The Hollow Men - Episode 6
A young woman vanishes, Rick and Drew get a business loan and VP Tank opens for business.
Last week in Episode 5 of The Hollow Men Drew avoids growing up while many of his peers move into adulthood, his sister Elizabeth takes up cooking, Andrea is ready to move on with life and Rick proposes a business deal to Drew.
If you’re the type that likes to read things from the very beginning feel free to start with The Cold Days of Summer, the first collection of not quite true tales of Texas. Each episode of The Cold Days of Summer and The Hollow Men contains a link to the previous and next episode so you can easily move through all of the episodes.
She vanished
For most of us July 19, 1978 was like any other Wednesday. It was quarter beer night at The Other Place and it was packed. We had good attendance that night. Rick, Mark, Barry, Jason, even J.T. and Sue made an appearance. The biggest surprise of the night for us was that Mike Garret showed up. He didn’t go out often during the week so him showing up for quarter beer night was a treat.
As the evening wore on we took turns buying a plate of quarter beers for the table. It was Mike’s turn and I went along with him to catch up on things. While we waited in line I caught one of the bartender’s eye and I showed him four fingers, then made a 0 with my thumb and forefinger. He nodded.
“What was that, some kind of secret code?” asked Mike.
“We’re regulars here and I just let him know that you and me want a tray of 40 quarter beers. We’ve been doing this for the last few months. They like the advance warning, they have learned our pace, and keep the beers coming.”
“Shit, you boys have been spending too much time in the bars.”
“Probably so, Mike, probably so.”
We were number two in line when someone said “Damn, is that you, Garret? Shit, I haven’t seen you in a month of Sundays.”
Mike turned in the direction the voice was coming from, sighed, and said “Not long enough, Steve, not long enough.”
The two talked for a moment or two, we moved to the front of the line, I paid the tab and left a decent tip for the bartenders.
As we walked back to our table with our beers, Mike mumbled under his breath and shook his head.
“Mike, I’ve known you for a few years and I thought you knew nothing but friends. I don’t think you like Steve.”
“I don’t. Never have. There’s something about him that creeps me out. I don’t know what it is, but he sets my nerves on edge.”
Back at the table the topic changed and the night went on. We finished our last plate of beers. Quarter Beer night was officially over, drink prices had gone back to normal, and it was time to move on. We didn’t travel far. We went to our second favorite place on a Wednesday night, the Pizza Inn which was a short walk across the parking lot from The Other Place. The crowd was smaller as J.T. and Sue called it an evening. After a couple of pizzas and two pitchers of beer we were done for the night. As we walked out the door of the Pizza Inn Mike swore to all of us we would never see him again out on a Wednesday night.
The next Saturday night, August 5th, after a good evening out I woke up in the field, but not in a normal way. I was standing in the field, or a field, maybe not the field I was used to. I didn’t recognize any landmarks. I was disoriented, not sure of which direction to go.
Without any kind of familiar landmark I was in a quandary. I could start walking but I might wind up taking myself further from where I usually met Tommy. As I pondered what to do I sensed a presence. I looked around and saw a shadow of a person watching me. Yes, a shadow, but not a shadow on the ground, but a standing shadow that was looking at me. Even though it seemed to be nothing but a shadow I sensed she was a young woman. She seemed somewhat familiar, not like someone I knew, but someone I knew of.
She turned away from me and walked a few steps, then looked over her shoulder and motioned to me as if to follow her.
This was a new one on me. A shadow, not a person, not an animal, and a shadow that wanted me to follow her.
She began to fade from view as she walked further away. I had to make a quick decision and decided it would be better, in this case, to follow her. As I followed after her I noted a few landmarks in case I needed to find my way back to my waking point.
I’m not sure how long we walked. Time seems to flow strangely in the field. The she shadow was always a few steps ahead of me but moved in a sure, steady direction. Up ahead I could see a large oak tree off to my right and straight ahead the glow of what might be a small town. I was in familiar territory. She vanished, just faded away. I was alone. I could no longer sense her.
I walked towards the oak tree. Once I was under the shade of the oak tree I saw Socks, bouncing through the grass and I saw Tommy walking behind Socks. Socks arrived first and I gave him a good rubdown.
“Well, you’ve been away for a while. You figured out how this place works yet?”
“No, Tommy, I haven’t. You have any ideas you would care to share?”
