Jules Rivera must have been concerned about the length of this story, so she has dedicated some days on what I call “wasting time” with polite, pointless chatter. To me that signals a superficial storyline. The premise, alone, seems banal: a small-time operator of unknown resources and intentions, operating a business selling specialized sea creatures to kids (if that declaration is even true). Unless the dealer is also smuggling drugs or illicit antiquities, I don’t see a whole lot of story content coming our way. If that is the case, this story may focus more on the chase than the crook.

As far as I can see, we are still in the dark as to what the actual problem is.  Is it selling to kids? That may not be illegal or even factual. Is it the possibility of local water infestation? Not sure how the dealer is responsible for that, either. The dealer’s questionable past? Well, so what? One bright spot in this dim light is that we might finally get a new bad guy, unless it is one of the usual crowd of crumb-bums operating under an alias. Let’s hope this story grows some muscle by Saturday.

You can insert your own double-entendres here. They’ll likely be better than mine; or at least, printable.