricity for the moment, at least until she got to know everyone better.

Her explanation of what was going on seemed to have sufficed and no one left the street to go home. It also helped that John vouched for her. John seemed to be well known by everyone and considered trustworthy. That, and the opportunity for free food was a great motivator anyway.

Lisa led the way and Hanna was right alongside her. Hanna was too excited to stay calm and bombed Lisa with questions. ”How did you get the fish? Will Mr. Gillian and the others be there to? Will this be a regular event?”

”Give me a chance to answer you!” Lisa pleaded with a laugh. ”But before I do that, I am going to invite just one more family to join us.”

”Who?” Hanna asked curiously.

”The Ulster family, they work down near the docks by the dam.” Lisa answered.

”Oh? You are acquainted with the Ulster family.” The voice of Fred’s father boomed out behind them. ”That’s a rather uncommon connection. Not many associates themselves with the Ulster’s.”

“Why is that?” Lisa asked turning to look back at him.

“Because they aren’t known for being trustworthy when it comes to the so called ‘legitimate’ trading the do.” Fred’s father replied.