Author's Note: I think I explained everything that needs to be explained in the last author's note, so if you skipped that one, you might need to go back and read it.

I did a two-week gap from the last chapter, but I think I'm going to start updating on a weekly basis!

Once again, thank you so much to thebookhobbit. I wouldn't have even considered publishing these without her!

John's mom has a picture of him, about two or three years old, in (what appears to be as far as anyone can tell) overalls, mud boots, and a t-shirt, sitting in a mud puddle (a freaking giant mud puddle) completely covered in it. He honestly looks like he's gone diving in it, pretty much all you can see are his eyes and outlines of where his nose, hair, mouth, etc. are. He's holding up a key that he's managed to get the mud off of, with a look like "well… I found it."

He knew that Sarah had lost her house key in the pasture yesterday, and he thought he'd seen it, before he'd heard that she lost it, but by the time he'd been told, it had started raining. He knew there had been a thunderstorm last night; Mom had put him to bed early, with warm milk to actually get him to sleep, since he'd started making it known when he didn't want to go to bed. It wasn't his fault; he could tell when it was way too early! The fact that she was doing it so he wouldn't be scared later was beside the point.

He'd fed the chickens and collected the eggs, just like he always did. Dad didn't trust him with the other animals yet; he said the feed buckets were too heavy still, and that feeding the chickens would be enough for now. But Matthew let him feed Sugar, their little miniature horse that would sometimes let John ride her, when Dad wasn't around.

Afterward, he'd found the spot easily, he never forgot where stuff was. It wasn't at the top, but then again, the patch of weeds that had been there before wasn't at the top anymore either, so he had to go searching for it. He stepped further into the mud puddle and sunk a little. He panicked at first, he had no idea how deep it was, but relaxed when he felt ground. "Stop doing that, it isn't good for your blood pressure." He told himself as he bent over to start feeling around as best he could. He still couldn't feel anything, so he waded in a little further… and further… and further. Eventually he found the weeds, and threw them to the side; at that point he was at least waist deep in mud, and his entire front was completely covered in it. He knelt down in it, feeling around, and could tell that he would need to go a little farther. He tested, to be sure, how fast he could get up, in case he ran out of air, and then took a deep breath, plugged his nose, and went under. He felt around, and finally his hand closed over something hard… thin… and key shaped! He tightened his grip even more, and stood up, wiping the mud off his eyes. Now, he just had to get out of the mud puddle. He pulled himself to sit on the ground, and managed to shimmy backwards, pulling his feet up until he got them up out of the mud without losing his mud boots: they were new, and Mom would be mad if he lost them.

"John Joseph Brown! What in the world are you doing?!" He heard a screech in front of him, and looked up.

Mom, wearing a dress that made it easy on her belly - she told him that he would be a big brother soon - with a camera around her neck, was standing in front of him, looking down with an expression on her face that said he'd better have a very good explanation for all this.

He wiped off the key as best he could and held it up to her. "I found it!"