It’s hard to be tough on Cherry and her stories. I believe they are deliberately designed to be minimally consequential, such as human interest stories you might find in any B or C section of your local newspaper or any episode from an unlamented sitcom rerun on ME TV.

At first, this seems ironic, given Jules Rivera’s personal belief in strong, independent women. Why isn’t Cherry out there, rooting out real substantive problems and spending less time holding Violet Cheshire’s hand all the time, or foiling Honest Ernest’s incompetence? One possibility could be that Rivera thought it might be a bridge too far to turn Cherry from the homebound “waiting for Mark to return” wife and mother into a mirror image of her husband, Mark.

So Rivera took a middle course, giving Cherry something to do outside of the home, but with manageable hours, less risk, and time to be a mom. At least, there is still an element of nature or wildlife involved in her stories.

Cherry’s current adventure began—where else?—at the Sunny Soleil Society, helping Violet get ready for a Summer Banquet, possibly that same evening. The time was never specifically mentioned, but the storyline suggests it.

Violet was overwrought with planning for the banquet, since her Mother (who actually runs the Society) has high expectations and demands. Since this drama is unfolding the day of the event, Violet’s mother may have a point. Violet is not a young gal by any means, but still has no idea where to find a beauty salon for herself. Cherry brought in her sister, make-up nerd Peach Pitt, to give her the works. Violet remained dubious. Meanwhile, Cherry learned she was expected to build a special cage for the prized peacock (peafowl) belonging to Violet’s mother. But when Cherry went outside to see the bird, the travel cage that Honest Ernest brought over was empty, and the peacock was gone. So was Honest Ernest. We’ll have to wait three weeks to see what happens next.

Yeah, I know. It would have made sense for Rivera to do a peacock topic for the Sunday page. Maybe she is saving it up for another Sunday. Anyway, for you Mark Trail History aficionados, Mark discussed gila monsters at least twice in the past: Once on February 2, 1969 (Tom Hill) and then again on September 2, 2018 (James Allen). A few points from the older Sundays: Gilas are very sluggish and can go for months without capturing and eating prey, because it stores its food as fat in its stubby tail. Its bite and venom are considered to be extremely painful, though not usually fatal to humans.

You can find Allen’s Sunday page on this site by its date. Hill’s Sunday watercolor is harder to track down. I found it in a Google search using the criterion “Mark Trail comic gila monster”, then clicking on the Images category and scanning the results.