Tommy didn’t. We caught up on things, but he didn’t seem too surprised by anything that was going on in the other world. It seems he had good intel.
“Tommy, I do have a question for you. This time is different than the other times. I arrived in a part of this world I’m not familiar with. I didn’t know where I was or how to get to here.”
“How did you find your way here?”
“This is going to sound strange, but I followed a shadow. Yeah, Tommy, I followed a shadow. I think it is a she shadow, but it was a stand-up, walking shadow. I followed her and once we got to a place I recognized she vanished.”
Again, Tommy didn’t seem all that surprised. “Hmm, some of the people in town have noticed something strange recently. They said they saw a walking shadow, just like you said. It walks down the middle of a street or is seen on the edge of town. Whenever someone tries to talk to it or move towards it, it vanishes. You’re the first person who has any kind of interaction with it and you don’t even belong here.
“I think Socks has sensed it. Recently several times he has stopped, and cocked his head as if he was listening to something or someone. When I notice he’s doing this I listen and look around. I haven’t seen, heard or sensed anything.”
“Mike, that’s it. I first sensed her, then I saw her.”
“Curiouser and curiouser, Drew. We have a problem to solve, but I can tell that it is time for you to leave. You are starting to fade away. Think it through, Drew, think it through. I’ll do the same and maybe we can put the pieces together the next time you are here.”
On page 1D of the August 6, 1978 Sunday Edition of The Odessa American one of the pieces fell into place. The headline read “Murphy case baffles police.” Catherine Ann (Fifi) Murphy was last seen on the night of Wednesday, July 19, 1978 leaving The Other Place with her boyfriend. She was still missing nearly two weeks later. The article ended with:
“The question remains. Where is Catberine Ann Murphy? The answer also remains unanswered.”
Fifi Murphy was a year younger than me and went to Bonham and Permian. I didn’t know her. I knew of her.
The birth of VP Tanks
Rick had saved just over two thousand dollars from his various jobs over the years. Me? I had around one thousand five hundred dollars in savings, left over money from graduation gifts, plus last week’s paycheck. All together we had a little over three thousand five hundred dollars. With that we could buy two 500 barrel tanks, and that’s it. We needed more cash if we wanted to get this business going.
The Summer of 1978 was upon us. Andrea came home from her first semester at West Texas State University. We hadn't seen each other the entire semester but had been steady pen pals, both of us writing at least once a week, sometimes twice. We went out the first weekend she was back in town, and to me we were right back where we were. It felt good and comfortable. It felt natural. I was starting to see how I could share a lifetime with her but I never told her that. Most of that summer we talked on the phone a couple of times a week. I would tell her what was going on in my life, about work, a little about the VP Tanks idea, about who was doing what crazy thing. She was working at a lawyer's office in downtown Odessa and we managed to meet for lunch a couple of times a month. We were serious, or at least I thought we were serious. Let me put it this way, I was serious and she seemed as serious as me.
Rick and I worked as many hours as we could while spending as little as possible in order to save as much money as we could. We figured we could save two to three thousand between us, but we weren't sure if that would be enough.
In August Andrea and I went out on another formal date and had a great time. We laughed practically the whole night, we were completing each other's sentences. True, she was looking forward to going back to Canyon the next week, but that was all right. We both had things to do, but we had each other and I was happy. The night before she left for Canyon I went over to her house for dinner. Their dog Daisy seemed more excited to see me than Andrea, and that was saying a lot. Dinner was great, her parents had seemingly given me their approval and even Dale had learned to like me. Another good evening. After dinner Andrea's parents shooed Dale off to his room and they went back to their bedroom, leaving me with Daisy and Andrea. We talked for three hours that night about all kinds of things. Finally we said good night and kissed. I drove home and the next morning Andrea drove to Canyon.
