Later that night, JoJo found himself at the park. He was still restrained by the jump rope, but he couldn't tell if he were awake or just having a very vivid dream. He didn't remember climbing out the window that night, so how did he end up in the park. It felt like a dream. JoJo could see himself doing things, but he had no free-will.

JoJo watched the swing rock back and forth in the crisp windy night. He suddenly remembered playing at the park all the time whenever he was little…

One summer day, when JoJo was just seven years old, Ned and Sally had taken him to the park to play with his new ball.

"Don't run out too far, son," Ned called out to him. He and Sally were sitting on at the park bench under a shady tree nearby. While JoJo ran to the whosketball court to play, Ned turned his attention to Sally's pregnant belly. He gave it a gentle rub and then leaned in to kiss her for a long time.

Meanwhile, JoJo played with his new ball. He was much too small to aim his ball into the whosketball net, but JoJo wasn't the type of Who to just give up. He continued to try to make a goal. Suddenly, he was approached by a couple of taller Who boys.

"Will you play with me?" little JoJo asked.

The boys snorted. "No way," one of them said. "But I like that ball."

He swiped the ball from JoJo's grip.

"Give it back!" JoJo cried. He leaped up and down to retrieve his ball. "Give it."

One of the boys pushed JoJo into the gravel. "Why don't you make us give it back, twerp!" he said.

JoJo's eyes glistened with tears. He didn't know what hurt him the most, the pain from hitting the ground, or the sting from being called a twerp.

JoJo sprang right back to his feet. He wasn't about to just give up and let those boys bully him. He leaped and leaped to get his ball back from the boys; he couldn't give up. It was his ball, not theirs. But JoJo's attempts to retrieve the ball from those boys only landed him a spot as the "monkey" in a game of Monkey In The Middle.

JoJo snapped back to the present. The thought of that memory infuriated him. He bursts free from the roap like a butterfly bursting from its cocoon. Then he ran straight to the Whosketball goal. He had to get his ball back…


The next day, Ned left the house early to help Dr. Larue clean up her lab. They had to be extra careful. Glass shards were scattered all over the floor and counter tops.

"Thank you for helping me, Mr. Mayor," she said. She was sweeping up glass from broken test tubes on the floor.

"You're very welcome. Anything for a friend." Ned said with a warm smile. He was hoping that maybe he could come across some clues: a finger print, a hair follicle, anything! But so far he had found nothing remotely close to solving this mystery.

Ned sighed as he placed a few text books back on the dusty shelf. He was careful to place them in alphabetical order as Dr. Larue had had them before. It just didn't make any sense at all. Dr. Larue hadn't even been able to come up with a decent hypothesis as to what was causing all this destruction. Ned had it in mind to contact Horton but he knew that wasn't possible.

Dr. Larue placed a cube of cheese in Alice's cage. She sniffed it and the turned away sharply. Dr. Larue sighed. "What's the matter with you Alice?"

Ned turned away from the book shelf and looked at Dr. Larue in concern. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"It's Alice," Dr. Larue explained. She sounded extremely stressed out "Shince I've been experimenting with her growth, she's been nothing but tired all the time. I asshume it musht be shome kind of shide effect from the sherum I've been giving her. Not only that, but shomething keeps happening to every cage I put her in."

Ned had no idea what Dr. Larue was talking about. It slightly annoyed him because it had nothing to do with solving the town mystery what so ever. Just as Ned was about to give a sympathetic response about his pet fish Finwick, when Ms. Yelp came barreling into the lab. She must have come all the way from City Hall because she was breathing heavily.

"Mr. Mayor," she cried. "I just received a report from the Sheriff."

Ned gasped in alarm. "What did he say?"

"He says the park has been destroyed," Mr. Yelp explained in deep huffs. "The entire town is panicking and nothing the Council says will calm them down. You need to get to City Hall as soon as possible before this gets out of hand!"

"I don't know what to say," Ned said. He started wringing his hands around the curl of his tie again. "If the citizens won't listen to the council, then they certainly aren't going to listen to me."

"And beshides," Dr. Larue added. "We shtill don't know what thish thing ish."

"Well you better say something, Mr. Mayor," Ms. Yelp said, finally catching her breath. "I didn't run all the way over here because I needed the exercise."

Ned gave them both a worried look. His gaze then fell to his feet that shuffled the floor. Deep down, Ned wanted to panic too, but he knew couldn't. He was one of the Greats now. He had to be brave for the sake of everywho in Whoville no mattered how afraid he truly was.

"Okay," Ned finally said. "I'm going to go out there and tell everywho that they must be indoors before seven thirty. Then I'm going to install cameras at every corner." Ned pumped his fist into the air as he got into his speech. Dr. Larue and Ms. Yelp exchanged looks. "I'll bring out Whoville's most trained, most fearless police officers and then…"

"Don't just stand here telling us all that," Ms. Yelp cut in. "Tell it to everywho in Whoville and get on it!"

"Right," Ned said clearing his throat in embarrassment. "I'm on it!"