The Last Shift

July 13, 2018

(Tanya's pov)

I quickly grabbed a drink of water from the rusty bubbler next to the office. Beads of sweat were falling down my face and I used a greasy rag to rub it off. Yes, I work in a mechanic shop, I've been working here since I was 15 years old. My dad owns the mechanic shop, and he only started paying me once I worked there. I never got an allowance for anything else.

This is important because I'd been wanting to save up to go to Greece for a long time. The mythology had always fascinated me and I'd always wanted to see the historical sights.

"Tan!" I heard my dad call my name. Nobody else called me Tan but my dad. I hated it, Tanya is such a pretty name and I liked the full sound of it.

"Yeah, dad?"

"Have you finished working on Mr. Powers's Mustang yet?"

"Yeah dad, I just changed the oil and everything's all set."

"Okay great, wanna meet with him and give him the rundown? Then you'll be all done working here 'till after we get back from Greece."

"Yay! I'm so excited! I can't believe you making me pay for all of this myself, though!"

"Tan, I have to teach you the meaning of hard work. You know that's a father's job."

"Yeah, dad, I get it."

I walked over to the front desk and gave Mr. Powers his keys and his full auto repair report. I couldn't wait to take off my heavy jumpsuit and jump into the lake. My dad and I lived on the south side of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Lake Michigan wasn't too far away. I loved going to the beach after a long day's work and taking a break. Something about the water was soothing.

I quickly took my jumpsuit off, don't worry I had clothes on underneath, and grabbed the keys to my Jeep Wrangler off the rack.

My dad said that my mom and him used to drive the Jeep everywhere, and it's one of the only things I have to remember her by, and it's just an awesome car, so I take really good care of it. If by taking really good care of it you mean offroading everywhere and then letting the mud stay on for a while.

I really don't know much about my mom or even really want happened to her, my dad has told me many different stories and I'm not sure if any of them are true. All I know is my mom hasn't been in my life since I was a baby, and it's never really been a big deal for me.

I arrived at the beach and saw a bunch of sailboats on the water. It was a nice breezy day and the sun had just begun to touch the horizon. I took off my shirt and shorts, and yes I was wearing a swimsuit underneath. I always wore one in the summer because I knew that I was going to go to the lake.

I jumped into the water and felt the sand beneath my feet, it felt good and I just rested in the water for a while before swimming to a sandbar further out.

As I swam closer to the sandbar I realized that somebody else was on it. Then he turned around and I realized it was one of my best friends Dakota.

"Hey Kota!" I yelled.

"Oh, hey, Tanya! You scared me! You done with work?"

"Yeah! My last shift before I got to Greece! I'm so excited!"

"Ugh, I can't believe you chose Greece over Italy! Italy is so much cooler!"

"Pffft, NO it's not. The Romans copied everything from the Greeks and it's stupid. I'd much rather go to Greece, obviously."

"Heh, whatever. Whatever trips your trigger I guess."

"You sound like an old man saying that."

"I guess. I have to go back home though, I was about to leave just as you came."

"Okay, I'll see you later, then?"

"Yeah! Send me pictures from Greece, okay?"

"I will! See ya, Kota!"

I watched him swim away as I took my waterproof backpack off of my back. I always brought my waterproof backpack swimming because I liked to swim on sandbars and lie on them with my towel and eat some snacks.

I took out my towel and laid it on the sand, and then took out my sparkling lemonade and cheese cubes and started eating them as I watched the sun go down. I slowly started to fall asleep as the last bits of sunlight touching the clouds.

I saw my feet lying on a sunny beach next to a pure blue ocean. I see something moving in the distance and hear a loud splash. It almost looks like… a mermaid? No, that can't be. All I could see was a red-haired woman pulling herself to shore and it looked like she had a tail.

Suddenly her appearance changed. It looked like she turned into water bubbles, and slowly her body raised above the shore and she looked like a normal human.

I saw her turn to look at something and I realized it was a younger girl, and she looked a lot like me.

I woke abruptly to the feeling of my body being moved by the water. The water had slowly raised over the sandbar and I quickly grabbed my bottle of lemonade and towel and put them into my backpack. I decided to swim back to shore and go home.