Two days later Rick and I were in the Pinkie's parking lot saying goodbye to a number of folks who were headed back to school. Lyle and James were still working at Pinkie's so they were there to open the doors at 10:00 am. With us when the doors opened were Kate, Jack, Jason, Mark, Barry, J.T. and Sue. Kate, Jason and Mark were all headed off to UT-Austin. Mark's grades has been good enough at Odessa College that his parent's were willing to ship him off to Austin. Jack was also headed to UT-Austin. While working at Skaggs-Albertson's he had continued going to Odessa College and completed 54 hours with a 3.4 GPA. Over the summer he had gone to Austin one weekend with Kate to help her find an apartment, talked to one of the large grocery chains there and was offered a job. He accepted it, then he and Kate found a two bedroom apartment. He would be working part time for the grocery store in the fall and go almost full time at UT-Austin. He figured that if he took 12 hours every spring and fall, plus 6 hours in the summers he would, at the worst, graduate with a BBA in the fall of 1980. Not bad for a guy who had failed the 9th grade. Jason was deep in petroleum engineering and was making great grades. Kate was still in ROTC, majoring in Accounting and getting quite active with the Austin Democrats. Barry was doing all right at South West Texas State University in San Marcos. J.T. and Sue were headed back to Lubbock, they weren't engaged yet, but we all felt something had to happen soon or they might not stay together.
Just as we were all saying our semester good-byes, Mike Garrett rode up on a motorcycle.
“Damn, Blessing, you think you can skip out on your roommate? That's happened to me once before, but not again.”
Mike had a big smile on his face as he said that and so we knew things were cool between him and Jack. He walked up to Jack and gave him a big hug.
“Man, you know I'm coming to Austin to raise some hell.”
“Anytime, Garrett, any time. Just make sure you bring enough money to get home because you're not going to live with me and Katey.”
Mike laughed at that. He and Jack had always been good friends and would be good friends for a long time to come.
This time, after the good-bye hugs and everyone else had driven off to school the five remaining stood in the parking lot.
“What do we do now?” asked Mike.
“The three of you buy a six pack of beer from me and Lyle, that's what you do.”
You had to laugh at that but James was right. We bought a six pack of beer, Rick drove, Mike took the shotgun seat, I stretched out in the back seat and we drove off. After the six pack, we decided to get something to eat. Originally, we were going to Manuel's but Mike thought we ought to provide Lyle and James with a treat as well. We drove by The Station on Kermit Highway which had very good takeout pizza, picked up one large jalapeno and one large pepperoni pizza and drove back to Pinkie's where Lyle and James were pleasantly surprised by our generosity. We know they were pleasantly surprised because we didn't have to pay for the second six pack of beer as we ate.
I had pretty much taken all that I could at Odessa College without taking hours that wouldn't transfer or count towards a Bachelor's degree. Rick had wrapped things up at Odessa College as well with 60 hours. Rick was working full time and was focused on making VP Tanks work. I was working full time at SouthWestern Tank, but signed up for 6 hours of night classes at the University of Texas – Permian Basin, the upper level university on the east side of Odessa. That made Mom happy, she wasn't too thrilled about me dropping out of college entirely. Dad was intrigued by the VP Tanks idea, but was also quietly pleased that I didn't seem to placing all of my future on one bet.
Rick and I had played it close to the vest that summer with our money, and we had managed to save about $2000 each, bringing our total stake to a nearly $7500. We still felt that we needed a little more cash to get things rolling. That’s when we decided to get a loan from one of the banks in town.
We started and finished with the National Bank of Odessa. My Uncle Bill was a vice president there. We knew nothing about getting a loan, about banks or about running a business other than what we had learned in an Introduction to Business class we had taken at Odessa College and from working the last couple of years. Seemed like a good place to start was to draw up a business plan. We rewrote it time and time again, thought through every angle and turn until finally one day in September of 1978 we felt we couldn’t do any more to it. It was time for someone else to see it and that someone else was Uncle Bill.
The following Monday Rick and I met with my Uncle Bill at 9:00 am. Uncle Bill had a nice office.
We spent a few minutes on family talk. Uncle Bill was a larger version of my Dad, standing a bit over six feet tall, a few years older and a shock of silver hair. Strangest thing of all was that they sounded so much like, sometimes it was hard to tell the difference in their voices, save for one small difference. My Dad swore naturally and with confidence, while the only times I heard Uncle Bill swear was the one or two times I had seen him highly pissed off. With the introductions, hellos, and promises to see each other more often over and done, Rick and I walked him through the business plan.
“Well, I didn’t expect this. You and Rick actually put together a business plan. It actually makes sense. I think you two can make some money.”
“Does that mean we get the loan?”
“Drew, you didn’t need a business plan to get the loan. All you needed was to walk in here and ask for an energy loan. That’s how crazy things are these days.
