Blondie sat up in the tree and watched as Bethany and Fran raced across the pool, water being sprayed in every direction. Mariah and Sabrina cheered from the kiddy pool and Freddie judged the race from up on top of the slide. Goochie was jumping up and down in the water with Victoria,his heavy coat whipping buckets of water on the ground every time he shook it.

   "Go Annie! Go Fran!" Mariah shouted and Sabrina just babbled incoherently.

   Bethany was ahead by one stroke but she felt the strength being drained from her body. Fran managed to catch up with several strong and precise movements, gliding by Bethany. Grasping the motivation Bethany gritted her teeth and pushed harder, coming within inches of winning.Unfortunately for her, Fran had always been the better swimmer,practically born to be a mermaid.

   "You did better this time," she said, pulling her sopping black hair back."You almost won."

   "Only because I couldn't stand the thought of loosing," Bethany laughed.

   Sighing Fran leaned against the edge of the pool, looking up at Freddie who came roaring down the slide, disappearing with a giant eruption of water and a steady stream of bubbles, floating to the surface and popping.He reappeared at the other end, shooting a fountain of water out of his mouth and sputtering at the disgusting taste.

   "Eww, Freddie! Do you have any idea how much bleach and chlorine is in here?" Fran said, making a face.

   Blondie watched, a notebook and pen in her lap. Chewing on the end of her ponytail she jotted down half a sentence, stopping and looking back at the Goode siblings who had broke into a water brawl, spilling it across the tiles and soaking several towels. Their yells and screeches could be heard a mile away with plenty of flowery phrases that sounded almost Shakespearean, and probably were.

   Blondie rubbed her sweaty neck and wished that she was in that water, doing laps with her sisters and brothers. Unfortunately they were all scattered across the states with problems to solve, just like her. It was a rather lonely job. She never stayed in one place for long which made her a constant stranger to everyone. But in her eyes it was worth it.A promise once made must always be kept.

   Jotting down several more sentences and compiling a short list, Blondie climbed down the tree silently, her bare feet making virtually no sound on the dry turf. Avoiding any crunchy leaves she darted from tree to tree, taking great care not to be seen. Bethany and her siblings were too distracted to notice anything anyway, but it never hurt anyone to be careful.

            Liam poured over his mother's photo books, looking for a specific picture.It was a black and white family photo of his Grandad and his siblings and parents back in the early 50's. Liam remembered looking at it with his sister Katrina before she left home and she told him all about everyone in the photo, including some of the servants that were in the back. The picture was taken in front of the mansion on the 100th anniversary of it being built. Liam had a particular interest in one person, far in the back and candid, as though they were not suppose to be in the picture in the first place. When he had first seen the photo it did not hold much interest for him, but now it was a completely different matter. The whole year Liam was bothered by a nagging feeling but he kept pushing it to the back files of his brain, insisting that it was not important. Now he was not so sure.

   Digging through one of several boxes he came across a dusty leather album with gold letters saying '1930-1970 Goode'. Sitting back down on the floor Liam carefully opened it, several of the yellowed pages falling out. Flipping through till he found the right spots Liam replaced the pages and went back to the beginning, looking over each photo with great care, never missing a detail.

   It was interesting, looking at all his ancestors and seeing the similarities between them and his family. There was a great Aunt that looked like a girl version of Kallin and a great Uncle that looked like the boy version of Katrina, but with the rest there were only certain features that were similar. Someone, Liam was not sure who it was,had Owen's nose and Liam's smile. Really a quite strange combination in his opinion.

   It took several minutes to get through the whole album and on the last page the photo was still nowhere to be seen. There was only a vacant area with some glue marks where a picture use to be and Liam was positive that was where it had been before.

   Getting up and carrying the boxes back to the attic, keeping the album for further inspection, Liam went outside and climbed the old cottonwood in the backyard, sitting down on a stool in the tree house. His older siblings had built it before he was born and it had always been a place of refuge for him. Pushing his hat back he opened the album and stared at the first page, deep in thought.

   So the picture was gone, that was for sure. Whether someone had lost it or purposely taken it out, Liam did not know. The only thing he knew was that that photo was a vital well of information and, even though there was no proof of it, Liam was sure it would answer a lot of questions.

        Bethany helped Theresa and Victoria dry their hair with a towel while Fran helped Mariah and and Sabrina get out of their sopping swimsuits and into some dry pajamas. Freddie was in the kitchen having a conversation with Allen and Timothy about the anatomy of a frog over a cup of hot chocolate, but their main reason for being so chill about everything was because they were seriously freaking out over the hole in the ground. At least, Bethany and the twins were. They were the only ones who knew about it and wanted to keep it that way until Aunt Laura got home. Bethany had tried calling her but it went to voicemail, as she had expected. Deciding it would not do any good to keep worrying she went up to the library, going into the secret room Fran and her had found and closing the door. Earlier that day they had taken out all the old blankets and pillows and cleaned them,replacing the light bulb and cleaning off the floor of the nook. Now Bethany found it the perfect place for some piece and quiet.

