Nicholas

14

The sun rose and everything fell. Banners, confetti, lanterns, all descended from the East Three School, Inuvik, Northwest Territories, Canada. The sunrise festival was just beginning, marking the first time the sun is visible above the northern Canadian horizon. People from miles and miles away traveled to this weekend of lights and festivities. These visitors had many local hotels with their “No Vacancy” signs out, and had the staff extremely stressed. Donnie Rudyard was the youngest hotel manager in the area at 24, and had a lot on his plate that weekend before he left on his trip. Donnie Rudyard was the selected pick of the Northern Territories to attend Sir Glaudio Devuve’s annual ceremonial syrup tasting. Devuve’s party was the most exclusive institution in all of Canada. Once every year, at varying times of the year one person is picked from each territory and province to travel far north, deep into the tundra to try the most revolutionary, and delicious maple syrup in all of Canada. Devuve had secured his place in the maple syrup world by creating the first maple syrup social networking site, www.TheSyrupSpace.com, where fans of the condiment shared recipes, reviews, fanfictions, etc. This soon became Canada’s #1 social media. The ceremony is very private and all attendees swear to secrecy. Donnie’s invitation even had a selected excuse incase people asked him where he was going, “to seek advice from the love guru, Steve Harvey.” He would be gone for five days, and each night he would taste test new syrups, each with a different theme (syrups of the world, seasonal syrups, etc.) and there were numerous events during the day (make your own maple, maple in the movies, etc.). The retreat occurs in a historic manor deep in the north, and is attended by 20 staff and security members year round.
The last lantern went out and the festival concluded. Donnie rushed home to get a good night's sleep before he had to leave early the next morning. When he woke up he realized he was late, and rushed out of his small house following his directions from his invitation. He drove for hours and hours and hours, as he neared the end of the plowed road, there was a lone reindeer in the snow, with a note on its back, that read “You're late.” This was not good. Donnie had pissed off one of the most powerful men in Canada. He stood there for a little, hesitated, and got on the reindeer and rode. He continue to ride for hours and hours through woods and mountains. As they descended their next mountain they saw a large Victorian-style mansion on the top of the next mountain. Once they reached the summit, a guard came out of the grand arched doorway and told Donnie to go with him. The reindeer, knowing its life purpose was completed, jumped off the mountain and killed itself. The guard took Donnie down a series of corridors and through many rooms until finally arriving in the grand dining room. The perimeter of the room was surrounded by security guards, waiters, and chefs. Four people sat at the top of the table, while one man stood before them. The guard pulled a chair out for him and Donnie took his seat. Donnie now realized the man standing at the front of the table was Sir Glaudio Devuve, the Sir Glaudio Devuve. Donnie was starstruck but kept it inside. The elegant man spoke once Donnie was situated. “Now that you're all here, I would first like to thank everyone for coming, and would like to take a moment of silence for everyone who died on their way here.” Donnie looked up in surprise and fear, but after seeing everyone else with their heads bowed calmly he did the same. “Representatives from Ontario, Nunavut, and Alberta to Polar Bears, Prince Edward Island and Manitoba to frostbite and hypothermia. British Columbia and New Brunswick to the abdominal snowman, and Saskatchewan to other various paranormal activities and occurrences. But enough of the sad stuff, let's get to the syrups! Shall we?” Devuve gestured behind him as a door opened and a parade of chefs came holding fancy silver platters, and placed them in front the five seated guests. “Our first dish is a curry lentil maple syrup, from the far east, with a naan pancake palette cleanser.” The waiters unveiled bowls full of pure maple syrup with an orange tint. After every syrup tasting there would be a palette cleanser of the finest waffles, pancakes, or french toast. Donnie was shocked he had no time to settle in just minutes after he arrived he was already having spicy maple syrup in front of him, how late was he, he thought. Everything just seemed to happen so quickly. Donnie, as well as the other four survivors loved the maple syrup, or maybe they just thought they did.
