Hmmm… where’s Rusty? Not in the car?  What’s the rule again? 15 minutes and I get to leave without a shred of guilt?  But what will Cherry say? Oh, that’s right, he’s not really hers anyway… Damn, she might demand that we engage in baby-making activities… Shit I better go find him.

I was really looking forward to meeting some of the other fisher-people…  but I guess that was not to be.  That would have required Elrod and Co. to come up with a slew of other implausible names like “Musky McPike” and “Sally Sturgeon…” I mean, c’mon it’s not THAT hard, right?

Rusty’s been “kidnapped?”  Amazing, really.  Most sentient beings can learn from their past mistakes, but apparently this one can’t…  “Oh, I will just go nosing about in someone else’s stuff/ business, then act terribly surprised when I get grabbed, tied up and driven off…”

What choice do they have but to kill him?  I mean, Rusty KNOWS now what the “secret is…” as if this plot inflection wasn’t telegraphed a few weeks ago.  One should wonder, though, why Rod Bassy, Inc. didn’t invest in a cargo van with NO windows and spend a little money on the interior to hide the “tools of their trade…” so as to not signal defensiveness when people come around wanting to “see what’s inside…”

Imagine the shock and horror of being found out!  Well, that didn’t take very long!!  Such a sad face on poor Rusty!  It’s the fish-bait knife for you, Nosey Parker! A lesson well worth learning, since Rusty’s notion of private and personal boundaries has always been a bit retarded… Oops, can I use that word?  OK, “Challenged…”

At the risk of feeling way too proud of myself, I believe I may have “called” this plot out a few weeks back… and I am generally one that doesn’t need to do so… happy to let things unfold before me…

…but upon closer inspection, it appears that there may be water spilling out from under the bench seat- could they be growing and stocking trophy size bass in his  van?  That seems a little far-fetched given the elaborate set-up that would require.  Oh Silly Mr Catfish…  so careless.  Maybe he wants to get caught so that he can give up this awful life that he has become wedded to…

But what danger has Rusty walked into?  Quick, Lad, get your pictures and be gone!!!

Why is it that karmic forces always bestow upon this lad the unlocked door that really should be locked???  Usually it’s a cabin in the woods being used as a bad-guy hide-out, but in this case it’s a gaudy conversion van owned by none other than our primary suspect, which will no doubt now reveal its deep, dark secrets of “success.”  But, really, who taught this boy any manners? A notion of boundaries?  Of private property rights?  Where is that small, still voice that should be saying, “Gosh, Rusty, you really haven’t any business nosing around in other people’s stuff…”  But no, the passion he exhibits and where he allows his natural curiosity to take him is, at last, what will drive this tedious plot line forward… Thank you, Rusty.

And we get a double dose of wildlife as a bonus- one avian and one mammal.  But what do you suppose is going on in the van?  How could Mr. Catfish have been so careless?  Oh the mind races with possibilities, some of them downright icky…  let’s hope for something that’s not cringe-worthy…