Beneath the Waves

Work and Wishes

"Tyler! I need you to grab the top rope!" Brock yelled, hands on the valve. Tyler sprinted past him, digging his feet into the metal under him and grabbing the rope to secure it.

"Jon on three!" Brock called, the smaller man nodding as he prepared himself. "One, two, three!"

Brock quickly spun the valve, feeling the tension under his hands. Tyler, John, and Lui did their part, keeping an eye on the drill to make sure it was running smoothly.

Once that run was finished, they locked everything up and Brock leaned against the metal pillar with a sigh, rubbing the back of his arm across his forehead.

"Right. It's time for lunch," Brock said and his friends nodded, using dirty rags to wipe oil off their hands.

Brock, Tyler, Jon, John, Lui and their other three friends Anthony, Marcel and Chrissy worked on a drillship in the middle of the ocean. Chrissy, Marcel and Anthony were mechanics, doing the maintenance part while Brock, Tyler and Jon were engineers. John and Lui were certified in welding and had certifications for heavy equipment.

They were part of the team that worked the 8am to 8pm shift every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, shifts then changing from 12pm to 12am Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Sundays they were split up, taking whatever shifts were available.

Brock grabbed himself a sandwich, chips and a bottle of water, moving to sit at the edge of the rig. His eyes trailed the waves below him, seeing fish and even a turtle swimming by.

He loved the ocean, the mystery and calmness of the waves soothing after a long day of work. When they got hit by storms, it was exciting, thrilling, and adrenaline filling. Sure it was terrifying, but Brock never cared.

He carefully stored his trash in his pocket, refusing to be one of the ones he'd seen throw their trash in the water. He hated that, and during his and his friends' off time they tried to do whatever they could to clean whatever they could see.

Tyler, Jon, Lui, Anthony, John, Marcel and Chrissy joined him, all looking down at the water. "This is the best part of this job," Jon said wistfully, smiling faintly at the waves breaking under them.

Brock nodded in agreement, taking a deep breath as the spray coated their legs. High tide was coming in, which meant the water that was several meters below them was getting closer.

Brock checked his watch and sighed. "We got 10 minutes, might as well go get our trash thrown away and get back to work," he said and his friends made faces.

As they all stood up, Brock noticed a couple of his coworkers standing on the landing above them, talking while eating. He paused, frowning as he saw one throw a Styrofoam cup and his plastic bag into the water, the items floating just a few feet away from the turtle he'd seen earlier.

"Tyler, Jon. Get the rope, I'm getting that before the turtle does and throwing it in Mike's face," he said irritated, kicking his shoes off and setting his phone inside one of them. Tyler grabbed a 20ft long rope, Brock securing it around his belt loops.

The rest of his friends took ahold of the rope, Brock eyeing the trash floating closer before taking the dive. He dove in with perfect form, having perfected this technique over the last few years of working at this rig.

He swam up, taking the trash and sticking it in his pockets. The turtle swam closer, Brock laying a gentle hand on its shell with a faint smile. That smile turned to a frown as he noticed a soda tab stuck around its flipper, Brock sighing as he carefully gathered the turtle into his arms and swam over to the ladder.

"Hey! Any of you got a knife?" He called up as he climbed the ladder carefully with the turtle under his arm. He was thankful it was a small one, only a foot long instead of the few feet they could be.