After several more courses, Devuve got ready for the final course, a “very special maple syrup,” which Devuve was “very excited for.” This one was so special that Devuve and to deliver it himself. So he and his guard went to get it, This syrup was kept in a special temperature-controlled max security vault. They went down the hall, through the billiards room #6, up the stairs, past the indoor pool, down the stairs, into the old abandoned nursery, over the Indian burial ground, up the stairs, down the stairs, up the stairs, up the stairs, through movie theater #18, up the stairs, up to the cursed tomb, down a trap door, down the stairs, around the chapel, and finally into the vault that housed the vault that housed the vault that housed the maple syrup. Devuve’s chief guard, Jeff Fedeff, watched Devuve get the syrup, and then- he was gone, in the blink of an eye. Sir Glaudio Devuve had disappeared. Jeff Fedeff tried his best not to panic. He ran out of the safe that held the maple syrup into the safe that help the safe that held the maple syrup and finally into the safe that held the safe the he was previously in. He ran around the chapel, up the stairs, up the trap door, down to the cursed tomb, down the stairs, through movie theater #18, down the stairs, down the stairs, up the stairs, down the stairs, over the Indian burial ground, out of the old abandoned nursery, up the stairs, past the indoor pool,down the stairs, through billiards room #6, and finally into the grand dining room. His face was white his breaths were heavy.
“What is wrong?” Quebec representative, Ronoe Dodun asked in his deep French-Canadian accent as Jeff Fedeff entered.
“I-I-I” Jeff stammered, “I turned around because I thought I heard the ice cream truck, and when I turned back Devuve wasn't there…” Everyone's mouth dropped and looked around as if they were expecting Devuve to appear out of nowhere.
Ronoe Continued the conversation and his accent depend. “You let Deuve a-dissapeer but ju did save da mapol syroup?”
“I’m sorry maybe I thought they could help us find him if it was so important to him?”
Ronoe responded furiously in an even deeper accent. “ghu de blorkdesnork fromage olou defez Paris!”
Although no one could understand Ronoe they began devouring their maple syrup, instead of savoring it as it was intended. “I think I found a clue!” Yelled Justice O’Bannon from Nova Scotia, “Oh wait, its just a toenail.”
“I think I found a toenail!” Responded Dandoffer Dabny from Newfoundland. “Oh wait its just a clue.” After frustrated retaliation from every other member Dandoffer Dabny opened the clue that gave an emergency phone incase of any distress. They called the number and do the only thing they could, wait, they could've looked too, but they didn't.
An hour went by but no ambulance, no doctor, nothing. Then, there was a knock at the door. Everyone ran to the door, but before the could get it and open it, it flung open. Snow flew into the house and the wind howled. Standing in the doorway was a shaded figure, with a hat, a scarf, a suitcase, and a long coat. He took a few steps forward into the house. He looked up revealing his face, and spoke. "This. Is. Jeopardy." It was the well known host of the popular game show, Jeopardy, and famous Canadian Alex Trebek! If the people cheered and smiled for this celebrity encounter, although Donnie was once again just confused. He walked straight to the dining room and put down his suitcase. He opened it and placed a couple waffles inside. He slid the suitcase aside and addressed the matter. “Hello, and yes, you guessed it, i’m Alex Trebek, and i’m here to help. Who are the guests?” The five guests alerted him who they were.
Justice told him what was going on. “Devuve is miss-”
“I know.” Alex interrupted. “I was a childhood friend of his. Come with me, all you staff, you know what to do.”
Alex Trebek reshut his suitcase put his hat back on, and walked down the hall, all the representative guests followed. Donnie was in disbelief of how quickly everyone adjusted, and moved on from all these crazy things that kept happening. He kept giving everyone weird looks, but they just gave him weird looks back. They walked down the hall and into an elevator. Alex pressed a button that said ‘stage’. They came out of the elevator, walked down another hallway, this one dim and simple however compared to the grand leathered ones from before. They walked through a set of double doors into a room that completely resembled the set of Jeopardy, 1984. All of the guests, Dendoffer, Dittany, Ronoe, and Justice, ran to a podium and wrote their names. Donnie was to tired to continue his train of confusion, and followed the others to a podium. He looked out onto the studio audience, which was the mansion staff! They were all clapping, and smiling, and cheering, like any normal studio audience. Alex Trebek reappeared from behind the stage dressed in his normal hosting attire. He began with “I would first like to apologize for the outdated set. As well as going this much north, we also went back in time. The #1 song is still Girls Just Wanna Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper, but do classics like that ever age? But lets get to the game. Today's categories are; 1893 Internal Ethiopian Conflict, Martin Luther King Sr., Where One Can Get Heroin, Sports, and finally How to Cure IBS.” After the first round Alex walked up and got to know the contests. “So Donnay, you’ve been to Asia?”
