With Rusty and his adventure tucked away in bed, we finally return to Cherry’s goal to find the Kudzu Crusader and help clear her name. She must have thought Mark was too tired or too busy with his own “important” plans to bother him with her trivial problems.

I suppose we do have to suffer through some nonsense and recaps to remind readers that Cherry has her own storyline in progress. Do you think the Sunny Soleil Society is paying Cherry for this extra-curricular investigation? As I recall, Violet originally blamed Cherry for this—as did a lot of the town—because of several anonymous insulting notes. Makes sense to me.

As for Squirrelly Sandy, I’d probably keep my distance, no matter what. Anybody letting wild squirrels run loose in their shop (a bakery, no less) and over their body probably is nutty, or infected. I’m with Violet on this one. Thanks, Sandy, but we’ll keep in touch over the phone.

ON THE PLUS SIDE: Rivera shows us much more of Lost Forest and its inhabitants than we saw in the past. This place is called Lost Forest, but there is no end to the number of people who find their way there. Except for Mark Trail’s former reporter nemesis, Kelly Welly, who seems to have gotten lost along the way. She was here when Rivera first took over, but she has been mostly absent ever since.