It was a vegetable.

     Not just an ordinary vegetable, either. A rhubarb! (What? why else would this be a "The Dancing RHUBARB" story?)

     The crowd was confused. Why would a vegetable be walking around the streets of the perfect town of Villagetown City? But this is no ordinary rhubarb, no! The repetition of the "ordinary" phrase and the sudden tense change should have told you that. This..............(insert drumroll wave file here.) was a DANCING rhubarb!!!(what a surprise)!!!

     The crowd began to forget their part in the story, and dropped their News Herald's to begin where they left off: being confused.

     "Well, I'm confused about why there is a baby alligator living in the park pond," says Mr. Hunters, while he looked at his paper on the ground (there's that nifty tense change again!). After being reminded that that has nothing to do with the story, he replied, "That rhubarb's dancing!"

     "Now, since when have vegetables been able to shake their groove on?" replied the Scotsman.

     Naturally, everyone stared at him. Staring is fun. Have you tried it? You should.

     All of a sudden, the rhubarb started to dance toward the crowd. Well, it's kinda hard to keep your cool when a normally inanimate object begins dancing, especially towards you. This is why those crazies on the side of the street wave change jars in front of your face and shout "They're coming! THE ALIENS ARE COMING!!!!!!!!!

     So naturally, the entire crowd started to run. Unfortunately, they ran right into each other. They then made the smart decision to run in the opposite direction. So they did, and the crowd therefore scattered.

     Now, if you were a rhubarb, which your not, because rhubarbs can't read (except for our protagonist), but hypothetically, if you were, you'd be planted into the ground, sucking up water and sunrays until someone comes along, uproots you, and ultimately eats you. So naturally, The Dancing Rhubarb decided to walk away.

     Meanwhile, after just catching their breath from who knows what, the crowd has been dispersed, and they run all over the place, spreading the news about the mysterious vegetable. After the crowd members showed the people the tense change in the first sentence of this paragraph, they too spread the word. It was not long before the entire town knew about the stranger, including our lumpish friend, Dough Boy.

     "So it seems that a mysterious vegetable known as a rhubarb has appeared in town," Dough Boy said to no one in particular.

     Chester was confused. "How could the crowd in the previous paragraph have notified you about the rhubarb when no one knows of our hiding spot here in the caves?"

     "Do not question my methods!!! Now, as I was saying to the rather large stalactite over there, this rhubarb appears to be no threat. After all, it's not like he's moving around in a dancing manner, is he?"

     "Well, why else would the crowd be so alarmed? Also, what's the difference between a stalactite and a stalagmite?"

     "One has the letter 'm' in it!! Now go away and finish my machine!!!!"

     Not wanting to be turned into a Cheeto himself, Chester dashed off to the room blocked by a big sign saying "NOO PEEK NG!!" (the 'I' had mysteriously disappeared, just like those big letters at department stores)

     An evil grin spread over Dough Boy's face as he read the sign over and over....

 

On to Chapter 4