One Last Time

"One time," I pleaded.

"No," Jack said with a flat tone as he swung the scuba tank up on his shoulder.

"Come on Jack," I put myself in front of him, "If we find it you won't ever have to work again."

"Even if it does exist," Jack adjusted the tank on his shoulder, "Our dad died trying to find it. So no."

"I've looked at dad's old charts," I persisted, "The land marks on those old charts are pretty much gone now, but I did some research, and unlike dad I know where the entrance should be. We go down check it out, and if I'm wrong we come straight back up, and I drop it forever."

"I'm not wasting the gas on a pipe dream," Jack pushed past me, "I've got work to do. Sensors to check for the Marine Biologists down at the Aquarium."

"Not tomorrow you don't," I started helping him fill the tanks, "You always take dad's anniversary off."

"Don't," Jack stopped working for a full fifteen seconds as he gave me that look.

The look that meant I was about to dig myself a hole I couldn't get out of.

"I won't ask again," I stared right back at him, "Ever." I paused for effect, "If we don't find anything then I drop it forever."

Jack went back to filling tanks, and I kept helping until they were all filled. The whole time I could see Jack processing what I had said. He finally looked at me like he'd made a decision once we were done putting the tanks away.

"I want an extra twenty hours done in the shop this week," Jack looked right at me, "Basic maintenance and, ..."

"For me to do actual time behind the counter," I nodded slowly, "Deal."

"We find nothing," Jack pointed at me, "And you still get to do those twenty hours."

"Fine," I crossed my arms slowly, "Now are you going to drive me to school or not?"

"Go get in the truck jackass," Jack threw his sweat rag at me.

I caught it, and dropped it by the shop door as I walked out. I went out to my brother's old pickup, and shoved the triangle window open on the passenger side. Reaching down through the window, and hooking the door handle when my arm was a little over halfway in. The tell tale click as the door opened slightly was music to my ears. I swung the door open, and hopped in.

Jack would catch up in a few minutes. I pulled out my phone, and started scrolling through Facebook as I waited. Looking for nothing in particular. Mostly reading lame memes that my Facebook friends had shared. I saw Jack come out of the shop, and walk up to the truck.

He pulled out the keys, and unlocked the door before hopping in himself.

"You could use the door key I gave you," Jack started the truck.

"The one that's still in my underwear drawer," I put my phone away, and looked out the window.

Jack threw the truck in gear, and got moving. Tomorrow was the weekend, so we'd have all day to go looking for that cave. It was the one, and only time dad's anniversary had lined up with a weekend since he'd died. If we found that cave maybe we could actually do something with our lives besides cling to dad's old diving business. Our boat was barely floating half the time.

Jack spent almost as much time repairing the welds on the bottom of the boat as he did actually taking the boat out on the water. He wasn't willing to sell the dry dock or any of the equipment. The shop next to the attached dry dock. Then our apartment up above. Jack had sold the house after dad's life insurance money had run out, and modified the upstairs area of the shop into an apartment when the business had been about to go under.

That was fine. The house felt empty without dad around, and Jack working all the time. The move was a good change of pace. I saw the school come up outside of the window. As soon as he stopped I was out of the truck.

"Hey," Jack called from the drivers seat, "Do you have money for lunch?"

"You gave me a twenty yesterday," I slammed the door shut so it would latch properly, and headed up the steps.

Another day in hell. I grabbed breakfast, and headed for the first class of the day. Stuffing down my ham, and cheese breakfast bagel along the way. It was by far the most palatable menu item so I dealt with it.

"Hey fish boy," Conner checked me on the way by my desk, "Still swimming after daddy all weekend."

"Yeah well 800 dive hours say I can swim wherever I want," I mumbled to myself mostly.

"You have 800 dive hours?" the guy next to me looked at me funny.

"I dive every weekend," I focused on the teacher, "The hours add up."

Six classes, and a lunch later I was headed home. Jack came up to pick me up like usual. Always on time. Always the perfect big brother. I was always the screw up.

Always getting into fights. Always screwing up at school. Barely passing most of the time. My brother kept everything in control all the time. Always made sure I had lunch money.

Always made sure I was taken care of. What a jackass. Why couldn't he let me figure out something on my own? As soon as we got back to the shop I hopped out of the car, and walked up to the shop. Unlocking the shop door with my key, and walking in.

I went straight upstairs to the apartment. Walking over to the sink. Looking out into the marina. Our boat was floating down on the water just below this window currently. Jack didn't take me out on the water on school nights.

He expected me to actually do my homework after school. I heard the boat start up, and went to my room to actually do homework. I finished it up quickly, and sloppily. I didn't actually care about the homework itself. As long as I passed I didn't really care.

I had enough dive hours to qualify as in instructor so I could get a job with or without good grades. I'd just need to take a few stupid courses, and I'd be set. I pulled out the maps, and charts I'd been working on since dad had died. Spreading them all out so I could get a good look at them one more time. Jack, and I were early risers so I would need to get this right the first time or I would be wasting the one, and only time Jack would go out there with me.