“Mooooooo!” went the cow on Buck’s farm.  Buck was a 12 year old kid with bright red hair, freckly white skin and a curious mind.  He lived on a farm, obviously, with cows, pigs, sheep, dogs, cats, chickens and his old Grandpa named Hudson.

One day, January 20, 2012 to be precise, Buck went out to the coop to get some chicken eggs for breakfast.  He cracked an egg open but all that fell out was an old key.  It looked as old as dirt, just like his Grandpa.  Buck thought to himself, “What could this key unlock?”

Buck brought the key to Grandpa Hudson.  He had so many questions for the old man.  Buck asked, “Have you ever seen this key?  Do you know what it unlocks?”  His Grandpa was reading a newspaper upside down.  This was usual behavior.  He always forgot which way was which.  Grandpa Hudson replied calmly, “Uh huh.”

Buck exclaimed, “You do!  What’s it unlock?”

His Grandpa replied, “Uh huh.”

“Are you even listening to me?” the boy screamed in his ear.

Buck’s Grandpa jumped up from his chair and said, “Buck, don’t yell in my ear!”

He realized then that Buck was holding a key.  Hudson snatched the key out of Buck’s hand and put it in his pocket.  “Now go feed the pigs.”

The boy turned around and headed towards the pig pen.  He looked back over his shoulder and saw his Grandpa throw the key as far as he could into the corn field.

After Buck finished feeding the pigs a tasty meal of corn on the cob, bread crusts and apple cores, he decided to go in search of the key.  He knew this key had to be special if it came out of an egg!  He searched for 3 days, morning and night.  He searched under rocks and looked under scarecrow hats.  He dug through mud pits and padded down ant hills.  Finally, he found it next to the tallest corn stalk in the field.  “What an adventure finding this key,” he thought to himself.  “Now only if I knew what it unlocks.”

Buck put the key in his shirt pocket and walked back home.  He was so tired from his long search that he decided to take a nap.  He headed up the stairs and into his bedroom.  He took off his mud-covered boots, put them by his door and plopped on his bed.  He put his head on his pillow – it was unusually hard.  Buck tried to fluff the pillow but it was still hard as rock.  He reached into his white pillow case and found a heavy, steel box.  He took the key out of his shirt pocket and placed it in the lock.  It fit perfectly!

Buck turned the key and lifted the top of the steel box open.  “What!”  Inside the box was a non-stick pan.  Inside the pan there was a note.  It read…

THIS IS THE PERFECT PAN FOR COOKING SCRAMBLED EGGS.  ENJOY.

The next morning, Buck decided it was time to cook some eggs with his new non-stick pan.  He went out to the chicken coop.  He grabbed 2 brown eggs and headed back into the kitchen.  He cracked open the first egg.  To his surprise, all that came out was another key.  “Time for another adventure I guess…”

To be continued.