By Woody Leach copyright March 2021
A story for "
The End of the Affair
" event. My thanks to blackrandI1958 for the invitation to join with the other authors in this event. They are rock stars and I hope I can hang for awhile.
I don't write as much or as often as I used to and Randi's events seem to be the only thing that brings me back.
I'm not sure this story fits but I like it so I'll include it in the event. First, I had to rush a bit to get it finished in time, my editor has done his best but I usually rewrite sections after his work, so any mistakes are mine.
As usual constructive comments and critiques are welcome. You can leave your thoughts with the comment section at the end of the story or send a message by clicking on my name. Thanks again for taking the time to read my work. Please enjoy.
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Kayce Morgan Randal looked at the young woman sitting at the bar; it was about the fifth time he had checked her out. She don't look like she's old enough to be in this honky tonk Kayce thought. He knew the woman was only two years younger than his 30 but he felt she could pass for 18 or even younger sometimes.
The subdued lighting in the bar only added to the young lady's good looks. The place had a long, old time carved wood bar that at one end made a right angle turn into the wall. This turn is where she and her female friend sat. Sort of a protected site that kept unwanted company from sitting on either side of the women.
She looks about the same as when I first met her, he continued his thought. That long auburn hair with a few red highlights, topping a well curved athletic body that was tall for a woman, she was 5 ft 9. But the thing that still catches my eye is the green eyes that are can cut like sharp glass when she is mad. They can drill through you like a laser or invite you closer with a look.
He knew the age of the young woman because she was his ex-girlfriend, Alyssa Beaudrow. That is if she isn't married, he wondered. They had just celebrated a month ago, if that was the word, the sixth year of their breakup; but he hadn't seen her in all those years.
"Not much to celebrate, I prefer to call it a bad memory," Kayce said softly to himself. Kayce was surprised to see her; he didn't know she had come back to New Braunfels.
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Kayce was born and raised outside of New Braunfels, in Spring Branch, Texas. He was a pretty good size boy by his last year in high school; Kayce was a 6' 1" 185 pound speedy tight end on his school's football team. He knew he wasn't good enough to get a scholarship for college and there wasn't a lot of extra money for his schooling so he decided to get a job, both to help out at home and for spending money. There not being a lot of job opportunities in New Braunfels or San Antonio for a boy just out of high school, he got a job as a worker on a drilling rig in the oil field outside of Luling, Texas.
The closest city of any size to the oil field is New Braunfels or San Antonio, if you wanted someplace bigger, which are both in the hill country of Texas. Not so Luling Texas; the area is pretty much flat land. It is best known for the Luling Oil Field and growing watermelons. In the summer it is hot and humid and in the winter can be cold with no trees or hills to break the wind coming off the Gulf of Mexico.
Kayce's job was as a roustabout, an entry level position, but because of the dangers of working on a rig, it paid pretty well. After a year he was promoted to roughneck, a step up the ladder. After one season on the rig In Luling, a friend got him a job as a motorman on a well in the Spindle Top field near Beaumont, Texas. His responsibilities increased and so did his pay; he was making almost twice what he had been.
After a year on the well in Spindle Top, he decided to take a few days off and go to Galveston Island for Spring Break. That's where he and Alyssa met. She was in the BSN nursing program at Chamberlain University in Houston and she was taking her spring break from school. They first met on the Galveston Island Pleasure Pier. The pier stretched over 1000 feet into the Gulf of Mexico. The attractions of the pier were the carnival rides, numerous restaurants and shops.
Alyssa was coming off a two level carousel on the Pleasure Pier and tripped. She fell into Kayce, spilling her drink all over him and knocking the beer out of his hand. She immediately began to apologize. "Oh, I'm sorry. I'm such a klutz. Let me pay for cleaning your clothes."
Kayce wiped down his shirt and the front of his jeans as best he could with napkins from a nearby taco stand. "I will admit shakin hands after this won't be much fun," he said with a grin. "Don't worry about it; this is just stuff I wear for work."
Alyssa felt an interest in the tall blue eyed, dark haired stranger. "At least let me buy you another beer and maybe lunch."
"That sounds like a plan. My name is Kayce Randal."
"I'm Alyssa Beaudrow."
They had lunch at Bubba Gump's. After more than three hours, the waitress asked them to order something more or leave; the restaurant needed the table. The long lunch turned into an early dinner.
At 6 o'clock they adjourned to the Rum Shack which overlooks Galveston Beach. "I know from us talkin you're studyin to be a nurse but any idea where you want to land when you graduate?" Kayce asked.
"Never gave it much thought, I just want to be a nurse. Rather stay in Texas, but I can be a nurse anywhere. You grew up near New Braunfels you said, so we were almost neighbors as I grew up there. How about you? Did you always want to work in the oil business?"
"Not really. I told you I was from Spring Branch. Our small ranch couldn't really support much more than Mom and Dad, so after I got out of high school a buddy got me a job on an oil rig. Been on one ever since; going on two years now."
They were a bit tipsy when the bar closed at 2 A.M. During the night and on their 20 minute walk to Alyssa's hotel they had discovered pretty much everything about each other's lives.
