by Bill Russo
"That's the sad tale of Jimmy Catfish and Cape Cod's strangest lake."
"Okay Mr. Markens, you did pretty good. That was a lot better than your other story," said Freddy Simpson.
"I have a question for you Mr. Markens," Bill Ricci said.
"Go ahead Bill. What is it?"
"Well, it seems like the catfish of Codfresh Lake will eat anything that comes their way. Why didn't they eat those three bodies?"
Mr. Markens scratched a spot behind his ear for a few seconds as he was thinking. He slid his glasses on his nose and said.......
"I'm pretty sure that they did not eat Jimmy Catfish because it looks like he was, if not part catfish, at least their leader. I think he was a kind of a God to them, so they naturally would not consume him. As to the the Jamison brothers, I think it's probably fair to say that even cannibalistic catfish don't eat 'skunks'!"
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"Now I got a story, guys," Freddy said. "And this comes from Joe Santini, the farmer who owns the land next to Wild River Camp. He's a conservationist guy and he owns about 500 pristine acres."
"I know him," Bill said, "His gardens are like magic. He grows pumpkins the size of Mini Coopers."
"And tomatoes as big as basketballs," added Bobby Butterfield. "I have seen them you know. One summer, I did some work for him and he gave me a few of those tomatoes and some corn, you know. My Mother said she had never had vegetables half as good as those."
"Like a lot of young guys in this town, I also have worked on his farm” Freddy continued, "and on one hot August afternoon when it was too hot to be in the fields, we sat with cold drinks by the side of a pond, and talked about the Hockomock Swamp."
"I told you things about the swamp that day that fewer than a hundred people in the whole world know...."
Chapter Four: Rip and Joe