“Shh!” Abby hissed to her best friend, Levi, who was laughing uncontrollably behind her. In all fairness, she’d told a pretty funny joke, but now wasn’t the right time to laugh. “It’s your fault,” Levi said. At least he’d stopped laughing. 

“Just be quiet and follow me. It’s really weird, trust me,” Abby whispered, grabbing Levi’s hand so they could stay connected in the dark. They’d been best friends since they were born; twelve years, two months, nine days and seven hours. Approximately. And yes, every time they had a sleepover, they calculated. It was something they both found an odd satisfaction in knowing. “Will you ever tell me what exactly we’re searching for?” Levi asked, in his usual, non-sneaking-around-the-house-when-they’re-supposed-to-be-asleep voice. “Shh!” Abby said again. “My parents can’t know we’re up.”

It was 8:56 pm, a pretty early night by most twelve-year-old’s standards, but they had to get up at four am the next morning for some star appreciation thing Levi’s parents had found on Facebook. “And no, I won’t if you keep being loud. We’re nearly here anyway.”

Abby knew her house by touch and a strange, excited, nervous feeling crept over her when she felt the door to the basement stairs. She opened it and pulled Levi inside, turning the light on once the door was shut. “Please, Abbs. I hate suspense.”

“I know,” Abby said, feeling wicked. “But we’re literally here. You’ll see once we’re downstairs.” He tugged a lock of her long blonde hair and even though it was dark, Abby knew he was sticking his tongue out at her.

Levi almost ran down the stairs, pulling Abby with him. She winced at the thundering noise of their footsteps and prayed her parents were watching a particularly good episode of Love It or List It Australia. When they made it downstairs, Abby pulled the cord that turned the basement light on and there it was. 

“A… clock?” Levi asked.

“Not just a clock, Lee. It was moving. Literally moving.”

“It looks pretty stable to me,” Levi said. 

“I swear it moved. Last night I was down here getting a blanket and it just seemed to appear out of nowhere and it. Was. Moving.” 

“Are you sure you weren’t delirious from the cold or something?” Levi asked.

“I wasn’t! But it isn’t moving now so maybe we’re safe to take a closer look at it.” Abby walked over and picked the clock up. It seemed pretty innocent: a silver circle with a white face, black hands and those two funny alarm bells on the top. “I think you’re losing your mind, Abbs,” Levi said. “There is nothing weird about this clock.”

He reached over to take the clock from Abby when it started to move, just like Abby had seen the day before. “Holy guacamole, you’re right!” Levi said, pulling his hands back. Before Abby could drop the clock, the world started to swirl around them. Abby grabbed Levi’s hand as they too started to spin. The movement made Abby feel sick and when she looked at Levi, he seemed just as terrified as she was. His curly black hair flew around his warm, honey-coloured face and his brown eyes were wide, wide open. Then it was over. 

They were standing on solid ground again, only… this was absolutely, definitely, positively not Abby’s basement. 

“Welcome,” a grey-haired woman in a blue summer dress said. “You must be Abigail and Levi.”

“I— we…” Abby stammered. “Did you do this?” she asked Levi.

He shook his head. “Did you?”

“Obviously not.” She turned back to the woman. “In the nicest possible way, who are you and how do you know our names?”

“My name is Cassandra Clover, Cassie if you like. I know your names because we’ve been expecting you.”

“...Expecting us?” Levi asked.

“You have the clock, don’t you?”

Abby looked down. It was still in her hands. “We do…” she said.

“May I?” Cassie took the clock from Abby. “This clock is special.”

“Well, obviously,” Levi said. Abby nudged him. 

“It’s called the Adventure Clock. Every year, it finds its way to someone’s home and takes them on the biggest adventures of their life. My wife and I are the first stop, to explain to you what’s going on. From here, who knows where you’ll go.”

“I’m sorry… what?” Abby asked. “You’re saying this clock is… magical? And it’s going to take us places? Where even are we? Because this is literally the strangest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Right now we’re in Greece. This is where my wife and I live. And yes, this clock is magical and yes, it will take you places. Should you choose to accept, of course.”

“Of course we accept! Right, Abbs?” Levi said.

She thought for a second. Magic, adventure, some strange woman, and an even stranger clock. It was a terrible idea but that didn’t stop her. “Yes. We do. We accept.”

“Lovely,” Cassie said. “You’re only here for an hour— that’s until your clock reaches nine fifty-nine— so I’d start thinking about your questions if I were you.”

“Or we could go out and explore?” Levi suggested.

“Shouldn’t we stay here and figure this whole thing out?” Abby asked.

“Come on, Abbs, you’ve wanted to go to Greece for, like, ever. Why waste time trying to figure out something we’ll probably never understand?”

“Because we just teleported from my house twelve and a half hours away, in the space of seconds!”

“See, you even knowing how long it should take us to get here shows you need to get out there.”

