POINT OF VIEW: DYLAN
Saturday, October 7, 2028, around 05.10 a.m.
The sound of his phone alarm instantly pulled Dylan out of his dream. After turning the alarm off and placing his head back on the pillow, the thing that immediately filled his mind was the Ancient Greek lady. The day before, precisely at 10.37 p.m., the lady was still studying the dictionary when Dylan decided to sleep.
She did not stop reading or flipping the pages from morning until he left her to sleep. Her eyes were still stuck on the pages, even during lunch or dinner. What's much stranger was the fact that she did not take a toilet break at all. Nevertheless, remembering she did appear supernaturally, he did not want to rack to his brain only to figure out an explanation for her condition.
After yawning twice and stretching both hands, Dylan tossed away the blanket and got out of bed. Expecting the lady to fall asleep on the table, he shuffled his feet to avoid waking her up. Entering the kitchen, the lady unexpectedly was still reading the dictionary. The last time he checked, the book had at least 600 pages. Now, the remaining pages were less than a quarter. He could not guess whether the lady had really read every page or she just skipped most of them.
The lady noticed Dylan's presence; she shifted her focus to him. "Good morning."
Dylan nodded; simultaneously, he was slightly amazed by the greeting. "Good morning."
"I already read many," the lady said as she touched the current page she was reading.
"It's... good," Dylan nodded again. "You... want breakfast?"
"I appreciate," the lady said. Dylan then went to the fridge and grabbed a pack of cheese, ham and four eggs. He turned on the stove and started cooking the eggs on the frying pan. He also divided his attention to preparing two sandwiches. Unbeknownst to him, the lady had already stood beside him.
"Many things I no understand," the lady said, once again amazed Dylan. However, unsure that the lady had mastered hundreds of words in a day, he tested her.
"You... know... many words?" Dylan said as he turned off the stove.
"I comprehend all. The book is perfect guidance."
"Do you mind... "Dylan spoke again but then paused, hesitating to continue. "to test you?"
The lady's expression stayed flat. Dylan could not tell whether or not the lady was offended.
"You may," she finally replied, relieving Dylan.
"Let's test while we eat," Dylan said, taking two plates and moving the eggs and sandwiches.
The lady sat in her previous chair, and Dylan sat across her. He grabbed the dictionary and started browsing for random pages. When he had selected a section, while the lady was still chewing the sandwich, he mentioned a random Ancient Greek word. With no delay, the lady gave the correct translation.
Dylan was still not convinced. Therefore, he repeatedly threw random Ancient Greek words from random pages. The lady translated each of them correctly, which made him shake his head incredulously.
"You now believe?" the lady asked after Dylan shut the book and put it beside him.
Dylan took a deep breath and exhaled it. "I do now."
"I glad," the lady replied before she stuck the fork to the egg and put it in her mouth. "All food so delicious," she said with contentment expressed in her face.
The last sentence made Dylan realize that despite the lady having mastered hundreds of words, she still had to work on the grammar. The dictionary presented a few sentence examples for each word, but the lady needed more of them to make her able to speak correctly. He decided to take grammar books from the library.
"Wait here," Dylan said as he held up both hands. He then rushed to the library's second floor, to the one section where Mr. Gafner had arranged explicitly for learning bilingual languages.
He grabbed the fundamental one required to teach the kindergarten kids, the intermediate level for elementary school, and last but not least, the advanced level for daily speaking. With the three books in his hands, he went to the registration table on the first floor. As it was still 5.30 a.m., Melissa, the librarian staff, had yet to arrive. Dylan opened the library software and marked the books he took as being borrowed. Once the system had successfully saved the data, he returned to his room.
"This book is useful to study English deeper," Dylan said as he put the books between his and the lady's plates. Immediately, the lady raised her eyebrows upon looking at the books. She took the primary level and started inspecting it. Flipping the pages thrice, she raised her head, locked eyes with him, and said, "Thank you."
Dylan nodded. "You're welcome. " He then started chewing the egg without having to blow it.
"Your Name...," the lady spoke again when Dylan was about to go for his sandwich. "What?"
"Dylan King," he said as he smiled. "May I know what your name is?"
"I... Goddess Athena," she said. "Goddess Wisdom and Goddess Battle Strategy."
The instant reaction from Dylan was confusion. He was familiar with the name Athena. But he only knew her as one of the goddesses in Ancient Greek myths. At that very moment, after hearing the lady's confession, he wanted to believe that she was bluffing, that a little while later, she would burst into laughter and start speaking in English fluently, "You've fallen for my prank!". But then he remembered that the way the lady appeared here made no sense. He surely did not know what to say about this.
"You no believe me," Athena said with a severe expression.
Dylan quickly shook his head. "No... no, I... ".
"Do not worry," Athena interrupted. "Last time humans no believe us real."
"Humans.. no believe you real?"
"Yes," Athena said. "Like them, you also no believe. Now I show you proof we real."
Athena grabbed the butter knife from beside her plate. She then placed her left hand on the table while raising the knife simultaneously. Anyone seeing the gesture would understand what she would be doing. Therefore, Dylan quickly stood up and clutched her wrist.
