We haven’t really seen much in the way of “Cherry” stories lately, and the few that have taken place tend to be small-scale stories that get rolled into Mark’s current adventure. I do fear that Jules Rivera may be moving away from trying to balance two main stories at the same time and switch to shorter episodes for Cherry (as we see with Rusty). This could also help explain what I see as a continual dilution of Cherry’s independent personality. Am I wrong?

This past week saw the arrival of Mark at his dad’s place down in the sunshine/orange juice/illegal animals state. In case you forgot, Happy Trail has apparently been getting victimized (“catfished”) by an online scammer and merrily sending her loads of money, no questions asked. Mark’s childhood friend and Happy’s neighbor, Niecy Rogers, had been unable to stop Happy. I think that’s the background.

Mark arrived to find both Happy and Niecy  awaiting him. It took no time at all for Happy to start confessing that not only is he a gullible doofus, but that he has been catfishing his 28 year old girlfriend, Dreama, by sending her fake photos of himself. Matters took a turn for the worse when Niecy bitch-slapped Happy by confirming that Dreama was also catfishing him with her own fake photos!

Neither Mark nor Niecy has yet to confront Happy with why an old man is trying to make time with a 28-year old woman. The conventional answer is he just wants to see if he still has enough of him left for a last hurrah. Or maybe it’s only that Happy is lonely and is looking for more of a platonic relationship. Okay, let’s go with that excuse for now.

The next question is:  Who is Dreama? She (or He) could be anybody, anywhere. The normal chance of recovering Happy’s money is zilch to zilch–infinity. And it’s just as likely that the catfisher is somebody who knows Happy; so options are still on the table.

Poor walrus! Part of the family, but not invited to the party. Maybe it’s because the walrus has gotten a bad rap after that oyster-eating trick on the beach with the Carpenter. But it’s not as bad a rap as Mark Trail has, who found a pair of shades to wink over as he fouled the page with another one of his atrocious, unfunny puns.