If Only, If Only

Digging Sucks

I had fallen asleep the second my head hit the pillow. The bed wasn't comfy at all, but being social made me tired, so I slept like an angel.

That is until the stupid alarm went off.

"Arghhhh..." I groaned, slowly rolling out of bed, my legs still wrapped in my blanket but my back lying on the dusty floor.

Was anything here not dusty?

"That's a bit dramatic," X-Ray said, looking down at me. I smiled and threw my pillow at him.

"Yeah, it's cause she's a dramatic person," Squid said. I took my pillow back from X-Ray and threw it at Squid this time.

I practically sleepwalked to the "Library". Breakfast was a tortilla that seemed to be covered in honey, which made my hands sticky.

My shovel had a small piece of red tape at the top, making it stand out from all the other shovels. When I saw X-Ray, he was grimacing at me. I gave Squid a what's-his-problem look, but Squid simply responded by looking between me and X-Ray, shocked.

As the sun rose, we walked onto the lake.

"Wait, what time is it?" I asked, finally waking up and realizing I had gotten up before the sun for the first time in my life.

"4 freaking 30," Magnet groaned.

I was shocked that I was still functioning. How is this possible?!

I found a spot to dig my hole and started to work. I was a good digger, but the ground here was harder than what I was used to. To make things worse, my water ran out only a few minutes in, making the wait to the water truck miserable.

I hope every day wasn't like this. What if I died of dehydration? I decided to keep myself busy by picturing a fake scenario in which I did get dehydrated and get to go home. I just love fake scenarios.

When I was done picturing myself lying in a comfy bed in an air-conditioned room, I started trying to decipher what I had done wrong to make X-Ray so grumpy at me this morning.

Mr. Sir drove the water truck and gave us lunch - a sandwich with a side of graham crackers and an apple. Again, I wolfed it down and had dug another half foot by the time the others were done eating.

"How deep does it need to be?" I asked Squid as I examined my hole.

"Five by five feet. Your shovel's your measuring tool." He reminded me.

After another 30 minutes, I was done. I hopped out of my hole and saw Zero getting out at the same time. He spit in his hole and turned to walk away. Before running to catch up to him, I  walked over to where X-Ray was digging.

"Here, if it's not too late" I squatted down and handed him the short shovel with the red tape in exchange for the longer shovel he was using.

I had figured the tape indicated something, and after examining the shovel for a moment it was clear the end had been worn down, making it shorter.

X-Ray looked from me to the shovel for a moment before muttering a small, "Thanks,".

The others finally realized what was happening, and that I was done with my hole.

"You're done?!!" Zig Zag shouted, his tall figure poking out from his hole.

"No way!" Barfbag said, astounded.

"Dang. You really are scrappy, you know that, right?" Squid said, looking at me.

"What can I say? I'm not going to wait around for you guys," I said with a shrug. With that, I turned and ran to catch up to Zero, who had surprisingly waited for me.

"You ever dug before?" He asked. It was the first time I had ever heard him talk.

"Yeah, actually," I said as I examined the calluses on my hands. "Sometimes stealing isn't enough, so I did a lot of manual labor. It wasn't fun, but it was reassuring to know at least some of my money was earned through hard work."

"Oh...Squid's your brother right?" Zero said, his face scrunched with concentration.

"Yep,"

"Did he dig too?"

"No...he uh...Well, actually yeah he did for a little bit, but then he started drinking and the whole thing just spiraled out of control, y'know".

Zero was quiet for a moment.

"Do you forgive him?"

I was taken aback by the question. Of course I forgive him, he is my brother after all. And now, he was clean, better.

But...maybe I was still kind of mad. Mad that I had to do all the work of earning money when we were supposed to be a team. Surely I could forget about that though, right? It wasn't his fault, he just adjusted differently to Dad leaving.

I never answered the question and we walked the rest of the way back to camp in silence.