Black Oil, Red Blood

Chapter 26



When Anna Delmont heard the explosion, she immediately jumped in the car and headed for town, which was located up on a hill and had the best view of the refinery. She never even considered the possibility that the explosion could have come from anywhere besides PetroPlex. There had been explosions in town before, and they all came from the same source.

She could see a number of her neighbors, also in their cars, driving hot on her tail. She dialed Joe Bob on his cell phone, but he didn’t answer, which was irritating. It seemed like lately, he never answered her phone calls. This made it mighty hard for her to maintain her position as the go-to girl for all the town gossip. She didn’t have any idea what was going on if her husband wouldn’t give her the scoop.

Really, it was darn inconsiderate of him not to pick up the phone. After all, there had been an explosion! How could he be sure she hadn’t been hurt in it? Didn’t he care at all?

Anna gasped as a thought occurred to her. Maybe he wasn’t picking up his phone because he’d been injured in the explosion. She dialed his cell again. Still no answer. Frantic, she called the courthouse clerk.

“Is Joe Bob in chambers?” she asked, her voice shaking slightly.

“Yes,” the clerk said. “Everything’s fine.”

“Why isn’t he picking up the phone?”

“Hold on,” the clerk said, and presumably ducked around the corner to poke her head into Delmont’s office. “I’m back. He’s on the other line. The phone is ringing off the hook here. I’m sure he’ll call you when he gets a chance.”

Anna wasn’t so sure about that. She thanked the clerk and hung up.

She pulled into the town square, along with a swarm of other rubberneckers who were dying to get a peek at the action without having to get too close to the source of the danger.

Although black smoke and flames shot from the refinery, most of the flames and smoke appeared to be coming from the safety flares that burned off excess chemicals if pressure in the system got too high. She could see a big, black hole in one of the walls, and smoke and flame belched from it periodically. For the most part, the firemen seemed to have the blaze under control already. This was definitely not the worst explosion she’d seen in this town. Most of the activity surrounding the refinery now was from paramedics, who were working to get injured people out of the building.

She looked around for familiar faces and spotted several of her lady friends. However, she didn’t really want to talk to them because they’d be asking her for the details about what happened, and since Joe Bob hadn’t bothered to call her back and fill her in, she didn’t know. She hated feeling so out of the loop.

When she spotted Dick Richardson, though, she didn’t hesitate to shove her way through the crowd toward him. After all, he might know something.

He was holding binoculars to his eyes, trying to catch sight of who they were bringing out of the refinery on stretchers.

She sidled up to him. “Hi, Dick,” she said.

He barely gave her a second glance. Instead, he shoved the binoculars in her face. “Look through here. Is that Jason Wheedly they’re pulling out of there?”

Anna took the binoculars and looked. She recognized the youth, who she knew from church, immediately. “Yep, that’s him,” she said. “Poor thing. He looks pretty tore up.”

Dick nodded and wrote “Jason Wheedly” at the top of his notepad, along with a dollar sign and the notation “300-600k.”

“Who else is coming out of there?” Dick asked.

He sounded frantic. Anna thought it was so nice of him to show such concern for his fellow citizens. She wished Joe Bob would sometimes act like he cared two cents about somebody besides himself. Maybe she should have married a man like Dick instead of marrying Joe Bob. Dick obviously had plenty of money and could have supported her in style, plus he seemed genuinely caring. Here he was, all worried about townspeople he didn’t even know! It was a touching scene.

Anna peered through the binoculars again. “Why, that right there’s Ellie Marvin’s son.”

“What’s his name?” Dick asked eagerly.

“John,” she said. “He’s a nice boy. He married that lovely girl, Julie Carpenter from across the creek.”

Dick grabbed the binoculars. “He looks pretty rough, too.”

Anna watched him scrawl “John Marvin” on his scratch pad, along with some other numerical notations.

“Ain’t you just the sweetest thing,” she said to Dick.

“Oh yeah?” Dick said, the binoculars pressed once again to his face. “Why’s that?”

“It’s just so nice to see a man taking such an interest in the community. It’s a wonder you’re still single. I can’t believe some woman hasn’t already snatched you up.”

Anna appraised Dick and thought that he might be a good match for her friend, Widow Schumacher. Widow Judy Schumacher was short, just like Dick, and she had a strong personality, too. Plus, she had expensive tastes, and Anna knew the widow’s life insurance policy was darn near about to give out. It’d be good to get her hitched up to someone who could take care of her like Dick could. It seemed somehow unnatural for a man and a woman not to be enjoying the sanctity of marriage together when there was no reason to prevent it.

Dick kept dialing Chief Scott’s number on the cell phone, but just like Joe Bob, Chief Scott wasn’t answering.

“Do you know how all this happened?” Anna asked.

“I would if that good-for-nothing Chief Scott would pick up his gol-darned phone,” Dick said. “Worthless S.O.B.”

“Joe Bob ain’t answering his phone either,” Anna said.

“I’ll bet he’s not.” Dick pressed the binoculars to his eyes again and squinted, forming little fleshy mounds around the eyepieces. “You know this guy?” He passed the binoculars to Anna again.

“Sure enough,” Anna said, and filled him in on the details. They went through the binocular exchange routine a few more times, with Anna confirming the names of injury victims and Dick making notations.

Just then, Anna heard somebody calling her name.

Speak of the devil! She turned around to find Widow Schumacher waving at her. Anna motioned for her to come on over.

“How’d all this happen?” the widow’s cheeks were flushed with all the excitement, and Anna decided that made her appear pretty attractive. It would be the perfect time to introduce her to Dick. And then who knew what might happen? They might fall in love and live happily ever after, just like she and Joe Bob had!

“I’m not sure yet,” Anna said, “but this here’s the man to tell you.” She tugged on Dick’s arm to get his attention. “Dick, this here’s Judy Schumacher. I been meaning to introduce you two for some time.”

This was obviously a lie, as the idea had just occurred to her, but it seemed like it wouldn’t hurt anything if she’d said so. “Judy’s a widow, so she’s single just like you,” Anna told Dick.

Dick glanced back over his shoulder at the refinery. “Is that so?” he said.

“I was thinking I might invite you two over for dinner with me and Joe Bob one night next week. How does that sound?”

Dick backed away. “I’d love to, he said, but my case load is about to get really busy.”

“Well, what about right now?” Anna asked. “You’re not doing anything but standing out here rubbernecking with the rest of us! Let’s head over to Caliente and get acquainted.”

“Sure, sure,” Dick said. “It’s just that I gotta get to the hospital.” He cleared his throat. “Right now,” he added. With that, he turned and fled.

Widow Schumacher looked flabbergasted.

“Oh, don’t take it the wrong way,” Anna said. “He’s such a good man. You should have seen the way he was fussing over everyone who got carried out of there. For the life of me, I never seen a man who cared so much about the good of other people.”

She’d set up a dinner later.