Oct 19, 2025
Katie from Des Moines
Good morning. Do you want try some tenderloins? It's Beyond Meat tenderloins, not real meat. I made it myself. Like chicken fried steak. Well, I can bring some by if you like.
Oct 22, 2025
Ricky from Davenport
When is the bbq? The vegan bbq. Is it okay if I bring a friend? And what should I bring? Just veggie dogs, veggie burgers, boca burgers, buns, drinks? Nothing special? How about Grey Poupon or King Hawaiian sliders?
Oct 25, 2025
Vicki from Omaha
Look, I told you to reschedule the meet-up because Lisa can't go on Saturdays, she is adventist. She is SDA, seventh day adventist. Can we do Kinyo instead? Friday?
Farmer Sign-On
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❌ SORRY ❗ WE ARE NOT ABLE TO FIND THAT PIN NUMBER. TRY AGAIN, SI VOUS PLAIT. DANKE SCHON. IF YOU ARE FFA MEMBER, PLEASE CONTACT LOCAL OFFICE TO BE SURE YOUR MEMBERSHIP IS UP TO DATE. MSG 293948478 ❌
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📚 Moonshee Publishing
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LIST OF UPCOMING PROJECTS AND NEW RELEASES
🍴 Mystery on the Menu
by Chet Dowry
🍜 Kowloon Chronicles 👘
by Teresa van Ginzsler
-coming soon-
🛫 Now Boarding Hong Kong to Akita 💺
by Capt. Wally Hertford
-coming soon-
| 📜Table of Contents |
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A missing neko and a missing painting
-Somthing Must Be Done!-
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Chapter One
🍶
Chapter Two
📻
About the Author
Chapter One
🍶
As Trixxie arrived at the cafe where she worked she looked around and saw the pace was packed and heard the noise from all the talking and clinking of dishes and glasses. This was the first time the cafe had ever been full. She went to the back and the cook immediately scolded her, "Tixxie! You're late. And you left the back door open last night. Now whiskers is missing." Trixxie blushed and apologized to Yoshi as she donned her apron and brushed her brown hair out of her eyes. She couldn't believe it, the back door! Trixxie had the left the back door open and the now she might be fired, she thought to herself. Yoshi needed some help in the kitchen so Trixxie spent time slicing onions and cactus and taking vegetable slices from the marinade area, draining them and then breading them in preparation for oven pan frying shake and bake style. She looked around for the peanut oil but could only find the vegetable oil which was a soybean oil. So, she used the soybean oil instead of peanut oil for a change.
Trixxie was a trained chef from Shanghai, she learned in the best schools there but when she left China it was difficult for her to find the right kind of job she was looking for. She wanted to be a sous-chef in Tokyo at a major hotel restaurant, but she only found work at a alley stall cooking vegetables and rice until a few months ago when she saw a NOW HIRING sign in the window of a shabby cafe in the bad part of Maffberry. The cafe was located at the end of a long narrow alley filled with dumpsters and homeless encampments. To access the back door, you have to climb a barbed wire fence with razor wire on the top but there is a big hole, so people can just come through the fence if they fancy. The cafe only has a few workers but they often take breaks in the back next to the barbed wire fence and brick wall. Last night, Trixxie had gone out back behind the cafe with the guy, the generous customer to get to know him better. Perhaps it was then that she left the door unlatched.
Yoshi was the chef, the manager and sometimes waiter too. Usually the cafe had about 1-3 people working there, Yoshi, his wife and one or two other people like Trixxie. Yoshi's wife was waiting tables but she came into the kitchen and confronted Trixxie. She said, "Trixxie, you left the back door open and now we're missing the painting we had next to Table 4. See, look! It's gone! But luckily, it was worthless. I found it next to the dumpster a few weeks ago. And Whiskers is gone too, but he's been gone before so hopefully he will return. Don't do it again! Always lock the back door, keep out riff raff and keep Whiskers in, vous know? Even though Maffberry is safe, still, kids could come exploring the neighborhood and enter the cafe at night, get hurt. So, we need to lock it. Ok?"