“We can walk and talk,” Cassie said. “But you might want some sunblock.”

“Nah,” Levi said, “we’re kiwis— a little sun shouldn’t bother us.”

“It’s midday out there,” Abby said, “and the middle of summer.”

“You really do know a lot about this place,” Cassie said.

“It’s on the top of my bucket list. By the way, what part of Greece are we in?”

“Athens.”

“Athens,” Abby breathed. “Are we near the Acropolis? Or any ancient temples? Or the Theatre of—”

“Look out the window,” Cassie said with a smile.

Abby did and gasped. “No way! Levi, look! It's the Acropolis!”

He joined his best friend at the window. “That falling-down thing? That’s what you want to see?”

“Shut up,” Abby said, grinning. “That is literally history right there.”

Levi rolled his eyes. He would never understand Abby’s fascination with all things dead and gone. 

“Shall we go take a closer look?” Cassie asked.

“Yes. Yes please,” Abby said, a smile still lighting up her light blue eyes.

“Then let’s get moving to the Acropolis.”

“And why is this thing so important?” Levi asked.

“It’s thousands of years old—” Abby started.

“Thousands? Holy guacamole that’s old.”

“And that’s literally the least amazing thing about it.”

Cassie closed the door behind them as they walked onto the cobbled road. “I can’t believe we’re actually here,” Abby said, grabbing Levi's hand and squeezing. “Well with the grip you're gripping me with, I can confirm it’s not a dream.”

“It would make more sense if it was,” Abby said, slightly coming back to her senses. Cassie was still holding the clock, but suddenly, Abby desperately wanted to touch it again.

“Is it alright if I take the clock?” Abby asked.

“Of course.” Cassie handed it back to her.

Dozens of people crowded the streets close to the Acropolis. It was summer in Greece after all, and the school holidays for at least New Zealand and Australia. Abby swallowed. They were in a strange city with an old woman they’d never met before, holding a magical clock that had somehow started this whole thing. “I’m kind of scared,” Abby whispered to Levi. “None of this makes sense.”

“Me too,” Levi said, “but carpe diem, right? Wait— is that Greek?”

“Latin,” Abby said, smiling. “But sure, let’s carpe diem this thing.”

“What does it actually mean?” Levi asked.

“Seize the day.”

“Then let’s definitely carpe diem.”

Abby relaxed a bit more. She had Levi. Nothing could go wrong with her best friend by her side.

“Abbs… where’s Cassandra?”

“She’s ri— oh no. How did we lose her?”

Abby looked around frantically. “Stop whipping me with your hair!” Levi said.

“Levi, don't joke right now. Where on earth did she go?”

“Don’t stress, Abbs. We’ll find her.”

“No, we won’t! There’s so many people here and they’re all literally as tall as the Hulk and I can’t see her!”

“Woah, Abbs, take a breath. She can’t have gotten far, I mean, she’s kind of old.”

“Don’t underestimate old people! My grandma can swim way faster than me and she’s older than Cassandra.”

“Go her! And it’s okay.”

“It’s not! We’re going to get stuck here or we’re going to get lost or we’re going to die!”

“Hey. Stop. We have the clock and we have each other.  All we have to do is wait—” Levi took the clock from Abby’s hand and tried to check the time. “Can you read these things?”

“No! Can you?” Abby asked, finding all the more reason to panic.

“Hang on. The shorthand is the hour, right?”

“Maybe.”

“Your voice is so high-pitched right now. Seriously, take a breath. We’re going to get out of here fine. And the long hand is the minutes which means it’s nine… five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, thirty, thirty-five… we have only twenty-three minutes till we can get home. And hey, we can get to your police place in that time.”

“Police?” 

“I don't know, the ancient building on the hill. The acro-police or something.”

“Oh. right. Yes. The Acropolis. There.” Abby smiled. 

“See, historical whatever's are far more important than losing the only person who knows what’s going on with us.”

“Levi!”

“I’m sorry. But we’re going to be fine. You believe that now, right?”

“Sure. Let’s go to the Acropolis.”

***

“Polaroid?” An Australian-sounding tourist asked Abby and Levi when they made it up the hill. 

“Oh… sure,” Abby said. They smiled at the camera and accepted the small photo from the man, who was already moving on to the next group of people. “That was weird,” Levi said.

“But at least we’ll have a reminder that this was real.”

Abby shook the polaroid. “Hey! Don’t do that," Levi said.

“What? Shake it?”

“Yeah. Apparently it’s bad for the colour.”

“And you care about that?”

“Well, not really.” Abby passed the photo to Levi and he shook it too.

“Levi…” Abby said once the photo on the Polaroid had shown up. “I just realised something.”

“Yeah?”

“We’re still in our pyjamas.”

Levi looked down, seeing his navy track pants and red long-sleeve as it was for the first time. Abby inspected her matching top and bottoms with the different sun patterns on them. “And Cassandra didn’t tell us? How did we not even realise?”

