Two hands clapping to commenter Daniel for his clever geographic pun in Saturday’s comments. Moving on to this story’s progress: Mark revealed to Sammy Spotter that he found a camera and a production script in the mansion, both of which might hold clues to Wesley’s whereabouts. Mark said nothing about the lions to Sammy, which is surprising, given their physical and geographical status.

Sammy’s review of camera photos led them to a nearby cave on a nearby waterway, suggesting Wingit might be inside. This hypothesis was reinforced by notes in the production schedule. Whether Sammy should have had his own copy of the production schedule was never brought up. In any event, they discussed the situation while at the cave’s entrance, whereupon Mark found some keys he believed were for the mansion. This was more confirmation for their cave hypothesis. And then crazy set in.

Mark realized it was time to pick up Rusty from his surfing lesson! That’s strange, as earlier in the story, Mark was content to let Rusty stay on his own at the hotel. But he didn’t mind letting Wesley sit/float/sink in his cave while he retrieved Rusty. Sammy thought this was odd. So do I.

This brings up an important point: Is Mark taking this assignment seriously or maybe just doesn’t know how to set priorities? The situation sounds ludicrous:  Mark investigates a house filled with lions while his son takes a surfing lesson near (I presume) their hotel. In the middle of his assignment, Mark has to leave to get Rusty (But what if the lions ate him!?) and then bring him back to the site of the mansion. Now all three of them are going to explore an unknown water-filled cave to look for Wesley Wingit. What could possibly go wrong with that!?

Today’s nature supplement is straightforward and interesting. The normally customized title panel has a sleek look to it. Heck, Mark even forewent the usual lame-o bad pun ending for an acceptably groaning dad joke. Still, it’s an improvement.