Maynard and I walked along the sidewalk, past the barber shop, the bakery, the flower shop and the record store. I paused in front of the record store, waiting

for Maynard to run in and begin searching through the vast selection of long-playing albums until he found Dizzy Gillespie.

Oh, Maynard loved Dizzy almost as much as he loved eating peanuts out of a giant bag (which he did on occasion, much to my annoyance); maybe even more.

And the store owner would be furious when Maynard took it upon himself to play Dizzy's music without asking, which he often did.

But as I stood in front of the record store a strange thing happened. Maynard stopped too. And he turned to me with a funny look on his face.

"Like what are you doing, Dob? I thought we were supposed to get as far away from your pop's store as possible."

"Well, we are, but-."

"But what?"

"Aren't you going to go inside and play some Dizzy Gillespie?"

To my utter surprise, Maynard shook his head. "Like no, daddy-o."

"No?"

"Nope. Not today."

"Why not? Oh, I know. You'd rather play Lawrence Welk."

"Nope."

"Come on, Maynard, what's going on?"

"We'd better get going. If your pop finds us here, he's liable to cream us!"

"I'm sure the last thing on Dad's mind is how far away we are from the store. Besides, when I said that, I meant figuratively, not literally!"

"No, we need to go, now!"

This was beginning to worry me. I mean, I worried about Maynard all the time but now I was really worried. I'd never known my faithful friend to pass up a

chance to listen to Dizzy Gillespie. And why was he in such a hurry to leave?

As for myself, I was exhausted. It felt like we'd been walking for miles but we continued on our journey to who knows where. I had no idea where we were

headed and quite honestly I was too tired to care. When I suggested that we get as far away from my father's store as possible, I didn't mean that we had to

cross the state line. My legs felt like jelly and they were sure to give out any minute. Plus, I was in dire need of a root beer. Oh, a creamy, sweet root beer

sounded just wonderful. Of course a sweet, creamy girl would have been better, but neither were possible at the moment, then the next best thing was a short

rest.

Suddenly at the end of the block I spotted it; the most glorious sight imaginable. No, it wasn't a girl, but it came close. It was a wooden bench, just beckoning

for someone to sit on it. It was painted bright red and it was the perfect place to rest my weary body. It drew me toward it like a magnet and I felt myself being

pulled by its strange force. When I finally sat down, the relief was immeasurable. I was completely and utterly content. In fact I was so content that I think I

might have even fallen asleep. But my nap didn't last long.

"Hey, look what I found!"

Maynard's unexpected presence jolted me awake and I practically flew of the bench, landing flat on my back. It wasn't a pretty sight.

"Like what are you doing down there?"

"Sleeping, Maynard! That's what I was doing!" I snapped.

"On the ground?"

I loved Maynard, but sometimes…. "Maynard! Help me up, will ya?" I held out my hand, grateful when he took it and tugged gently, bringing me to my feet.

"Thank you." I returned to the bench but I felt even wearier than before.

"Like, you didn't look!" Maynard scolded.

"Look at what?"

"At what I found!"

"Oh, right. What is it?" Honestly it could have been a ten foot gorilla and I wouldn't have cared. But like I said I loved Maynard, so I owed it to him to at least

pretend to be interested.

"Look!"

I glanced over and saw that he was holding something gold and shiny. Believe me; it didn't look special at all. Leave it to Maynard to find interest in the most

uninteresting things.

"Yeah, that's nice, Maynard." I said half-heartedly. Although my voice showed no interest whatsoever, I hoped that he wouldn't notice. The last thing I wanted to

do was make him feel lower than he already did.

"Wait, you didn't see it! Look!"

"What is it, Maynard?"

"Like hold out your hand."

"Do I have to?"

"Please?"

"Oh, all right." Reluctantly I held out my hand and looked away. I'm sure that's what he wanted me to do, so he could spring the big surprise of whatever he was

holding on me. The least I could do was humor him. But when I looked down to see what he'd pressed into my palm, my eyes widened in surprise. What I saw

was the last thing I was expecting to see.

"Wow, look at this!" I exclaimed. "A solid gold pocket watch!"

"Like yeah, that's exactly what it is!"

"Where did you find it?"

"Like right underneath the bench. I'm surprised that you didn't find it first, since you were sleeping on the ground. Why were you on the ground, anyway?"

"MAYNARD!"

"I found it right over there." He pointed to the sidewalk toward the back legs of the bench, where even the most meticulous person would probably overlook.

I studied the pocket watch more carefully. "Wow, look at this! It's phenomenal! How much do you think it's worth?"

Maynard shrugged. "I don't know. Fifty cents?"

"Maynard, a watch like this has got to be worth a lot more than fifty cents! I was thinking more like fifty dollars!"

"Fifty dollars? Like real dollars?"

"Well, I don't mean Monopoly money!"

Maynard took the watch from my hand and brought it to his face. "Boy, I bet if we took it to Mr. Arnold down at the pawn shop he'd give us at least that! Maybe

more!"

A light bulb went on over my head.

"You know, you're right! And just think if we split the fifty dollars between us we'd each have twenty five!"

The light bulb had turned into dollar signs.

"Just think, Maynard… twenty five dollars! Oh, what I could do with twenty five dollars! Why I could take Jennie Sue out for a night on the town; dancing, dinner,

the movies…."

"Yeah and with my half I could buy a goat! Or a pig… or even a cow!"

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. And that was a lot coming from Maynard. "You'd spend twenty five dollars on a farm animal?"

"Well, sure good buddy, why not?"

"No offense Maynard but it sounds kind of fishy."

"Oh, I could buy a fish, too!"

"Maynard!"

"Well, your idea isn't that great either!"

"Why not?"

"Like Jennie Sue doesn't know you exist!"

"She does so!" I shot back.

"Really? Have you ever, like said one word to her?"

I looked down at the ground. "No, not exactly… But when she realizes that I've got money and I'm willing to spend it on her to take her on the town, she'll pay

attention to me for sure!"

I looked at the watch again, but this time the heart above my head split right in two.

"What's wrong, pal?"

"Maynard, we can't keep this watch! It isn't right!"

"But we found it fair and square! It's ours!"

My greedy heart wanted to run to Mr. Arnold's pawn shop and give him that locket as fast as I could. I couldn't wait to get that money in my hands. But my

conscience couldn't do it.

Why couldn't I do it, you ask? I'll tell you why. Because on the front of the pocket watch was an engraving. And not just any engraving, but the words I love you

every second.

At that moment my greedy heart melted.