“I have no idea,” Abby said, “but it’s kinda funny. I mean, we’re never going to see these people again in our lives.”

“Thank goodness,” Levi said. “But now that you mention it I’m really hot. Looks like winter pyjamas don’t make such good climbing clothes.”

“I guess they don’t. Hey, the clock is about to hit ten, isn’t it.”

“Yeah. Three minutes,” Levi confirmed.

“And we never even managed to find Cassandra. I wonder what happened to her.”

“She’ll be fine. And hey, so will we. And you even got to see your dying building!”

“It’s not a dying building!”

Levi raised an eyebrow. “Would you call that thriving?”

Abby looked over at the half-structure. “I’d call it surviving. It’s survived for centuries and I doubt it’s going to ‘die’ anytime soon.” 

“I wonder if this thing’s been around for that long,” Levi said, holding up the clock.

“Alarm clocks were only invented in the seventeen hundreds.”

“And you know that how?”

“When you see a moving clock in your basement, you do tend to do whatever research you can on it.”

“I forgot that’s how this started. Hey— it’s about to tick over to nine fifty-nine. Hold it with me.”

Abby placed her hand on Levi’s and they both watched as the minute hand clicked over the little line next to the ten-o’clock one. “Hey, nothing’s happe—”

They began to spin, the feeling much like when they’d been taken to Greece. Abby watched as the acropolis faded, spinning before her eyes until all that was left was… her basement.

They were back. From Greece.

Levi stumbled backwards as the world finally stopped moving around them. “That was crazy mad,” he said.

“Literally the craziest, maddest sleepover we’ve ever had. Was it even real?”

“Yes! Yes, it was. Look, the clock— and I have the polaroid. It was definitely real.”

Abby sat on the ground, overcome by tiredness, relief and… hunger.

“Do you want food?” she asked Levi.

“Is that even a question?”

“All we have down here are chips. Original or…”

“Salt and vinegar please.”

“Weirdo.”

“Boring-o.”

“Are you sure you want to?” Abby asked. “We don’t have to go.”

“I didn’t rush through all my homework just to sit around watching Horrible Histories all night.”

“Hey!”

“Not saying that Horrible Histories is bad.”

“You so were. But we’re going to do this?”

“Yeah,” Levi said.  “It’s moving!” He pointed at the clock, which was indeed moving.

They rushed to it, stretching out their hands just in time to catch the clock before the world  started spinning. 

The darkness of Abby’s garage disappeared in swirls and they fell…

Into water. Abby and Levi swallowed mouthfuls of salty sea water as they splashed, trying to stay above the water. Levi recovered first, thanking the years of surf-life saving and his most recent sport attempt— waterpolo. He spat out salt from his mouth and grabbed onto Abby to stop her from fighting the water anymore. Coughing, Abby started to tread water just like she remembered from the one year of surf life saving Levi had forced her to try. 

“Holy guacamole,” Levi said as Abby tried to rid her mouth of sea water. 

“That clock literally just dumped us in the middle of the ocean.”

“Oh no— the clock!” Levi said, realising both his hands were empty. “You have it, don’t you Abbs?” He asked, but knew with all the splashing Abby had been doing she was unlikely to have held onto the clock.

“No…” she said slowly, bobbing about in the water. “If we’ve lost the clock…”

“We can’t get back home,” Levi finished. 

“So we’re in the ocean, have no clue where we are, have no phone or money or anything remotely helpful and we’ve lost our only way home. We don’t even know if this country can speak English!” 

Abby was mad. Her throat burned from the salt water and she was getting tired from treading water and she felt like it was all her fault. 

“Hey.” Levi grabbed Abby’s hands. “It will be okay.”

“How?” Abby asked. “How can this be okay?”

“I don’t know but we’ll make it work. The clock wouldn’t have chosen us for nothing, right?”

“Well the clock isn’t exactly the smartest,” Abby said, gesturing at the water around them.

“Fair point. But first of all, let's get out of the water. It seems like a really sunny day so at least we’ll dry off quickly. Then we can try and get some help with finding the clock.”

“It could be at the bottom of the ocean by now,” Abby said. “Will it still even work?”

Levi bit his tongue to stop himself snapping at Abby for being so pessimistic. She was just being realistic. 

“Let’s swim to those rocks over there,” Levi decided, pointing at a formation of rocks a few hundred metres away.

Abby nodded, determined. But Levi couldn’t stop thinking about what she’d said. How can this be okay? And he really didn’t know. They could be stuck in this country, halfway across the world from their home forever. He might never see his family again. Both him and Abby. They could die here. Levi shook his head, telling himself it was the ocean on his face rather than tears in his eyes. 

“You okay?” Abby asked, turning onto her back and surveying Levi, who was lagging behind her. Levi was a far better swimmer than her so Abby got the feeling something wasn’t right.

