"Jason! Jason!" Jeremy burst in the door, threw his books and his coat on his bed, and sat down to remove his boots.

"You're supposed to do that before you track mud across the floor. What?"

"Oh, I'll c-clean it up. I always d-do. Y-you should go t-talk to m-ms. Am-melia. She wants you to."

"Is that where you've been since school let out at lunch?"

Jeremy made a face. "Didn't nob-body tell ya? That's a surprise."

"It would be, wouldn't it? Do you know what she wants?"

Jeremy shook his head.

"Did you sing your song at school, or just turn it in on paper?"

"T-turned it in. Well, I said it, too. N-not v-very spooky without m-music. Just a rhymie th-thing." Jeremy continued talking, and Jason continued listening. Watching the boy's expressions and gestures, he was satisfied. He hadn't ruined the boy forever.

(Not yet?)

Jeremy stood in front of Jason, studying his face. "Are you b-better?"

"I am."

"Good." Jeremy nodded,and turned away, stopping to toe a streak of the mud, before ignoring poured himself a cup of coffee, and pulled up to the table, and started talking again, talking about the festival. All the schoolkids were going to get to tell their stories tomorrow night when it was starting to get dark time. "B-but what If it r-rains, Jason? W-will we have to g-get all w-wet?"

Josh walked in as he was speaking. "Whattaya think will happen if it rains, dummy? The food and drink will go into Lotties and the programs and games will go into the livery barn, like always. You'd think we never had a festival, with stupid questions like that."

"Josh," Jason reproved.

"Y-you was hanging up t-tarps for r-roofs; that's why-why I th-thought w-we might b-be outside."

"That's if it's not raining hard. Why is there mud on the floor?"

"It's g-getting dry, so I c-can sweep it up! Wh-what ab-bout the m-music, Josh?"

"Depends on how many people stick around for how long. " Josh brought his own coffee to the table.

"You w-were t-talkin' to that g-girl. I th-thought you didn't like her anymore?"

"No, she's okay, but I don't want to be her fellow anymore. Just a friend."

"Why n-not?"

"Never mind. You won't understand. You're too young."

"You always say that!"

"It's always true."

"It's not m-my f-fault!" Jeremy scowled into his cup.

Josh pulled him out of the chair and handed him the broom. "Sometimes things just are how they are. Right, Jason?" Josh sat down where Jeremy had been. "They just happen."

"Uh, right," Jason replied. Lordy, but he loved his brothers! He wasn't sure he deserved them.

Jeremy, sweeping up his dried mud, managed to hit Josh in the head with the broom.

"Hey!"

"S-sorry. It j-just hap-p-pened."

Jason had to laugh, and his brothers joined in. If he had made mistakes, and he knew he had, at least he knew they didn't hold his mistakes against him.

Maybe that was not least, but at best.

SATURDAY

The festival went well. The rain never lasted long enough to move the party, and children ran and raced and played throughout the day. Even Jeremy. The grown ups visited, ate, drank, played games, and listened to and watched the children.

Those participating in pictures got their haircuts or bought new ribbons and hats.

The bobbing for apples was especially fun for the older boys who did as Josh had predicted and tried to dunk one another. Fortunately no one drowned. And every time his brothers saw Jeremy walking by, he was freshly wet with yet another apple.

The scary stories, for the most part, were not. Several of them were barely comprehensible. The people applauded and cheered anyway. Jeremy's song was successful, when he played and sang it from the platform. (Josh, too, played, but from behind/under the stage.) The song was much better with music, Jason had to agree with that, but Jeremy hit as many discords as he did chords, giving it an even more eerie mood. His quiet mournful and young voice added to the melancholy.

There was a moment of silence before the applause when he finished and before he ran away to Jason, during the clapping.

"I m-messed up," he mumbled, when Jason put his hand on his shoulder

"Not too badly," Josh joined them. "Everybody makes mistakes, kid. You just have to learn from them. We'll work on those chords during the Dark. You did well for the short time you had." Josh also clasped a shoulder.

"Thanks," Jeremy mumbled.

"Yes, Joshua. Thank you for that." Jason put out his hand to Josh, who, although surprised, grasped it.

Jeremy joined the handclasp, not wanting to be left out, and cheered up immediately.

The brothers then walked together to be a part of the remaining festivities.

SUNDAY MORNING

"Ah, J-jason, do I g-gotta wear all th-these clothes?" Jeremy held up the vest to his suit and frowned at it.

"You wear them every Sunday." Jason was tying his tie.

"Yeah, an' c-come home and t-take them off. Hey, what about if I w-weaar everything and d-do that anyway"

"You aren't getting your picture made in your school clothes."

"Th-that's okay w-with m-me. N-no p-picture."

Josh laughed at the hopeful tone.

"Jeremy, I'm disappointed in you. You're whining, like a child. And here I've been thinking about how grown up you're becoming." He walked away from the mirror, and finished dressing his youngest brother.

"Y-you're act-ting l-like I'm a ch-child, m-making m-me g-get c-camera-ed wh-when I d-d-dont want to."

"You're the one acting like a dumb kid, ya dumb kid." Josh stepped away from his turn at the mirror and started brushing Jeremy's hair into place.

Jeremy kept shaking his head.

"Jeremy."

"Ah, J-jason, why? I d-don't wanna!"

"Because I say so."Jason took the brush and popped Jeremy on the head with it, before fixing his hair. "Let's go, or we'll be late for church."

Jeremy raised his hand to feel his hair, and Jason caught it.

"Don't even think about it, or I will walk you to church holding your hand like the five year old you're acting."

"Five? I'd say three!"

"Shut up, Joshua!" both brothers snapped.

Josh and Jason laughed. Jeremy glowered, stuffed his hands in his pockets, and opened the door. He had nothing more to say.

In years to come, Jason would laugh at the photographs taken that day, especially Jeremy's. The boy had not frowned, scowled, furrowed his brows or forehead. He had not turned his face or lowered his eyes away from the camera. He had a sober, smooth-faced expression. He had looked directly into the camera, chin raised, shoulders back. The eyes blazed with emotion, but it was left to the viewer to define what emotion.

For the present, Jason was just glad that there had been no more problems.

After the photographing was done, Jason freed Jeremy to go and change out of his Sunday clothes and to do as he wished. He did wonder, though, if the fall into the mud was as accidental as it appeared.

Protest duly noted.