Mayor Cheeky Monkey HD.Com (the mayor) drove slowly in his Mayoral sports car through the mean streets of Cheeky Monkey HD.Com (the city). His destination was the lair of Dr. Vu – the city’s nefarious super-villain.  In retrospect, the mayor felt that the events that had just happened in his office with Jose/Chapter 4, weren’t particularly clear, and this drive was the perfect opportunity to think about it/clarify what had happened.  So that’s just what he did.

As he rocked his steering wheel to-and-fro, like they do in the movies, he started to think about his encounter with Giuseppi at the Farmer’s Market back in Chapter 3.  He had to admit to himself that he’d entered the Farmer’s Market like a man possessed; furious at the lack of Flour Bags being produced.  But then he’d encountered the quivering Manager – clearly cowed at the mayor’s impressive physique – and his overwhelming humanity had returned; rushing into his body like a valley flooded by an exploded dam.  He’d already decided that he wouldn’t blame Giuseppi for his ineptitude, when he discovered that the elderly gent was not the root cause of the supply issues, and so wasn’t actually inept. 

At this moment, the mayor had felt a pang of uncharacteristic self-pity, but had quickly squashed through sheer force of will.  Seeds and Textiles were not arriving at the Farmer’s Market and he needed to know why.  Was there a problem at the factories? Was there a road closure that was causing transportation delays? Or was something more sinister happening in the previously idyllic city?  The mayor knew one thing: he was going to find out the answer to all three questions.

At this point, Chapter 3 had ended, but as we are now in Chapter 5, and Chapter 4 has already occurred, then this clearly wasn’t the end of the story.  After leaving the Farmer’s Market, the mayor had driven back to City Hall, and, much like the journey he was taking now – he had thought about the things that had just happened.  His initial instinct had been to rush to the factories and tackle the problem head on.  But his cool head had prevailed and he decided that it was better to confer with Jose (his deputy mayor) and perform a fact gathering exercise.  Sure, being a mayor could sometimes be glamorous, going on dates with models etc, but sometimes it was necessary to get down-and dirty with the data.  Mayor Cheeky Monkey HD.Com was a number-cruncher and he loved it.

The mayor handbrake-turned his flashy sports car into his private parking space and leaped out of his car like a frisky salmon.  He started to sprint toward his office, frenetic with the thought of in-depth statistical analysis.  He pushed open the door to his office, like Salt N Pepa in the song “Push It”, and quite literally, jumped into the room. Jose was standing in the middle of the mayoral rug, holding a suspiciously empty folder.

“It’s gone,” sobbed Jose, unrelentingly. “All the data has gone.”  And with that, he dropped to his knees, completely spent.  The mayor sat at the chair – you know, the one behind his desk – and sighed.  He poured himself a glass of whiskey to make himself look more dramatic.  He felt that under the circumstances that it was fully justified.

It was at this point that Chapter 4 started.  I don’t know if you remember (and if you don’t, you can always read it again), but this chapter contained a conversation between the mayor and Jose in which they didn’t discuss the fact that data was missing from the folder. However, this wasn’t a mistake on the author’s behalf.  They had discussed prior to chapter 4 starting; it was sometime between Jose falling to his knees and the mayor pouring a drink. I just forgot to mention it until now.  They also didn’t mention it again, because they decided to act like it hadn’t happened in any subsequent conversations, for reasons that I will hopefully be able to explain away at a later date. 

The mayor changed gears as he continued his journey.  He didn’t really need to change gears but he was becoming bored of thinking about the things he needed to clarify about what had happened between chapters 3 and 4.  He was expending too much energy; energy that he’d need to face off against Dr. Vu.  He decided to not think about it any more.  To be honest, the only thing that he hadn’t really clarified was what made him decide why Dr. Vu was involved at all, but he reasoned that he could confront Dr. Vu with this very information when he confronted him. Very dramatic.

And with this decision made, Mayor Cheeky Monkey HD.Com realised that he had arrived at Dr. Vu’s lair.  He responsibly parked his car and took one last look at himself in the rear-view mirror.

“This time,” he said to himself. “It’s personal.”

To be continued…

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