“I’m kind of scared,” Levi said, swimming faster to catch up to Abby.

“Me too,” she said. “But you’re right. We’ll make it work.”

It was funny how the situation had turned in an instant. But not funny in a good way because they were still stuck in the ocean. “We’ve got each other,” Abby said. “And we’ll find the clock.”

They swam side by side to the rocks. Both were panting by the time they reached them, but at least they were at solid ground. “Ow!” Abby hissed as she caught her palm on a particularly jagged part of the rock. She gritted her teeth and kept going. Levi followed her, both climbing up the rocks. Abby almost fell onto Levi when she saw a crowd of people staring at them over the bars by a footpath. “How do we explain this?” Abby asked Levi, waiting so that they could continue walking up the rocks side by side.

“Just pretend we don’t speak their language,” Levi suggested. “We probably don't.”

Rather than question them, the people at the rails just reached out their arms and helped the two soaking children over the bars. They were offered jumpers, which, smiling, they turned down.

“Tourists?” A man with a thick accent which neither Abby nor Levi could place asked.

Abby nodded. 

“English?” he asked.

Abby hesitated to nod again, but Levi said, “Kiwis.” 

“And where are we?” Abby asked.

“Croatia,” a woman in a massive orange sun hat said. “Did y’all hit your head?”

“No, no,” Abby laughed nervously. “I meant the area. I keep forgetting the name, don’t I, Lee.”

“Opatija,” the man with the accent said. “With the maiden with the seagull.”

“The what?” Levi asked. 

The man pointed back in the direction of the sea. There was a statue there of a woman facing out to the sea, a seagull on her outstretched arm. And between the seagull’s wings… “the clock,” Abby breathed. So it wasn’t at the bottom of the sea after all.

But how were they going to retrieve it without looking like total idiots?

“Are your parents around?” the orange-hatted woman asked.

“Oh. We’re here alone,” Abby said. 

“Alone? Surely you’re too young to be explorin’ on your own,” the woman drawled.

“We’re older than we look,” Levi said. 

“I don’t know. Join my family until you can find yours,” the woman offered.

“We’re fine, thank you,” Abby said.

“I insist. It’s dangerous out there when you don’t know the terrain. Can’t have y'all runnin’ around.”

“We’re only here for an hour,” Levi said.

“So are we,” the woman said.

They couldn’t run the other way in the crowd so Abby and Levi followed the woman to a man and two young girls. 

They spent the majority of the hour playing in the sand with the girls. Abby kept sneaking glances at the maiden with the seagull statue, letting out a breath of relief every time she saw the clock still nestled between the wings of the seagull. Levi gave her quiet updates on the time from his waterproof watch. 

When it reached 9:50pm on Levi’s watch, still set to New Zealand time, they got up. They were completely dry from the burning Croatian sun and Abby knew she was likely to end up pink all over her face when they got home. 

“Thank you so much for letting us stay with you,” Abby said. “We have to leave now though.”

“With your parents?” the woman asked with concern.

Levi nodded. 

“Well don’t y’all go and leave without a photo.”

“Oh— we don’t really want to go on social media or anything. Privacy and stuff,” Levi said. Abby hadn’t even thought about what would happen if someone they knew spotted a photo from a random American woman’s account of herself and them on a Croatian beach. 

“Polaroid then? For y’all to keep?”

“Sure,” Abby agreed, sensing the woman wanted them to remember this day. 

“Girls, come in for a photo,” the woman called. She took a photo and gave the blank white polaroid to Abby. “Don’t go fallin’ into anymore oceans,” she warned.

Abby smiled. “We’ll try not to.”

By the time they left, it was 9:53pm and Abby’s heart was starting to beat faster. What if they didn’t manage to get the clock?

Abby and Levi climbed over the rail. Luckily, none of the same people from before were there and they probably assumed the pair were trying to get a closer photo. The rocks were even sharper than Levi remembered as he led Abby towards the massive rock the statue was standing on.

“I’ll give you a leg up,” Levi told Abby. Even if Levi was more proficient in the water, Abby beat him thoroughly every time they went rock climbing. 

Levi interlaced his fingers and Abby put one barefoot into it. He boosted her up and she swung her leg onto the top of the rock, using the statue’s legs to haul the rest of her body up. 

It was quite a small platform, Abby realised as she stood, hugging the waist of the maiden. People were starting to take out cameras. Levi must have noticed this too because she heard him call out, “No photos please.”

She didn’t look back to see if they’d obeyed as she jumped, brushing the wing of the seagull next to the clock. She bit her lip and tried again. She touched just under the seagull’s wing. 

“Nine fifty-eight, Abby,” Levi called out, worry evident in his voice.

“Come on,” Abby whispered to herself and tried once more. This time her fingers clasped around a leg of the clock and she pulled it down with her.

“Fifty-nine,” Levi said.

“I don’t have enough time to get down,” Abby said,  panicking. 