“Let me tell you about this guy who showed up here two weeks ago. He wasn’t too smart, you could just tell by talking to him. He wanted twenty-five thousand for a welding rig and truck. Not that unreasonable, but then he showed me his plans for the rig. Most of it was normal, plenty of tool boxes, lots of storage, plenty of room for his welding rig and tools, but then, on the back end of the rig he was going to have a full size barbecue pit, using a split 55 gallon drum, with a flat plate on both ends for cooking side dishes. That was a barbecue pit big enough for cooking at the Oil Show, way too much for a one or even a two man welding rig. All you need for that is a small hibachi on the side or a flat plate that you can run your torch underneath to serve as a grilling plate. That barbecue pit got me to looking over the rest of his plans and what I saw was nothing but a tricked up, duded up rig. Sort of like a dude dressing up like a cowboy, it was just too fancy, too ostentatious, and not designed for working out in the fields. You don’t need something fancy or pretty working out in the field, you just need something that works day after day.”
His story seemed strangely familiar.
“Did he want to use diamond plate with radiant diagonal breaks for the tool boxes?”
Uncle Bill looked at me strangely. “Yes, how did you know?”
“Was his name Dean Tyler?”
“Yes, how did you know that?”
“He worked at SouthWestern Tank as a welder’s helper for a few months. Complete incompetent. Couldn’t lay a straight bead. Then he decided he was too good for us and quit. About a week ago he showed up with those plans for his welding rig. Wanted SouthWestern to shear and break all the tool boxes and storage boxes. I refused to until he brought cash. I wouldn’t accept a check from him or offer him any credit. All of us in the office laughed and tried to figure out who was the idiot that loaned him the money for the rig and the truck.”
Uncle Bill shook his head slowly, almost in embarrassment and said “That would be me. These days if I want to turn down an energy related loan, even if there is no business plan, no matter how risky the idea is, I have to get the president of the bank to back my refusal to make the loan. On the other hand, no matter how crazy the idea is, no matter what my gut is telling me, I can approve any energy loan for any amount of money. It’s just crazy.”
“Uncle Bill, right now Dean may be able to get a welding job, but in a week or two they’ll figure out he’s nothing more than a welder’s helper, and a poor one at that. He’s not going to stay employed as a welder, at least not long enough to pay off that loan.”
“I know. I know. Someday, maybe not for a year, maybe not two years, but one day that welding rig and truck is going to be parked out in the back of our parking lot, just another foreclosure collecting dust. It’s so personalized and tricked up, no one else will want it. When that day comes, we’ll have the most expensive barbecue pit in the world parked out back, ready for our Friday afternoon cook outs. What a waste.”
Uncle Bill grew quiet for a moment, then looked up at us.
“The bank will loan you the money. What you two have come up with makes sense. But here’s the trick, your plan is to make money off other people’s laziness. That’s what it is, other people’s laziness. Sooner or later, things are going to turn. The oil business is cyclical, boom and bust. Right now we’re in a boom, and in a boom, people can make money off of other people’s unwillingness to work. Someday the boom will bust, and when that happens your business plan won’t be any good. You need to figure out an exit plan, a plan to get out when the downturn comes. If you don’t have an exit plan you risk going right down the drain with everyone else who thought the good times will never end. I can tell you this, the good times will come to an end, they always do.”
Uncle Bill walked us through the paperwork, explaining to us what we were signing ourselves up for. It was sort of a lecture, and it ended with him looking at Rick and then me and asking “Do you think you can pay the loan back?” That was the one question we didn’t plan on. Rick and I looked at each other, each of us searching in the other for the right answer, but it was my Uncle Bill so it was up to me to speak for both of us.
“Uncle Bill, we wouldn’t have asked for the loan if we didn’t think we could pay it back. You say we have the chance to make some money. We agree with you. Working through the business plan convinced of us that. Hell, we even mocked up some situations throughout the summer just to convince us there was a chance we could pull it off. We can pay this loan off, we’re sure of that. The one thing we learned today is we need an exit plan, that’s something we hadn’t thought all the way through but we will now. As for the loan, yeah, we can pay it back, we’ll pay it back.”
Uncle Bill looked us over and seemed satisfied with the answer.