   Curling up with the freshly washed blankets and pillows she opened a book of Irish fairy tales. She had found it in one of the piles in the hidden room and the illustrations were so colorful and magical that she could hardly wait to read it.

    Blondie, her hair straightened and pinned up out of the way, bangs and all, grabbed a handful of dirt from Liam's garden and, closing her eyes, buried her face in it. The dry earth felt good rubbing against her skin and she purred like a cat, rubbing the left over dirt on her tattered t-shirt. One that she had pre-ripped. It was a strange site, seeing a teenage girl throwing dirt all over herself,but Blondie did not care because there was no one around to see it.

   "What on earth are you doing?" Liam asked, coming around the house.

   Blondie looked up at him and grinned, laughing lines appearing around her eyes.

   "I'm borrowing some of your dirt if you don't mind," she said, rubbing her arms.

   Liam put the photo album on the porch and sat down on one of the steps, watching as Blondie began to rub her distressed jeans with several handfuls of earth.

   "That's not what I meant," he said.

   "I have an idea."

   "An idea for what?"

   "I'm going to justify myself."

   Liam would have liked to say he understood what she said, but that would be a lie. So he kept his mouth shut and minded his own business, grabbing the photo album.

   "What's that?" Blondie asked just as he made a move for the door.

   "Oh...It's a photo album," Liam mumbled, scratching his neck.

   Blondie slowly rubbed her hands and looked at him in a sort of knowing manner.

   "Cool," she said passively.

   Liam nodded slowly then cleared his throat, going into the house. Stretching the truth had never been a specialty of his and it never seemed to work.

   Blondie quickly finished up by rubbing her bare feet with dirt and when she looked in the window she was satisfied, her appearance successfully transformed from red-neck rag-tag girl to hardly recognizable mud monster.

      As she read Bethany's stomach began to grumble, making it quite difficult to enjoy the story. Heaving a big sigh she memorized the page number and climbed down the ladder, walking out of the room and into the library, making sure to close the door properly. Then she went downstairs to the kitchen and investigated the refrigerator,grabbing some roast beef cold cuts and a block of Tilamook cheddar.Bending down to the bread drawer Bethany grabbed a couple of slices of wholewheat bread and spread a thin layer of butter on each,putting several slices of cheddar and beef in between them. Pouring herself a glass of milk Bethany sat down at the kitchen table and said a quick prayer, biting into the sandwich with relish. She had not realize just how hungry she really was.

   Suddenly the doorbell rang and Bethany groaned, rolling her eyes. She had an intense urge to pretend that no one was home, but it did not take long for her conscience to take over. Reluctantly standing up Bethany ran to the door, getting rid of the annoyed look that had possessed her features. She opened the door and barely managed to keep her mouth from dropping at the site. Standing on the front stoop was a girl covered in a thick layer of dirt from top to bottom. Bethany tried to see if it was someone she knew but there was just no way of telling, although she knew she had never met a girl that tall. And the girl was barefoot at that!

   "Uh, hello!"Bethany said, trying to sound as hospitable as possible.

   "Hi...Um...Uh..." the girl started, seemingly very shy. "I was just working in the garden for Miss Goode and I uh...I was just...I was just wondering if I could have a glass of water?"

   Bethany smiled pleasantly and gestured for the girl to come in, closing the door and showing her to the kitchen.

   "I thought Liam did the garden?" Bethany said, grabbing a glass out of the cabinet and filling it with ice cold water.

   "Oh...Yes...He does," the girl said hesitantly. "But he couldn't today."

   "Oh is it his day off? I saw him in town earlier in the pick up."

   "Yeah...Yeah, it's his day off."

   Bethany gave her the water then walked over to the fridge, feeling a little strange having to look up. She was usually considered of average height, five feet and six inches tall, but this girl had to be over six foot and Bethany was not exactly use to that.

   "Can I get you anything else?" she asked, opening the fridge door.

   "Oh no. This is good. Thank you."

   Bethany tried not to stare but it was a little difficult. She was use to being dirty, not by any means a clean freak, but this. This was taking being dirty to a whole new level. Bethany could not even see the girls face.

   Finishing the water she smiled pleasantly and thanked Bethany running out the door just as Aunt Laura pulled up in the Camero. Getting out of the car she watched in disgust as the girl disappeared into the trees.

   "Who was that filthy creature? You didn't let her into the house did you?" Aunt Laura asked hurriedly, walking up the steps.

   "What? She said you hired her to the do the garden on Liam's day off?"

   "I only hired Liam and Mandy. No one else," Aunt Laura said, her eyes blazing mad.