I finally got to the road my house is on, and it was a brick road so it was quite bumpy. The house my dad and I lived in wasn't anything to special. It was an old brick house, built sometime in the early 1900s. It had a cute dark wood front door and two stories. All the floors were wood except for the kitchen and the bathrooms which were black and white tile. The floors were all creaky but I loved the sounds and the smells of the old wood and bricks.

I walked up onto the porch and opened the door to my dad standing in the kitchen.

"Hey, Tan. How was the lake."

"It was nice, I saw Dakota there."

"Oh really? Tell him there's still an opening for someone to work at the shop."

"Yeah, dad, I know. I already told him. He said he'd think about it. I also had a really weird dream."

"Oh yeah? What was it about?"

"Well, I dreamed there was this… mermaid. And then she turned to look at someone that looked almost exactly like me. It was really weird. I never had a dream like that before. I usually just dream I have superpowers."

Dad's face got extremely red as I told him my dream and he stopped looking at me and turned to brown the beef he was making.

"Dad, what's wrong? You look like you just saw pigs fly."

"Haha, nothing honey. I just got worried that the beef might burn. Y'know, for our tacos?"

"We're having tacos? Yes! That's my favorite."

"I know, hun. It's mine, too!"

Dad quickly finished browning the meat and we took the hard shell tacos out of the oven and sat down in front of the TV to watch "The Office".

I got tired quickly and realized it was almost midnight. Dad usually stayed up late than me to work on his paperwork and everything, at least that's what I assumed. I never really asked. I got up and gave him a hug, put my dishes in the dishwasher and turned it on, and went up the stairs to my bedroom.

My cat Midnight was on the bed and as soon as he saw me he came running. I put some food in his bowl and let him eat it as I got my pajamas on. I said my prayers and then picked Midnight up and we went to bed.

July 14, 2018

I awoke to "Bad Company" playing on my phone. That was the ringtone for my best friend Astrid.

I looked at the clock and saw it was 11:00 AM. I never was an early riser, but neither was my dad, so it wasn't a big deal.

I quickly picked up my phone and answered,

"Hey, Astrid."

"Hey, Tanya! Wanna go for a hike really quick? I'm bored and I wanna spend time with you before you go to Greece."

"Yeah, of course! You know I'm always up for a hike!"

"Okay, wanna meet at noon?"

I said my goodbyes and put the phone down. Midnight was rubbing at my legs and I put some more food in his bowl. I smelled the wonderful smell of bacon and rushed down the stairs to see my dad piling some blueberry pancakes onto his plate.

"Hey, sweetheart! I just made some pancakes and bacon for us, obviously. I have to go to work so you just eat the rest alright? I'll see you later."

I ran up and gave him a hug as he walked out the door, and then went back to the table to get myself breakfast.

I quickly gobbled down the last pancakes and bacon and gulped down a glass of orange juice. I went back up to my room and turned on my laptop and started playing some music as I got dressed. Then I decided I wanted to take a shower, so I did.

I then realized it was almost 12:00 so I quickly put on my hiking outfit and got into my Jeep and drove to Astrid and I's usual hiking spot.

Astrid and I loved to hike and we usually alternated bringing food for picnics and this time it was her turn. We hiked to our favorite spot, which was a little cove-like place down by the mouth of a stream and a freshwater spring. We made sandwiches and talked about Greece. I noticed Astrid became more and more disinterested and she kept looking at the bottom of the picnic basket.

"Hey, Ash? What's up? Why do you keep looking at the bottom of the picnic basket?"

"Oh, no reason." She said as she giggled a little bit.

"What? What are you laughing at."

"Nothing, I just got you a little something for your birthday before you get too stressed out about planning everything for Greece."

"Really? That's so sweet!"

"It's not much, really." She said as she took a medium sized blue wrapped box out with a darker blue ribbon around it."

I opened it and quickly realized it was an old Polaroid camera. As well as a necklace with a picture of the goddess Artemis on it. I smiled and looked at Astrid.

"Oh, Ash, you know me so well! Thank you so much! I'll make sure to take lots of pictures for you in Greece."

"Absolutely, Tanya! It wasn't a big deal anyway, that's my mom's old polaroid, she hasn't really used it much and she says it's still in perfect condition."

I took a few sample pictures and selfies of Astrid and me, and then we started to walk back. I couldn't wait for Greece and I couldn't wait to use the polaroid 'til it ran out of film.