“Lie down and stretch your arm as far as you can,” Levi said.

She did, most of her legs hanging down the opposite side of the post. 

“I’m touching it,” Levi said.

But Abby was slipping back down in the direction of her legs. She couldn’t hold the clock and keep herself up at the same time. She was going to—

They were swirling around and around, the maiden with the seagull and Croatian beach fading fast. 

And then they were back in Abby’s basement. Stumbling, Abby couldn’t be bothered to right herself and tumbled to the floor, panting with the panic of a situation far away now. 

Levi joined her on the ground.

“Holy guacamole,” he said. “That was epic.”

“Holy guacamole indeed,” Abby agreed.

Part IV New York

“Hey, kids.” Abby’s mum poked her head through the purple door of Abby’s bedroom. Levi and Abby opened their eyes sleepily to look at her. “It’s 8:45. Dad and I are just heading out for a few hours, Abby, but there’s pancakes on the table, and I’ve fed the cats. You guys can keep sleeping for a bit longer if you want.”

As soon as she’d closed the door, Abby and Levi caught each other’s eyes and grinned. “We’re thinking the same thing, right?” Levi asked.

“If you’re thinking it's time for an adventure, then yes,” Abby said. She rolled off her bed and onto the air mattress Levi was lying on. “Let's get changed— we don’t want a repeat of Greece.”

“And eat,” Levi added. “I love how your dad always makes us pancakes.”

They changed and chomped down plain pancakes in record time, then raced to the basement just as Levi’s watch hit 8:58 am.

“Where do you think we’ll be going?” Abby asked, tying her jumper around her waist and grabbing her sunglasses from the cubby they’d taken to stashing summer clothes in for their adventures. 

“It’s the fifth today, right?” Levi asked.

“Yeah.”

“That means the fourth of July. imagine if we went to Ne—” Levi stopped as the world around them started spinning. He grabbed Abby’s hand and hung on tightly as they spun as well.

“New York,” Levi finished as they were dropped into the bustling centre of what Levi knew from pictures was Times Square. “Holy guacamole, this is incredible.” While Abby was drawn to ancient architecture and all things old, Levi loved the modern bustling cities. New York was at the top of his bucket list. 

“Woah,” Abby breathed as people funnelled around them. She stepped closer to Levi and clutched the clock between them. “This place is busy.”

“It’s Independence Day,” Levi said.

“I can see that,” Abby said, staring at the abundance of red, white, and blue in every shape and form on the people around them. She’d never been anywhere so busy. 

“Do you think the clock listened to you or is there another reason we’re here?” Abby asked.

“Besides New York being totally awesome?” Levi asked. “Well, we went to Greece for you.”

“I think that was more for Cassie,” Abby interjected.

“Still, maybe it just wants things to be even. I, for one, am dying for an American hot dog.”

“We just ate the pancakes!”

“You can’t come to New York and not get a hotdog… or a massive slice of pizza! Or both!”

“Levi, we have no money.”

“Wrong! I brought that card my parents got for me when we went to Mexico last year.”

“And random New York expenses won’t look weird on it?”

“No one will have to know except me. Come on, Abby!”

“Fine. But you’re the one who has to explain it if we get asked.”

Lines snaked all the way through Times Square, the massive screens above them portraying wishes from brands and celebrities wishing them a happy July 4th. Abby and Levi joined a short queue for hotdogs. 

“There I was thinking it was busy outside the Acropolis,” Abby said. “I don’t think I’ve ever been so wrong.”

“This is so cool,” Levi said, still marvelling at the scene around them. At the front of the queue, Levi bought a hotdog and handed half to Abby. 

“Hey, look at that,” Abby said, nodding her head to a smaller vendor beside the hotdogs. They weren’t selling food, but what looked like postcards— old postcards. She took a bite of the hotdog. “This is good.”

“Should we check out those old postcard things?” Levi asked, knowing that there was no way Abby would move on without at least looking at them. Abby gulped down the rest of her half of the hotdog and wiped her hands on her shorts. The postcards were two American dollars each. Some were going yellow at the edges, but most of them seemed to be in good condition. They all had writing on the back from long-gone lovers, relatives and friends. 

“Would you like to see the map?” A girl, looking a couple of years older than Abby and Levi and wearing a top hat with the American flag on it said. 

“The map?” Levi asked.

“We have a map on the back of one of the postcards,” the girl explained, “and we’re looking for someone to accept the call to adventure and figure out where it leads.”

“Sounds like something we can do,” Levi said. 

Abby looked at her watch. They still had 48 minutes before their time in New York was up, and they seemed to be taking a lot of risks lately. 

“We don’t have very much time,” Abby said.

“I can help if you’d like. I’m Mia, by the way.”

“I’m Abby,” Abby said.

“And I’m Levi,” Levi said.

“Do you guys have any parents around?”