The painting that was missing was a Chinese-style painting and Trixxie noticed it before. It had a nice frame and was in good condition. It showed a cat seated on a pillow with some strange symbols and glyphs on it. And there was a drawing of a map on it, the cat was seemingly looking at a map. In the background was a treasure chest and kinkos, ie, gold coins. Whiskers frequently went missing because Yoshi and his wife Sandra tried to keep him in the cafe but whenever the door opened, he would dart towards it as if he saw a mouse and often escape before the door was promptly shut. After work, Trixxie decided she would go look for Whiskers in the adjoining alley that runs past the brick wall behind the back door. She had never been in that alley before and wasn't sure how to access it other than climbing the brick wall but the wall was very tall, about 8 or 10 feet, maybe more. Around 3 metres at least. So, Trixxie wanted to find another way to access that alley. Whiskers was often found up on top of that brick wall in the past like 2 weeks prior when he was missing for two nights and then showed up on top of the wall skinny, shivering and all dirty.
Trixxie asked Yoshi about the huge rush of customers. "Is there a convention in town?" Yoshi shook his head, no, as he cooked up some chow mein noodles and worked on a sauce. "No, nein. It's not a convention that I know of, my dear. There's a new AI company that moved in around the corner on Main Street called Iowa AI or Iowa Cryto or something. So, these guys and gals are here from Iowa AI. Thank god, because we weren't doing well. It's not easy for a vegetarian restaurant, so much competition," said Yoshi with a grin on his face as he took a sip of home made meishu or kajitsushu, Trixxie couldn't tell what it was exactly. It might have been Yoshi's home made salvia elixir he makes with his custom red country Japanese Wein, Yoshi calls it meishu. Trixxie sniffed the air, but she could not tell if it was meishu, coffee, kajitsushu or chicken poop because the smell of garlic and onions was overwhelming despite the open windows and fans.
The customers gave good tips and Yoshi shared the tips with back of Haus as she always does. So, Trixxie got a little extra besides her minimum wage that night. After her three hour shift and scrubbing the bathroom, Yoshi gave Trixxie her $20 - that was her wage, plus an extra $5 for her share of the tips which amounted in total to around $400 but the rest went to Yoshi and his wife. Trixxie was happy to have the $25. Her monthly rent was $400, that was to share a living room with 3 other girls in a 2 br apartment with a total of 12 girls - but the landlord was told there were only 4 roommates, so the girls had to be very quiet. Still, the manager was suspicious, always watching them and questioning the girls. Trixxie worked at the cafe and she also owned a small food stall that she set up serving breakfast (pancakes, Beyond Meat breakfast sausages, rice, a variety of items including fried potatos) a few days per week, especially on the weekends. Trixxie was barely able to make ends meet but luckily her grandfather gave her a few thousand dollars for Festivus each year and that allowed her to keep her head above water.
Trixxie left the cafe and walked past all the homeless encampments and dumpsters toward Main Street at the mouth of the alley. When she finally reached the corner, she took a deep breath of fresh air. The dumpsters were pretty stinky so she often held her breath as she passed them but out on the boulevard the air was usually better but tonight she coughed as she smelled automotive paint from the auto shop across the street. The fumes of solvents was very strong and Trixxie held her nose and lifted a handkerchief to her mouth as she quickly stumbled to the right up Main Street hoping to find the entrance to that alley which runs behind the restaurant. As she went along she saw the storefront home of Iowa AI. It was very nice, decorated for Halloween. The holiday was just a couple of nights away and Iowa AI had decorated their big window areas with pumpkins and Halloween decor. It was very tasteful and attractive. Trixxie wanted to go in and fill out a job application, maybe they needed a chef? But, it looked like it was closed for the evening and Trixxie had a cat to find!
There was a cold wind blowing that night across Iowa and Maffberry. Trixxie shivered and buttoned up her coat. She saw an alley tucked behind a lorry on the right side and peeked down it but couldn't see anything, it was too dark. The only thing she noticed was the strong smell of hobo campfires. Trixxie turned to go down the alley when a deep voice called out behind her, "How much?" Trixxie ignored it and headed down the alley but the voice again said, "You gonna sell that merchandise? How much??" in an annoyed tone. Trixxie turned and waved, said, "Hi" and kept going. The man did not follow her. The alley turned a few times, first left and then right. And then the alley turned again, right this time and got very narrow. Trixxie realized that she could be in the right alley and perhaps right behind the cafe but she wouldn't know. It was dark and all these buildings look alike, brick, similar colours. So, she turned back to go home and perhaps come back next night with a flashlight or during daytime hours. She had a cellphone with her but the battery was 12% and the phone would not turn on flashlight with battery power under 15% so it was useless. As Trixxie stumbled out of the alley and headed home she made a plan on bringing some Milch to the alley next day, bright and early. The Milch would be good to draw Whiskers and also in general for other alley cats in the area.