"What are you doing??" Dylan asked with a panicked tone.
"Not worried," Athena said as she threw a confident smile. She then pulled off her hand and stabbed her left hand with the knife. By reflex, Dylan covered his eyes with his hands.
There was no sound of a sharp object piercing flesh. There was also no scream. Curious, Dylan slowly lowered his hands. Athena/the lady still had a confident smile on her face. Dylan lowered her eyes to the lady's hand and noticed the knife could not pierce the skin. It was like someone trying to stab his hand with a toy knife made from plastic. Shaking his head in disbelief, he now believed that Athena was not a mere human.
"I can give more proof," Athena offered. Without waiting for Dylan's approval, she ducked under the table. Slowly, the table levitated as she turned out to be hoisting it. Seeing a woman with no body-building shape could easily lift a table was already surprising. The fact that she did it with only her left hand had just doubled the surprised reaction within Dylan.
"You are a real goddess," Dylan said as he shook his head, for only God knew how many times it had been."
Athena threw a victorious smile. She then lowered her knees as she intended to put the table back on the floor. After she sat back in her chair, she took the basic-level book and continued studying it.
Suddenly, Dylan was aware that he had to go to work. He checked his phone; it was already 5.53 a.m. Quickly chewing the remaining food, he told Athena, "I have to go to work."
"Be careful your journey."
Dylan felt weird with the response, but he still smiled at her.
"I'll see you later this evening," he said before turning around and returning to his bedroom.
*****
When he finally arrived at the Konishi Convenience Store, Dylan placed his hands on his knees and attempted to catch his breath. Usually, he would leave his apartment at 5.30 a.m. Due to his conversation with Athena this time, he could not board the usual 5.50 a.m. train. Much worse was the next train was late. Hence, when the train reached the destination at 6.32 a.m., he had no choice but to sprint to his workplace.
After adjusting his breathing rhythm, he rushed into the mini market, heading straight to the locker room. As soon as he entered the room, he pressed his thumb to the attendance machine. The system instantly identified the fingerprint and showed the time 6.47 a.m. Sighing in disappointment, he turned around and walked to his locker.
He took out his uniform from the locker and switched his T-shirt into it. While buttoning the uniform, someone entered the room.
"Hi, Michael," Dylan greeted as he focused back on buttoning the shirt.
"Why did you bathe in sweat?" Michael asked as he stood beside Dylan.
"Because I've just been sprinting from the station."
"Why did you sprint?"
"Well, I was going to be late. It was two minutes."
Michael chuckled. "Late for two minutes? I think Mr. Konishi will not even bother if you're twenty minutes," he said. "By the way, what made you late?"
"An old Japanese Drama about a talented group of doctors," Dylan said. "I've just found it two days ago."
"You really are fond of Japanese drama," Michael said as he opened the locker beside Dylan's and grabbed a water bottle. "Anyway, I've finished inspecting all canned foods and drinks. Can you go for bento lunches and dried snacks?"
"Sure," Dylan said as he locked the locker door. He then walked towards the cabinet and took out a brown envelope. "I'm off now," he said as he turned to the door.
Returning to the mini market area, Dylan was surprised to see Melissa, the librarian staff, standing in front of the bento aisle. Together with Matt, her fiance, she was observing the shelves of sandwiches. Dylan immediately went to them.
"Matt! Melissa!"
"Dylan!" The couples responded simultaneously.
"It's not like you to be late," Melissa said.
"Ah, you saw me sprinting?"
"Of course," she said. "We were heading here when we saw you running past us."
Dylan chuckled. "Too bad I was still two minutes late."
"I'm pretty sure your boss won't mind."
"Well... my co-worker Michael also said the same thing," Dylan grinned. "Anyway, what are you looking for?"
"Matt is craving for Roasted Eel Sandwiches. He planned to buy four for lunch, but there's just one left."
"I'm really sorry for that. The next batch of Roasted Eel Sandwich won't come until evening."
"It's okay. I'll grab other flavours," Matt said. He then turned around and grabbed the remaining Roasted Eel, two Chicken Katsu, and one egg sandwich. "I'll go to the cashier now," he said, then he turned to Melissa. "You want the pork bun, right?"
"Yes, two of them, please."
"Okie dokie," Matt said before he walked past Dylan towards the cashier.
"Ah! Almost forgot!" Dylan exclaimed. "I borrowed three English grammar books early this morning. I've already inputted the data to the system."
"Noted. I'll do the double-check after I log into the admin panel," Melissa said. "Whom do you want to teach English?"
"Someone I met yesterday asked whether we have good grammar books."
"I see," Melissa nodded. "Well then, I'm leaving now," she peered over Dylan to the cashier. "Matt has already finished."
"You want me to keep the Roasted Eel Sandwich?"
"No need," Melissa waved her hand. "I'm sure one sandwich is sufficient to satisfy the craving."
"Okay then," Dylan said. "In that case, see you later!"
"See you later, too," Melissa said before she walked past Dylan towards Matt. After Matt waved his hand to Dylan, he and Melissa exited the store.