“We have an hour to ourselves,” Abby said, because technically it was true.

“And they let you loose in Times Square on Independence Day?”

“They don’t exactly know we’re here.”

“Well, you’re in safe hands with me. I know this place inside and out. Where are you guys from anyway?”

“New Zealand,” Abby said.

“You’ve come far,” Mia said. “Any reason?”

Abby glanced at the clock as Levi said, “Not really.”

“Time,” Mia said, remembering their limitations. “Let's get going.” She reached into her bag and pulled out an old postcard with a picture of the Statue of Liberty on the front. She flipped it over and exposed something that sort of looked like a map. Instead of street names and buildings, the map showed small icons and in between some of them was an X. 

“The only thing I’ve gathered is that this is Broadway,” Mia said, pointing at the picture of a rainbow. “It’s for Finian’s Rainbow, one of the musicals that was on at the time this map must have been drawn— 1947.”

“It’s that old?” Abby asked.

“It’s dated up the top here,” Mia said, pointing at the top right corner. 

“So if Broadway is here, then this must be where we are,” Levi said, pointing at the icon of a newspaper close to the rainbow icon.

“A newspaper?” Abby asked.

“It fits geographically, plus Times Square was named after the New York Times.”

“Look at you with your history,” Abby said, impressed that her best friend actually did care about some history for a change.

“You know I’ve wanted to come here my entire life, Abby,” Levi said. 

“So if Broadway is here, and Times Square is here,” Mia said, “that means if we face towards Broadway—” she pointed and all of them turned, “— the treasure or whatever we’re searching for is in that direction.” She pointed right. “Oh! This makes sense. What does this look like to you?” She pointed at another icon on the map. 

“A rock?” Abby guessed.

“Looks pretty rock-like to me too. Is it the Hard Rock Cafe?” Levi asked.

“That was my first thought, but given the direction, I think it’s the Rockefeller centre. And that lines up with this which I thought was a cloud but I think it must actually be a tree.”

“For Central Park?” Abby guessed, wanting to be helpful in some way. 

“Exactly,” Mia said. “So I actually have a pretty good idea of where our treasure might be. It’s not too far away either.”

“What are we waiting for then?” Levi asked.

“I’ll be back soon,” Mia told someone who must have been her father who was sitting behind the postcards. She led the way through the crowd, who’d begun singing the national anthem for a reason Abby and Levi didn’t understand. Mia hummed along.

“What’s it like to live here?” Levi asked, squinting up at the massive buildings around them framed by the sunset. 

“It’s busy,” Mia said. “There’s always people around and I’m not allowed out on my own, especially at night. It has its charm though. Lots of people get overwhelmed by the chaos but I’ve grown up loving it. Down there is Broadway. It’s my dream to be on one of those stages someday.”

Abby and Levi craned their necks to look down the street full of theatres. 

“I’m sure you will,” Abby said. Mia had the feel of a performer.

“Thanks.” 

“I love the way your roads are laid out,” Levi said as they turned down 49th Street. “It makes so much sense.”

“It is pretty hard to get lost if you know where you're headed,” Mia agreed. “We don’t have too much further to go now.” they walked a few steps in silence before Mia said, “How was the trip over? Are you planning to go anywhere else in the States?”

“The trip over felt really quick,” Levi said, skirting around the truth. 

“And we’re not planning to go anywhere else,” Abby said. She looked at the clock. They had 27 minutes left.

“I’d love to visit New Zealand,” Mia said. “But it’s so far away. Oh— we should be just about here.”

They all stopped and looked around. There wasn’t anything remarkable except… “Look at this,” Levi said, stepping closer to the corner of a concrete wall. There was an ‘X’ carved into it, almost exactly the same as the one on the map. An arrow beneath it told them to go down the alley.

Mia looked hesitant as Levi started to walk down the alley. “It might not be safe down there,” she said.

“There’s no one down there,” Abby said. She could see all the way to the end of the alley where the sun was shining through the rows of buildings.

“Okay,” Mia said. They all walked down the alley, eyes flicking from wall to wall for some indication of what they were actually supposed to be looking for. 

“Here!” Mia said, and they all crowded around the bottom of the wall. Carved into the concrete were words. 

I love you, Charles, I’m sorry -Edaline Turnbull, 1947

“Oh my goodness,” Mia said, standing up straight. “It’s Eda and Charlie.”

Both Levi and Abby looked at her blankly.

“We have an entire set of postcards written by these siblings, Edaline and Charlie Turnbull. Eda was a nurse in the second world war and Charlie was too young to fight at the time. They were British, but Eda moved to New York to marry a soldier she’d met. She’d always promised Charlie she’d come back and get him and bring him to New York, but she had injuries from the war and she ended up getting so sick that she couldn’t possibly travel. She must have posted the postcards and then done this. I tried to research them once for a school history project but there was nothing about them online so I had to give up. I never thought she’d have been the one to draw the map.”