As Trixxie walked along the dark alley something shiny caught her eye. It was square shaped and next to a lorry besides a trash barrel which was leaking some kind of red liquid, looked like ketchup and had a terrible smell. Trixxie stopped for a second wondering if she should take a look or keep going. She turned to the shiny object and examined it. It appeared to be a picture frame for a painting. She looked closely at it and realized it was the same size and resembled the missing frame from the cafe! Trixxie suddenly felt like she was in danger. Why only a frame? Where was the painting, wondered Trixxie. She decided to jot down the license plate of the lorry parked there and draw a quick map in her notebook that she keeps in her purse of the area so she could return easily. From her purse she found a pen and small notebook and jotted everything down and then grabbed the frame and headed home. As she was turning onto her narrow lane near the dumpy apartment building she lived in, a lorry drove along at a great rate of speed and its headlights off, narrowly missing Trixxie and splashing her with a bit of Iowa mud. Trixxie was quite miffed as she turned into her apartment building from the sidewalk and headed to her apartment to clean up and collect her thoughts.
Chapter Two
📻
The next day Trixxie woke up early and went back to the alley but before she went that way she stopped at the park to fiddle with her radio and listen to Discover Mountain and Adventures in Odyssey. She tuned in Adventist Radio and waited for the shows to come on. The weather was cool and crisp, sky was overcast. As she listened to the shows one at a time, her tail feather was a bit sore so she decided to walk about. Trixxie wandered around near the park, collecting a few palm pronds and then returning to a park bench to shred the fronds into narrow strips 1/3 inch wide or so and then jumbled the strips into a ball and shoved the strips into two empty white plastic bags. This was material for her arts and crafts. She continued to listen to the radio as she returned home to drop off the two sacks in the laundry room, planning to pick them up later. When she reached behind the washing machine to put the sacks there her hand bumped something cold like a gold bar. She bent way over and craned her neck to see what was back there and she saw it. It was a big shiny gun. Trixxie quickly picked up the gun along with her palm fronds and scurried to her e-cushman parked under a crabapple tree on a side street around the corner from her apartment building. She quickly checked to see if it was loaded, it was. It had a full magazine except it was light two bullets and there was one in the chamber.
Trixxie's heart beat quickly and her breathing was heavy as she hid the gun and placed the palms all in her e-cushman. Just then she noticed a man quietly standing behind her half a block, seeming to be hiding partially behind a bush. She stopped and stared at him and then he ducked all the way behind the bush. Trixxie was scared. She realized that the man must be after the gun and she didn't know what to do. So, she got in the e-Cushman, started it up and drove it around the block. When she passed the strip club she spotted the gent, he was wearing a cricket uniform jersey and he was talking to another fellow. Trixxie pulled up her cart in front of the two, staring at them intently but the two fellow did not even look at her. Trixxie got out of the cart and walked up to the two men, cleared her throat. The two men finally turned and looked at her, one of them said, "We don't have cigarettes" and then the two men walked away. Trixxie didn't know what to think at first but then she noticed that the men were holding hands. One had TREVOR #17 on the back of his cricket jersey. The other man had a name like JAMAAL on the back of his sports uniform, no number. The two men stopped and embraced, kissed eachother and then disappeared behind the dumpster.
