#5: A Modest Proposal

"And you are?," Lou inquired, imperiously.

"My name's 'Dude'--'Dude Musico'."

"And that's a name," Lou scoffed.

"Well, it's actually 'Daedalus'," the guy laughed.  "My parents are Greek.  But 'Dead' was a terrible-sounding nickname, so my friends changed it to 'Dude'."

"Anyway," he said, pulling his chair closer, "I know a guy, who knows a guy, who knows a guy...."

"Oh, this sounds VERY promising," Lou muttered sarcastically.

Dude ignored this, and continued.  "And this guy has a house, and needs someone to live in it.  I've got 2 guys already on board, and a third guy who's coming by tonight to see if he's in.  If I can get 8 people total, that should be enough to afford the taxes on the place."

"Which are how much?," Lou asked.

"Well, I don't exactly know," Dude admitted.  "But one of the guys I've got is a painter, and he makes a dumpload of $ from it.  And the other guy does woodworking, and can make sculptures and stuff that he can sell."

Alice was intrigued but, since she was the cause of her friends' distress, she decided she'd better not say anything.

Regina was more bold.  "Hey, Lou, how about we at least check it out?  What can it hurt?"

"Maybe if we all stick together it will be okay?," Kelly ventured, timidly.

Lou was so intrigued that Kelly--the most sensible girl she knew--wanted to do ANYTHING out of the box that she agreed to get the girls (and Dude) into her car to go see the house.