“That’s amazing,” Abby said. “And also really sad. Do you know if Charlie ended up coming to New York?”

“He wrote to Eda that he’d come over for her funeral, and then I did manage to find out from the woman we got the postcards from that he fell in love with Eda’s husband’s cousin and ended up staying here and having a family.”

“That’s so sweet.” Abby looked at the clock. “We’d love to stay longer but we actually have to head off now.”

“Keep the postcard,” Mia said, passing it to Abby. “And email me if you want? We have a lot more stories like Eda and Charlie’s if you’d like to hear about them. It’s stampsandcursive@icloud.com.”

“I will,” Abby said, meaning it. 

“Thanks for this,” Levi said. 

Abby pulled him out of the alley and down another one. “We still have five minutes,” she said. “What did you think of New York?”

“I’m coming back as soon as I finish school,” Levi said. “Did you like it?”

“It was so busy. I don’t know how people cope with it. But I liked it well enough. I’m glad you enjoyed it.”

They sat quietly, watching the time tick down on the clock. “No polaroid this time,” Abby said.

“The postcard is still pretty cool though,” Levi said.

The hand ticked onto 10 and both friends clutched the clock. New York spun away from them and they landed back in Abby’s garage. 

Abby stashed the postcard where she kept the Polaroids, then grabbed a piece of paper and wrote down Mia’s email address.  

“It’s freezing,” Levi said. The coldness of Abby’s basement definitely contrasted with the heat of New York. 

“Want to watch a movie?” Abby asked.

“Something set in New York?” Levi asked. “We might actually recognise the places now.”

Part V Mexico

“I can’t believe you’re going to be a teenager tomorrow,” Levi told Abby. They were down in her basement finding decorations for Abby’s party which was happening in the evening. Abby’s parents had left them alone to set up because Abby had left quite a long list of food she wanted from the supermarket. She also knew it would buy them at least an hour for her last adventure as a 12 year old.

Abby took the bow they’d started covering the clock with off it and it almost instantly started to move. 

“Ready?” Abby asked Levi. he nodded and they both reached out to grab onto the clock. The familiar swirling began and Abby and Levi grinned at each other as Abby’s home disappeared. They landed on their feet in a brightly painted alleyway. 

When the world stopped spinning, the first thing Levi noticed was the noise. People were cheering for something on the road that the alley joined onto. “Where are we?” He asked.

“Let's go find out,” Abby said. She started to lead them out of the alley, but stopped short when a massive shadow stretched across the sky. “Is that a…”

“Skeleton?” Levi finished, staring up at the massive white skull with yellow flowers on its top.

“We must be in Mexico,” Abby said, pulling Levi all the way out of the alley and into the crowd lining the street.

“Is this what we learned about last term? The day of death?” Levi asked, thinking back to the social studies topic where they’d learnt about festivals of the world.

“Dia De Los Muertos,” an old woman who Levi had ended up standing next to said, “the Day of the Dead.”

“This is amazing. Look at all of them,” Abby said to Levi, her eyes fixed on the procession. People in bright clothing and massive skull headdresses with drawn on smiling mouths were walking through the street.

“Do you reckon all those flowers are real?” Levi asked.

“No idea. But probably. I mean— woah.” Abby broke off as a massive skeleton carried by at least 6 people started making its way down the street.

“Woah,” Levi echoed. People all around them were taking photos and videos and— “Abby, we have to get out of here,” Levi said.

“What? Why?” Abby said, looking around for any danger.

“Look at all the cameras. And the big news ones too. This is a major, important thing right?”

Abby nodded, realising what Levi meant.

“It’ll probably be on the news tonight. And if anyone sees us… let’s go.”

The woman who’d corrected Levi also chose that moment to make her way out the back of the crowd, so Abby and Levi followed the path she carved out. “Too many people?” the woman asked a few seconds later, realising the friends had been following her.

“Yeah,” Abby said. 

“You’re visitors?” the woman asked.

Levi nodded. 

“What do you think of our parade?” The old woman asked.

“It’s incredible,” Abby said. “Do you live here?”

“Yes. My name is Maria.”

“I’m Abby,” Abby said.

“And I'm Levi,” Levi said. “Nice to meet you.”

“And you. What are your plans for the rest of the day?”

“We’re not here for long,” Abby said. “But we don’t really have any plans.”

“Are you here long enough to help an old woman clean her husband’s grave?” Maria asked. “I get arthritis and it’s awful today.”

“Of course,” Levi said. “Why are you cleaning his grave?”

“It’s a more private part of this day. We visit the graves of our loved ones and leave them gifts and keep them clean. This is the first day I’ll be cleaning my husband’s grave.”

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Abby said. “What was he like?”

“Sebastian was an angel of a man,” Maria said, but didn’t say anything else.

“We’d love to help you clean his grave,” Abby confirmed. 

“The cemetery is very close,” Maria said. 