Trixxie scratched her head as her mind raced wondering what was happening. She used to draw mens' attention wherever she went with her short skirts and low-cut blouses. But these two fellow wanted nothing to do with her. And yet, they seemed friendly, holding hands, hugging and kissing eachother. Trixxie sat down and activated her HUD. Trixxie was part-human, part-alien or android and so she was equipped with special skills and resources like an on-board computer with internet which allowed her to look up subjects and do research. She scanned the database and took a selfie. She asked her Iowa AI system (she downloaded the latest version the night before from the internet and installed it on her VLLM device, it took 3-4 hours but she cooked and took a nap while it was loading and setting up) to evaluate her selfie to see if she still had good looks and logged onto a chat website where you can get tips from guys. She went on to the tip website and flirted with guys, put on a bikini. She had 300 viewers and received quite a few tokens, that made her feel more attractive. "You still got it girl," Trixxie comforted herself.
Trixxie wondered how she was going to pay the rent. She was already behind two months and she cursed herself for spending her whole paycheck on makeup again. That was 3 paychecks in a row she wasted on makeup and so she had to go on dates to get food and eat food from the cafe and her food stall that customers were throwing away, like leftover crumbs for example. She called Yoshi to see if she could work extra hours at the cafe now that the place was packed with Iowa AI employees. Yoshi was relieved that Trixxie offered and he immediately agreed to double her hours starting that night and Yoshi had actually been wanting to ask Trixxie to work more hours but he hadn't had a chance yet. The cafe had been packed and Yoshi's nephew came to put in a few hours and help wash dishes. When Trixxie called Yoshi, she also mentioned the missing painting and told him about the frame she found. The phone went silent. Yoshi was acting weird now that Trixxie was talking to him about the missing painting. Trixxie asked Yoshi a few questions about the painting like what did Yoshi remember about the back of the frame and which dumpster was the painting found near. Yoshi stammered and gave a few quick evasive answers because exiting the phone call. Trixxie pondered the meaning of it all. Did Yoshi know something more about the painting? Was there some kind of secret involving the painting? The painting did show a map, like a treasure map. Maybe someone stole it, thinking it was a real map.
...to be continued....please support us on Patreon....danke schon...
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Chet Dowry is the pen name of Hajih Al-Faruk, the famous Punjabi from Pakistan who has already taken Allemagne by storm with his musical street performances and dance routines on the sidewalks and alleys of Dusseldorf. Now, Chet has expanded his art to include the written form, novels. Chet's first piece, a biography, was warmly welcomed by readers and thus, Chet is proud to present his second work, MYSTERY ON THE MENU. Chet grew up in the Punjab to Sikh family with many sisters and brothers. When he got married, he took his favourite younger sister with him to the new home with his bride to help cook and clean.
Chet grew up eating meat and Fisch, lots of dairy, cheese. However, Chet is now a dedicated vegetarian and very much in winemaking and gourmet vegetarian cooking. Chet lives in Beverly Hills with his beautiful wife and four adoring children. He frequently visits the Punjab where he puts on lavish vegan feasts for the townfolk and delights their hearts with his whirling dance routines and animated songs. You can hear Chet sing on Punjabi Radio USA in the Bel Air area of Southern California along with Silicon Valley and Silicon Vineyard (Stockton/Lodi). Chet enjoys playing frisbee and protesting against air pollution warehouses like Harbor Sign and Sex Club at 850 North Union St, 95205 where the company pollutes the air and dumps illegaly.
Chet is against the holocaust in Gaza and stands firmly with the Phillistines (the Palestinians). Chet has used his astrologie skills to predict that 2026 will be a tremendous Jahr of love and peace, his evidence is the sidereal position of Jove, Jove's Daddy and Poseidon. Chet's wife is a bikini model and exercise instructor at local gym. She enjoys vegan cooking and baking, loves making her own oatmeal granola. Chet's oldest daughter joined the Hare Krishna movement but then she quit because she felt it was too controlling, so now she is writing a book about religion and decoding the bible which she says is fake and full of lies. Chet's second-eldest daughter is captain of the cheerleading squad at her elite private school. Chet Dowry has many book ideas, he says, and he tells us to stay tuned to Moonshee Publishing for his newest work and latest chapters of MYSTERY ON THE MENU.
Moonshee Publishing House
(c)2025 All Rights Reserved
Danke schon for visiting Iowa AI headquarters. If you would fancy signing our guestbook, we would be honoured. Also, use this form to sign up for Iowa AI account and order merch. Please see our booth at all ISU ladies' volleyball games for 2025-2026 season.
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