You Have 86,400 Seconds To Find Me

10:00pm (75,600 Seconds Remaining)

      "I told you I knew what I was doing," Kelly said, as we walked nextdoor to Jak's so we could order some burgers and some much needed coffee to go. 

   "Yeah yeah," I said, not wanting to give her too much credit. I mean yes, what she had done in there was pure genious, but that didn't mean I wanted to make her head any bigger than it already was.

   Once inside, Kelly and I walked up to the front counter and ordered two burgers to go and two large coffees, which only took them about fifteen minutes to make. I was grateful for that, considering it was now 9:57pm and I really wanted to be in the car and ready to go when Macy's next video arrived. 

   "Come on," I said to Kelly, as I paid the cashier and grabbed the two bags and the to-go tray of coffees from the counter. "We only have three minutes until the next video shows up."

    "You go," Kelly said, as she waved me off. "I'm just going to run to the bathroom, I'll meet you back at the car in like, five minutes."

   "Be quick," I said, as I pushed the door open with my butt and somehow managed to walk back to the car, unlock the door, and get all the food inside without spilling anything. Seriously, it was a fricken miracle. Not to mention I still had about a minute and a half left before the next video was due to arrive. 

   Taking advantage of this moment alone, without Kelly's nosy eyes trying to penetrate into my soul, I quickly pulled my wallet out of my pocket and unfolded Macy's note, careful not to rip it. 

   Think of me, when you're under the trees. 

   Under the trees? That's it? She couldn't come up with anything a little more descriptive? In my mind, I tried to make a list of all the places Macy could be talking about that had an abundance of trees. Naturally, I could not think of a single one. 

   I looked up at the digital clock on the dashboard just as the time changed from 9:59pm to 10:00pm. 

   Bing. 

   As if she had planned it, Kelly arrived back at the car, swinging the passenger side door open and throwing herself down on the seat, just as I hit play.

    Guess my moment of solitude was over now. 

   The first thing I heard when the video began to play was the sound of water. It wasn't a loud splashing sound, but more of a suttle swish swish in the distance. I leaned my head forward to try and make the sound clearer when Macy began to speak, her voice drowning out the sound of what I thought could only have been waves. 

   "Do you ever wish you could go back to being a kid again, Max?" Macy asked, tilting her head slightly to the side as she spoke. "Not so far back that you can't walk or talk on your own, but those few years in elementary school where the whole world is full of wonder? I do, all the time. God, what I wouldn't give to be six again, you know? Spend all day in school learning about colors and shapes and how to spell your name? Coming home to a nice home-cooked dinner and falling asleep to the sound of Scooby-Doo on Cartoon Network? That was the life. And the really sad part of it? We didn't appreciate it! That innocence? That security we all felt as kids? Gone! Poof! Just like that. As soon as you get to Junior High, it all goes flying out the window. But you know what, Max? Do you know what I really want right now? I want my childhood back."

   As Macy continued to talk, I couldn't help but remember the time my Mom took me to this Touch-a-Truck day they had at the park one summer. I must have been maybe, six or seven and I remember thinking it was so cool how all the fire-men and tow-truck drivers would all park their trucks up onto the grass and they would just sit there and watch as we all ran our little hands over the paint. Then, if we were lucky, they would give us a tour of the interior. There was this one fire-men who came right over to me and lifted me up into the truck and let me sit in the drivers' seat and beep the horn. My Mom had even taken a picture of me and him in front of the truck. I still had that picture of the two of us on a shelf in my room.