Abby and Levi followed Maria single file behind the crowd lining the streets, then trend down a road where everything became quieter. 

“Sometimes I feel that we lose the meaning of the day in all the noise and processions,” Maria said. “It is beautiful to celebrate those we have lost, of course, but sometimes we forget to do it quietly with only ourselves.”

“We can go if you’d prefer to be alone,” Levi said.

“No, no, that isn’t what I meant. I like the company.”

They turned a corner and a big sign reading something in Spanish arched over a silver gate. Lots of yellow flowers were laid out at the bottom of the gate, and when they got closer, Abby and Levi saw that the flowers were also placed on the graves. 

“What do the yellow flowers mean again?” Abby asked.

“They’re our Flor de Muerto, Flower of the Dead,” Maria said. “They guide the spirits and also remind us of the beauty of life. They are very beautiful, yes?”

“They are,” Levi agreed. He wished he’d listened more carefully the many times his grandmother had tried to teach him Spanish.

“Sebatian’s grave is close,” Maria said. She led them down a path off the side of the main graveyard where there weren’t as many graves, and all the dates seemed more recent. 

“Here he is.” Maria said, and before either Abby or Levi realised what she was doing, she’d knelt on the ground. “I’m not sure how I'll get back up,” Maria said with a small laugh. 

She started talking in Spanish, and Levi really wished he’d listened to his grandma. Then again, this was probably something private for Maria.

“How did we end up here?” Abby wondered out loud quietly. “Watching an old lady talk to her dead husband’s grave.”

She looked up as she heard Maria say their names, but she was still talking to the gravestone.

“Honestly, I don’t really know. But it’s pretty sweet, isn’t it. It’s nice to see the other side to the parades and stuff.”

“Te amo,” Maria said. Levi had heard that one enough to know it meant, ‘I love you.’

“Would you like to help me clean?” Maria asked, taking a packet of wipes out of her bag. 

Abby and Levi knelt down with her, careful not to kneel on the ground directly in front of the gravestone. “I never really thought about how dirty gravestones got,” Levi said, looking at the black smear on his wipe.

“Not many do,” Maria said. That was the point.

Once the wipes started turning up clean, Maria opened her back again and pulled out a bunch of the yellow flowers and some things that looked like skulls. “Here are our marigolds,” Maria said, handing Abby and Levi one each. “I have introduced you to Sebastian. He always loved being able to teach younger generations— he was a teacher. I think he will be happy you are here.”

“I’m happy we’re here,” Abby said, smiling, as she placed her flower next to the gravestone.

“What are those?” Levi asked, pointing to the skulls.

“They’re sugar skulls. Sebastian loved painting the sugar skulls. We put their names on them and leave them here.”

Maria placed two of the small skulls amongst the flowers. 

“I will be buried here,” Maria said, pointing at a patch of ground next to Sebastian’s gravestone. “I hope there will be someone to place flowers on my grave.”

“That’ll still be some time away, hopefully,” Abby said.

“Death is not something to be feared,” Maria said. “I will be ready when it is my time.”

Talking about time… Abby glanced at her watch, surprised to see it was already 9:53am, New Zealand time.

“It was lovely to meet you,” Abby said, gesturing discreetly at her watch for Levi. 

“Thank you for helping me,” Maria said. 

“It was our pleasure,” Levi said, nodding at Abby. “And thank you for bringing us to your husband too.”

“You are good kids,” Maria said, smiling. “Here.” She handed Abby a yellow flower ‘for your hair,’ and Levi a plain sugar skull ‘not to be eaten.’

“Make the most of your lives, yes?” Maria said.

“We will.” Abby and Levi promised.

They helped Maria back to her feet and then said goodbye, heading behind a tree where no one would notice them spinning away. 

Abby tucked the flower behind her ear, and Levi put the skull in his pocket. “I’m glad she told me not to eat it,” he said, “or I would absolutely have tried.”

“Ten seconds,” Abby said, pulling the clock out of her pocket where it had left a large bulge.

Levi put his hand on the clock and they counted down from five.

The graveyard began to swirl around them and in seconds they were back in Abby’s garage. The flower fell off Abby as they landed very ungracefully. “Do you think I could dry this?” Abby asked.

“You’re asking the wrong person here,” Levi said. “But probably?”

“We can put that in the cubby,” Abby said, pointing at Levi’s pocket where the skull was.

“I think I’m going to get my grandma to finally teach me Spanish,” Levi said. 

“You should!” Abby said. “I think you’d both love it.”

“I can teach you once I’ve learned,” Levi offered.

“Maybe if we do learn we can go back and talk to Sebastian’s grave… and maybe Maria’s,” Abby said.

“We could give them both sugar skulls.”

“Is this a plan?” Abby asked. 

“Yes. One day we’ll go back to Mexico and find the graves and celebrate both of them.”

Abby held out her hand and Levi shook it.