“Well it's Donnie, and yes I climbed Mt. Everest when I was only twelve, but what’s go-”
“Omg cool” Alex interrupted without paying attention or maintaining eye contact. “Dittany Chibber you escaped an exploding plane, carrying illegal cargo, by jumping out of it without a parachute and hid out in an Italian farmer’s field for five years illegally, but you know own a flower shop in the suburbs?”
“Yes, yes I do.”
“Aw well that's really great, glad to see your doing well.”
“Dendoffer Dabny, it says here you have a killer lemon-poppy-seed pound cake recipe, that you used to take mass murder 17 people at your business convention this year.”
“Yes, I’m trying to win first in the county baking fair this year!”
“Well good luck!”
“Ronoe Dodun, you were born in France?”
“Oui, oui.”
“Alright calm down fancy pants, this is Nunavut not France. But, you know, I tried to get them to add croissants to the craft services table back in Burbank, but they said they couldn't fit it into the budget, so if you know someone who can help with that, that would be great.”
“Justice O’Bannon, when we tried to find information on your everything, and everyone just said you died in 2009, from ‘lightning,’ is that true?”
“Yes, that is true there is a documentary mini series based off me called Shining Light on the Lethal Lightning Murder: The Supposed Death of Justice O’Bannon and the Search for Information, the dramatic finale is on next Sunday at 8:30 on CBC.”
“Alright but I gotta ask you Justice, do they find you? Did you live?”
“You’ll have to watch to find out.” The two laughed.
The next three days were full of intense cut-throat competition. On the fourth day they finally reached ‘Finally Jeopardy’. By now Dendoffer Dabny had been found and arrested by the CSIS, and and Justice O’Bannon was kicked off for having a negative balance, as the Jeopardy rules abide by. Now all who was left was, Dittany Chibber, Ronoe Dodun, and Donnie Rudyard. “And the category is Syrup. The answer after the break.”
A simultaneous “Aw” sounded from the audience.
After standing there for 3 minutes Donnie interrupted the silence and smiles, “So do we just stand here? Is this what happens during commercials?”
“Please, no one likes you, we all hate you. Shut up, they’re filming commercials in the other room.” Alex responded. After 2 more minutes Alex returned to hosting. “The final Jeopardy answer is: This syrup was originally used as a body cleanser during the Brihadratha dynasty in ancient India. Known for its spice and tang it soon became a popular luxurie in both India and Canada.” The contestants began writing their answers. Time was up and Alex read the answers. “Dittany Chibber, you said, ‘maple.’ I’m sorry but that is neither the right answer or in the form of a question. Ronoe lets see what you said!” A line of curvy unintelligible gibberish was revealed. “Alright it's a little hard to see what you said, but our judges say you said ‘curry lentils.’ Oh im so sorry its curry lentil not curry lentils, i'm afraid we can’t accept that. Donnson on to you! You said, curry lentil! Finally for once in your life you did something right! Good job! As always our second and third place winners will go home with $1,000 and $2,000, and Donnor you get to see where Devuve has been for the past five days!”
“Wait I want money.”
“All surviving guests may leave now and take their thousand dollar gift bag at the main entrance.”
“Do I get a gift bag?”
“Lets go big mouth.” They walked down the hall to the next room where a slight repeated thumping could be heard inside. “Are you ready for us?”
“Ah, one second…Who one?”
“The idiot, you know the ugly one with long arms but short hands, a weird have grown in beard thing, looks like he might have back acne. Smells weird.”
“Oh really?, what's his name? Dicky?”
“I don’t know, Derby? Doesn’t matter.”
Shuffling could be heard inside the room, what sound like someone rushing to put on pants. Alex stared at the door handle and slowly turned the knob.