Three Days of Happiness

Once it was burned into my sight, I left the bus, and like I did as a
child, used a fallen tree to climb onto the roof. Brushing away some
fallen leaves, I lied down flat.
And so I laid until I heard cicadas ringing in the evening.
---
After visiting my grandfather’s grave, it was night, and I headed for
the elementary school.
I borrowed a shovel from the shed, went behind the gym, and
started digging with a rough idea of where the thing was. The green
light of the emergency exit dimly illuminated my surroundings.
I thought it would be easy to find what I was looking for, but either
my memory was wrong, or it had already been dug up. I was digging
for an hour, but all I got was a lot of sweat and no time capsule.
My throat was dry. My hands were getting really blistered, also
aided by my time at the batting center yesterday. Miyagi sat by and
watched me dig holes, writing something in her notebook.
While I smoked to take a break, my memory finally came back to
me. That’s right, we were going to bury it by a tree behind the gym,
but someone mentioned that a new tree might be planted there, so
we buried it somewhere else.
After less than ten minutes digging behind the backstop, I hit
something hard. I carefully excavated the round object so as not to
damage it, then brought it into the light. I thought it might be
locked, but it slid right open.
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