“I don’t want you boys to sign anything today, but I’ll have all the paperwork available for you right after lunch. Come by and pick it up, take it with you, read through it and think it over. Tomorrow morning, if you’re still interested, sign it all, bring it in and we’ll get a check cut for you in a couple of days.”
With that he stood up, shook our hands, walked us to the door of the office, told his secretary to get the loan paper work prepared and wished us luck.
Rick and I had already decided to take the day off so we went out for a nice lunch at Manuel’s on 2nd street. Over a couple of good plates of Mexican food and several beers we talked about VP Tanks. We had heard nothing to change our minds and around 2:00 pm we picked up the loan paperwork from Uncle Bill's secretary. We then drove over to UTPB, found an empty classroom and went over the paperwork. Around 5:30 pm we signed everything, then went home for the night.
Tuesday morning we brought the signed paperwork back to the bank and by Thursday we had a nice check for $20,000 to get us started. We opened up a business checking account at the National Bank of Odessa, deposited our check, transferred over our savings, which by this point totaled up to a little over $7500. VP Tanks was real, but I needed to figure out what our exit plan and how to recognize when it was time to put it in action. We also needed to set up an office.
We wrote our first check to cover a six month lease for a small metal barn off of Highway 80, headed east towards Midland. Most of the metal barn was a workshop, but up front there was a small office area with a small kitchen and a bathroom. We found our office furniture at an Insurance Claim store, and after a weekend of cleaning we had all of the smoke off the two desks, chairs, a drafting table, a refrigerator, a kitchen table and a bookshelf. Next, we got a business phone line with two extensions. Rick’s Dad knew some folks at a local sign company so we were able to get a good deal on a small sign to put on the front of the barn.
Rick quit his job in mid-September and started working full time at VP Tanks. I continued to work at SouthWestern, drawing a steady paycheck and collecting up names, numbers and companies who I thought would be good potential customers for VP Tanks. Rick had his own list of contacts and worked on closing our first deal.
Right after the first of October, Rick found our first customer, a small tank farm just north of Andrews looking to replace two 500 barrel tanks. They wanted the two tanks delivered to the tank farm, hooked up, coated and scaffolded. The tanks would cost us around $1500 each from Western Tank, and all the work would cost us another $2000. Rick sold the two tanks for $5000. We stood to make a profit of around $1500. From start to finish the job would take 45 days, most of that was waiting 30 days for the tanks to be built.
Three days later I dropped my 6 hours at UTPB. Working full time then going to class in the dark sucked. I didn't tell Mom or Dad. I just took my time coming home Monday through Thursday and usually met up with Rick out at our office after I got off work from SouthWestern Tank. Rick always made sure there was cold beer in the refrigerator. It wasn't a bad way to end the day and I would work up any drawings that we might need while we talked about the day.
Andrea and I were still writing letters back and forth. I told her that Rick and I had formed VP tanks. I also told her I had dropped my classes at UTPB. Her letter back, which arrived in the middle of October, seemed a little distant. She didn't like that I had dropped my classes and was worried about our stepping out into the cold world of business. I wrote her immediately back, told her our plans were solid and that I wanted to focus right now on VP Tanks. It was nearly three weeks before her next letter arrived.
Author’s notes
Those of you who lived in west Texas in the late 1970’s probably remember the Fifi Murphy case. Her story is a true story. For the nest few episodes we will follow her story.
A few people have asked who my characters are based on. Practically every character is initially based on one or more people I knew but tossed with some completely made up parts.
Uncle Bill Remington was mentioned a few times in The Cold Days of Summer but he plays a bigger role in The Hollow Men. Uncle Bill is based on three real people: Billy Tom Akins (my father’s brother who died before I was born), Billy Mac Wafer (one of my cousins) and Brooks Akins (another one of my cousins). Brooks was a Vice President at the National Bank of Odessa during the oil/gas boom of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. The last two years I lived in Odessa I had several lunches with Brooks at Harrigan’s Grill and Bar. During those lunches Brooks told me tales of banking during the oil/gas boom.
Next week in Episode 7 Drew resigns from SouthWestern Tank to work full time with Rick at VP Tanks, then bumps into Matt Johnson of Southwestern Tank, Rick and Drew come up with a metaphor to explain their business, and more of the Fifi Murphy story.
I love the inclusion of the author’s notes and getting to see who influenced Uncle Bill! Excellent work!